09/18/11 Clear Creek

Clear Creek inlet at Georgetown
Flow: 48
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

The fall spawning season is just starting. The browns have started to stack up at the inlet at Georgetown Lake and are starting to make redds in Clear Creek.

*Please don't fish or walk on the redds. Let these fish do their thing so we can have more fish to catch in the future!*

With the browns stacking up, the bows are following. Georgetown Lake is stocked regularly with 8-12 in bows. Being a put and take fishery you don't see a lot of larger fish around the creek but you can definitely find bigger fish in the lake. But for this trip, I wasn't looking to dunk bait or bring home dinner, I just wanted to catch some fish!

I brought two rods with me, my 3 wt strung up with a parachute adams and a matt's midge. My 5 wt was set up for nymphing with an egg up top and a hare's ear below.

I started fishing at the foot bridge at the inlet. Lots of fish were stacked up, but anytime someone tried to watch them from the bridge, they would spook and it would take a while for them to get back in the current. There were only 4 browns that I could see, and they weren't hungry. But thankfully the bows were! I caught quite a few cookie cutters with the nymphing rig. They were taking both the egg and the hare's ear equally well. The patterns worked so well, I didn't need to change it all day. I moved upstream from there on the south side of the creek passing up two good holes since a father and son team were fishing it. They didn't seem to be having as much luck as I was, but after a quick chit chat, I convinced them to ditch the caddis and san juans and try some eggs. The son hooked up right away which convinced the dad to give them a shot too. I think they caught 2 each while I was watching them. I made my way to the pipe hole and ended up getting a few nice fish through there as well, with the biggest being a decent brownie close to 16 in.

At around 3, I noticed fish were rising, but I couldn't really see anything coming off the water. I also didn't really see any thing floating around but if the fish were rising, I was switching to dries. Besides, I needed the practice. The majority of the year I'm nymphing. But I love the summer when I can get out some big foam hoppers and try to catch some rising fish. There's nothing more fun that watching a fish rise to your fly, give it a look and swipe at it or sip it in slowly...

Even though my technique is brutish with my flies crashing on the water, I still managed to get plenty of takes but only 3 to the net. I think I get too excited and I tend to set the hook too early. Once I slowed down and gave the fish a second to take the fly, my hook ups increased.

All in all, a great day to get out to clear creek and Georgetown Lake. The drive isn't too bad from Denver and even though I went on a weekend, the crowds were mostly concentrated around the lake. For a quick trip to get your fill of some fish this fall, this is a great option that is close to Denver.

08/21/11 Blue River

Float Trip
Blue River Below Green Mountain Res.
Flows: 500
Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

So we decided to have another go at the Blue. With flows down to about half of what they were the last time we went, we figured on this trip taking a little longer with some more fishing in between.

Again, we put in at Blue Valley Acres and with a quick trip to the take out, we were on the water by 9:00 AM. We only saw 1 other boat come through when we were about to take off, they must have put in at first light.

Fishing was good through the private stretch, many fish were taking hopper, stimulators and adams on the top as well as a few copper johns, pat's rubber legs and stonefly imitations.

Again, at the 1st diversion, we tied up our usual fare for Jurassic and Jones Ranch. Right at the 1st diversion, I hooked up a huge bow and I was able to bring it up to the surface, only for it to make a run to the rocks, a few short minutes later he snapped me off. Oh, if I didn't say it before, use at least 3X tippet through here. These fish aren't as leader shy and you're gonna need the heavier tippet.

With the flows being low (ideally, you want to float between 600 and 1,000) we figured we might get hung up a few times on some of the rocks and diversions. And of course, there was the horrible sound of the toons scraping over some rocks. Nothing too bad, but any lower and you'd get stuck pretty easily.

No real surprises or monster bows this trip, but fish were definetly bigger than our last trip.

On thing that we did different, (which was a mistake) was to use the Gore Canyon put in. We thought that it would be easier to move the boat up the raft slide instead of trying to carry it over the ditch and the small foot bridge. This proved extremely difficult considering the pitch of the steps and even with 3 people, it was a chore. Do yourself a favor and use the 1st new take out instead of floating to the Gore Canyon put in. The water is shallow on the way there and there isn't much fishing to speak of. There is no structure in the water and you are fishing the banks pretty hard with streamers just to get follows from small fish.

But, a day on the water is always a good day!

