01/30/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

01/30/12
Blue River in Silverthorne
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

A friend of mine who was skiing in Breckenridge called to see how the Blue was fishing...

I told her it was fishing well, super pressured, but you can find the fish. I told her that I was heading to Breck that night for a meeting and I would meet her on the water and show her around.

I got up there around 2:00 and got my gear on and saw lots of people on the water. 5 guys were trying to fish cable hole and a few other fisherman were moving up and down the river. I dropped in and found my friend tying on some flies. She mentioned that she caught a minnow and was broken off by a big fish. I congratulated her on at least hooking up! Half the battle is finding the fish and getting them to eat!

While she was re-rigging, I cast into a run above cable hole and managed to hook into a nice fish right away. She was super excited to see me catch a fish after a quick picture, we both kept moving upstream, making our way to rodeo hole.



She picked up another dink and hooked up with another bigger fish, but was broken off again...
As we made our way, we talked to a fisherman moving downstream who said that he didn't see a single fish in rodeo hole...not a good sign, we continued to fish our way up and another fisherman coming down said the same thing. We decided to not make the hike all the way, even though it was really just around the bend, it wasn't worth fishing if you couldn't even see a fish in there...

So we made our way back to cable hole, and were surprised to see that everybody but one person had left. We moved downstream of him and started fishing along the trees with a few more hook ups, but none to the net. As the last fisherman was leaving, he said, "Try my spot...I can't seem to catch anything here even though I can see the damn fish!"

And try it we did. We ended up catching another 2 fish with another 2 minnows. (For some reason that place is loaded with fingerlings!)



A quick two hour trip and plenty of fish to the net made my afternoon!

Hot flies were mysis. Stalcups and Craven's were the ticket. Avoid the epoxy and clear style of mysis right now. There isn't a lot of mysis flowing through the dam, and the ones getting through are dead and white. When the flows go up in the spring, the fish will start keying in on the live looking mysis again. Also, a top secret midges brought a fish the net, as well as a tungsten bead head zebra midge.

Considering all the people out on the river, I was expecting a skunk, but I'm happy to report that it was a great quick trip!

01/29/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

01/29/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temp forecasted to be 60 degrees
Sunny day/Overcast with a little wind

Dave fished on Saturday and mentioned that he really had to work for every fish that he caught...not a good sign for Sunday.

We got to Valco at 9:00 and there were already 5 cars in the lot. While we were gearing up, 2 more cars showed up. It was going to be a busy day on the river. 3 guys were already fishing in our number 1 spot, so we moved up river to number two. Our usual set up for this stretch of river is a two bit hooker followed by a variety of midge patterns, with one of them black. I started with a size 20 thread midge with a glass bead head and copper wire wrap. This was a fly that had taken many a fish on this stretch...unfortunately, Dave's prediction for a slow day was spot on. We really had to work the water hard to get bites, and most strikes were subtle. With heavy fishing pressure, it was no surprise, but it wasn't what we were expecting.

We picked up 2 fish within a couple casts, but missed quite a few hits and we had numerous long distance releases. These fish were getting smart!



We decided to move over the favorite spot #1 to see if anybody was there, and we saw the 3 guys leaving. As they were walking out, they mentioned that fishing was tough....we agreed and made some suggestions on flies.

Even though it was fished all morning, we were able to pick up a few fish in the usual spot...just not anything of size.

So...after a slow morning, we decided to head over to the spillway to see if we could increase our numbers. We switched up our rigs to a barr's emerger up top and a midge below. We picked up quite a few stockers, but again, it wasn't as good as it's been in the past couple of trips.





A few more colorful were had as well...maybe the impending spring and spawn is helping to get these guys colored up!



The surprise of the day, and the biggest fish came in a more unusual spot. I was fishing the riffles down below between the bridge and the spillway and managed this nice guy. Just shy of 16 inches.



He took a blue poison tung. Just goes to show you that big fish can be anywhere! Even in shallow riffles. So don't be afraid to try new spots. Fish on the Ark are eating year round and they aren't always sitting in deep holes waiting out the winter.

Overall, this was a slow day. By no means was it a bad day, but slow considering the fishing pressure. I didn't check flows, but it also looked like the flows might have been bumped a little accounting for the fishing being off.

01/26/12 Yampa Below Stagecoach Res

01/26/12
Yampa Below Stagecoach
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Air Temp started at around 20 degrees warming up to mid 30's

I had a great opportunity to fish the Yampa below Stagecoach because I had to head to Steamboat for work. And what a trip it was.

This was the most incredible day of fishing I've ever had. Especially in the winter.

We were the 1st to arrive at the tailwater. It was still chilly as we put on our waders but the sun was making its way over the mountains. We rigged up with scuds and midges with hopes that one of use would find what the fish were keying in on.



Right away, we are getting bites, but for some reason...maybe the cold air, or the coffee induced shaking hands, I couldn't land a fish! My buddy hooks up right away and lands a beautiful 16 incher.



As the sun starts coming over the mountains, we see two trucks pull in on County Road 14. Assuming they were just the guys that work for the dam, we continued fishing...but wait a second...they were wearing waders, and hauling gear down towards the river.

As we continued to fish, the guys kept hauling gear to the river. We saw buckets and coolers...



As they continued to work, we kept right on catching fish...until one fish that we caught was spitting up eggs!

That's when we realized what was going on. My buddy went to talk to the guys and it turns out that they were with the DOW and were doing a special project on artificial redds. These guys were literally chumming the water with eggs for us!

So we switched it up! Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity that doesn't EVER happen, we rigged up with eggs and the "egg hatch" was on! It was surprising to see so many fish key in on the eggs, especially since we are in between spawning seasons, but these fish wanted eggs and that's what we were going to give them.





We were catching fish with every cast! Around 11:00 we started seeing people show up, and there was even a guide with 4 people. Most people set up above the artifical redd not realizing what was going on. But they definitely could see us catching fish on every cast. A few people stopped and asked the guys what was going on but nobody else was catching fish with the frequency that we were. I think most people didn't have the right egg patterns or they just didn't want to match the hatch!





My friend and I kept trading off fishing the run right behind the redd, and we also kept moving around downstream to see if there were other runs loaded with fish. The fish must have heard a dinner bell because every run we fished had fish in it. And these weren't small fish! Most were between 16 and 18 inches. We didn't catch anything over 20 inches like we were hoping to do, but consistent fishing with big fish is just fine by me!





The DOW guys finished up around 3:00 and set up a fence with a sign to keep people out.



By this time, the "egg hatch" was dying off, so we went back to dropping a midge behind the egg. Fish were still keying in on the egg, but we also got plenty of hits on black beauties, miracle midges, mercury midges, and zebra midges. All size 18-22. Every fish we caught in the afternoon was also super fat, having gorged on eggs all morning. Some fish were so full that they eggs were just sitting in their mouths waiting to be swallowed.









As the sun was setting, the fish were still biting, we didn't want to leave, but it was getting late and getting stuck out there in the dark was not a happy thought. We decided to head up to the dam to take a look and passed two spin fisherman who didn't look like they were catching much. We snapped a quick picture of the dam and decided to make our way home. Arms tired from catching fish all day, this was one of the most epic days of fishing I've ever experienced.




This truly was a once in a lifetime experience that will probably never happen again. We got lucky and picked the right day. Obviously the Yampa doesn't usually fish this good, but even if there wasn't the "egg hatch", we found that fish here are eager to eat.

If you're going to head up there now, I would most definitely have an egg pattern to lead. The fish still have eggs on the mind, and I'm sure there is quite a few eggs still being pushed out of the redds.