08/20/11 Bear Creek

Bear Creek near Morrison
Flow: 39
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 AM

The great thing about Bear Creek is its proximity to the Denver Metro area. The worst thing about Bear Creek is its proximity to the Denver Metro area.

I decided to try to get in a little fishing since the wife was working in Colorado Springs and wouldn't be home until later that afternoon.

Fishing Bear Creek on a weekend is always a bear, pun intended...don't get me wrong, there are plenty of places to fish along Bear Creek but if you are short on time and want quick access, Lair O' the Bear is a great place. Unfortunately, non-fishing people love to recreate in the area as well. On most nice weekends you will find plenty of mountain bikers, hikers, and people who just love to splash in the water at every spot easily accessible from the road.  Also, this little stretch tends to get fished pretty heavily because it is so close.

So after all the poo pooing on Bear Creek, it actually is a great place to get some fishing in after work or avoid the crowds by fishing early morning or evening.  The bite dies off during the heat of the day anyways...

I decided to start at Lair O' the Bear and made my way downstream.  There is a nice little hole with a tree overhang right next to the bridge.  The fish tend to hug the bank where the tree overhangs so putting your rig in the right place is a bit of a challenge and there are many flies in that tree to prove it.  I ended up pulling out a nice brownie who took a small pheasant tail, beadless.  After a few gawkers started to hang out on the bridge and trying to avoid the embarrassment of having to tug my flies out of the tree and re-tie for the 3rd time, I decided to move on.  Up past that spot, the river moves away from the bike path and there are a few nice riffles and a bend that seem to always hold fish.  Unfortunately, there was a guide and his client fishing here so I hopped back on the trail and headed up to Corwina Park.

Corwina Park is a smaller park area that a lot of the road bicyclists use to park and there is also a pavilion that some day hikers use to eat lunch or take a break.  Fishing through here is similar and I usually see some people leaving here with rods in hand and a sad look on their faces.  Bear Creek can be challenging, and I can admit that I've been skunked here before, but learning this creek takes time and timing. 

Late Summer and early spring can be great times to fish here, especially if the fish are looking up!  Patterns to try are smaller hoppers, caddis, stimis, wulfs, and always drop a size 18 pheasant tail, copper john, or some other nymph pattern for those guys hugging the bottom.  Enough of the preaching on the the best patterns and times to fish!  I was fishing mid summer just before prime dry fly season hits on the creek so back to the report!

So after a short day up and down the creek, trying to avoid people playing in the water, and other fisherman, I had a successful day.  In the 3 hours that I fished and moved up and down 285, I ended up with 10 fish, all browns.  Most were taken in obvious spots, large pools behind boulders, bubble lines, and cut banks.  For the entire time, I stuck with a double fly rig of a natural pheasant tail, no flash, no bead and a small san juan.

07/31/11 Blue River

Float Trip
Blue River Below Green Mountain Res
Flow: 1250
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

1st float trip of the season!

With runoff seeming like it would never end, we decided to brave it out and float the Blue. We put in at the private stretch of Blue Valley Acres cutting our float time down by about 2 or 3 hours and we would avoid the grueling put in at the dam at Green Mountain. Although we would miss fishing in the canyon, high water would have made fishing poor in the canyon anyways. (At least that's what I tell myself.)

We started off with a 2 or 3 fly rig consisting of a stonefly at the top and various other nymphs below. (copper john, hare's ear, price nymph, etc...) Pretty standard fare. Right away, we picked up a few fish in the private stretch before we even made it to the 1st diversion. A good sign! Fishing through Jurassic was good, with a little change to the rig with a pellet fly below the stonefly. We took more fish on the pellet style flies, with an occasional taker on the stonefly. Nothing monstrous, but impressive nonetheless! As usual, fishing after the ranch and to the take out was slow...throwing a streamer here picked up a dink or two. I wouldn't blame the river for it's poor fishing on this stretch, historically it's been bad but it could also be that we were tired from throwing such hugely weighted rigs through the ranch and that affected our presentation and drifts.

The take out for this float has changed from last year. The landowner who so graciously offered his land as a take out has decided not to allow it this year. Apparently too many people were trashing the property and not respecting the private property signs. I can understand. I'm pretty surprised that even with such low usage compared to the Colorado, this take out gets trashed pretty easily and quickly. A reminder to everyone, respect private property and pack out what you pack in!