We tried scuds, in different colors (olive, brown, grey, etc...) but actually didn't have a single fish pick the scud. Weird since we found a TON of scuds in a mat of moss that was floating down river.



Overall, stick with midge patterns. Honestly anything in a size 18-22 was catching fish. Even some weird no name patterns that we tied up last night to try worked remarkably well. A sparkle braid beadhead midge with a copper wrap was an amazing fly...I fwsh I had tied more since I lost them all later in the day!

Flour0carbon is a must, but you can get away with 5x and 6x. No need for 7x...at least not the day we were there.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it up to the Yampa again this winter, but it will be on the list for next winter for sure!

01/22/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

01/22/12
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Air Temp 54 degrees

The Frostbite Fish Off happened yesterday which I heard was a great success! The guys from Colorado Skies Outfitters in Parker took 1st with over 400 inches of fish and the biggest fish at 21.5 inches.

I only had a few hours to fish this Sunday so I decided to stick to one spot instead of hoping around.

Fishing was good, especially considering I had a super late start to the day. I headed to Valco looking to get into some bigger fish. I did find bigger fish, but no big guys like the last couple of trips.

My biggest was right at 16 in. Not too shabby for the Ark in Pueblo, but I'm looking for that 21.5 incher that was caught during the tournament!



He took a black poison tung in a size 18.

I ended up catching a total of 12 fish for the afternoon. Not too bad, considering the pressure from the day before. I didn't change my rig all afternoon and took fish on all fly patterns. Up top was a size 16 two bit hooker, followed by a poison tung and finally a black beauty.





The fish at Valco are definitely a little bigger than at the Spillway or at the Water Treatment Plant. I think the next time I'm down there, I might try closer to the dam to see if we can find a 20 incher!

01/18/12 Frying Pan River

01/18/12
6:30 AM - 1:00 PM

The wind was howling in Vail. I set my alarm for 5:00 AM and tried to get some sleep. I could hear the wind all through the night and it wasn't looking good for my plans to run up to the Pan.

I didn't even wait for my alarm to go off, I was out the door by 4:30. The gusts on I-70 were getting bad, 70 mph winds. I stopped to get gas and coffee in Avon and almost turned around to go home. But I thought, "I already made it this far...".

It's dark, and quiet. No cars in the parking lot of course, but plenty of tire tracks. Looks like the Pan was fished pretty hard yesterday.

I get out of my car to put on my waders, what happened to the wind? There were no gusts, no rustling in the trees.



It was calm, very calm...very unlike the Pan.

I get back in the car and start re-rigging my rod. I put on a 4x leader with a bead egg up top and a size 16 Craven's Mysis. A few more sips of coffee and I can see light trying to break through the clouds.

I can't wait any longer...I hop out and head to the flats. I can see an occasional swirl and a few splashes in the distance, the fish are feeding!





A few smaller browns, a rainbow or two, but nothing of size...looks like the bigger fish were chased off the flats.

It's light out now, but no sun in sight. The clouds are thick, but still no wind...

I want to feel a big bend in my rod, so I head over to the toilet bowl.

The bead egg worked well on the flats, so I decided to keep my rig the same and see what I could come up with. Plenty of brownies! But no football rainbows! I'm not complaining...the fishing was good, but I think the pressure from previous days has really turned off some of the bigger fish.







I was contemplating changing up my rig, most of the browns hit the bead egg and I was wondering if I rigged up a mysis/midge combo, I might be able to coax out a big bow. But before I do that...one more drift...



This skinny beast of a brownie took my bead egg hard! This skinny thing measured out to 20 inches...I thought all the fish in the Pan were supposed to be fat!?!?

I re-rigged, Mysis on top and a thread midge on the bottom.

1st fish on the midge, and wouldn't you know it...a bow.



It's looking good! Not a football, but still a nice fish. A size 20 black thread midge with a copper wire wrap was on the menu. I managed a few more browns and bows, with fish taking both the mysis and midge.

It's almost 10:30 now, and people are showing up. Fishing conditions have been great all morning, no wind, slightly overcast skies. 2 guys show up and I see them walking down towards me. They set up at the riffles and respect the fact that I'm fishing the bowl. An older gentleman shows up and doesn't show me the same courtesy...he stands behind with 2 rods in hand waiting...he gets impatient and tries to fish downstream a little. He snags a rock, breaks off his rig and trudges back up behind me to tie on again. I can feel him staring me down as he continues to try to fish downstream of the bowl without catching a single fish...eventually he leaves, but not without mumbling under his breath something about how I should let others fish the bowl...great idea!

I call the two guys over and say you are welcome to come fish the tail end if they would like. One of the guys says, "are you sure? I don't want to encroach." I say it's no problem. Besides, I had to leave soon, so they might as well stake the hole. After talking to them for a bit, I learned they were from Fort Collins and that one of them was studying fisheries biology at CSU. A fellow Rammie!

They each start hooking up with some fish and I continue to do well. The bite did die off around noon, but a change in flies brought more fish to the net.





I was worried that the weather on I-70 was going to get worse, so I decided to take a few more casts and then head home.

On my last cast, I caught this beauty. I haven't caught a lot of Cutthroats, so I was super excited to catch such a pretty one. A diet of mysis will do this I guess!



Overall, another great trip to the Pan. I didn't get into the big legendary rainbows of the pan, but plenty of good fish made it a worthwhile day. And best of all! No wind! I guess you just can't trust the weatherman...

Flies that did well this trip were bead eggs, mysis patterns (cravens and epoxy), midge patterns and even chocolate emergers in a size 20. As I was leaving the two guys from Fort Collins mentioned that they were here a couple of weeks ago and the streamer bite was great...next time I come up, I'll definitely have to stick around at dusk to strip some streamers through the bowl.

01/17/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

01/17/12
12:00 - 3:00 PM
Air Temp around 30, blowing snow and very windy

Another trip up the hill means another chance for me to get some fishing in! New snow came to the mountains the day before dropping a couple of inches, but after the snow left, the wind stayed.

High wind warnings along the front range and in the foothills was on the news all morning. I was planning on going to the Pan on Wednesday, but those plans might be derailed due to high winds. The Pan tends to catch a lot of wind being in a canyon and blowing snow + freezing temps makes for miserable fishing, even if it is on the legendary Pan.

As I pulled into the parking lot behind the Silverthorne Outlets, I didn't see anybody fishing...and when the wind gust flung my door open, I knew why.

New snow and windy conditions kept a lot of people off the water. Which was great for me! I only had a few hours to fish before I had to make it up to Vail for a meeting.

Even with the wind howling, I still managed to get a few good drifts and catch some fish! Cable hole was the place to be, the fish were stacked and it was easy to sight fish to all the beautifully colored bows sitting in this run. It still wasn't easy, these fish are pressured pretty hard, but if you drift a midge or a mysis by their face with a drag free drift, they would reward you with a flash of white and a run that had your reel screaming.



This beauty took a Craven's Mysis in a size 18 that I had cut the tail a little shorter on.

A couple casts later and I landed this monster, again on the mysis pattern.



You can even see the mysis in his mouth...a couple more years and diet of mysis will turn this fish stick into a Blue River brute!

I continue fishing, changing up my midge pattern to see if I could get a bite on some new colors that I had tied up, and I picked up a few smaller fish. I guess the smaller guys like the more colorful patterns, while the smarter and bigger fish look for more natural patterns.

With the wind stinging my face, and making it hard to cast, I decided to give it a couple more casts and call it a day...

I was at the head end of the pool mending my line when all of a sudden my indicator dropped and started running across the river. After a great little fight, another 18 incher was landed and I decided to call it a day.



It's always satisfying ending the day on a good fish! So for fishing 3 hours, and catching 6 fish, it was a fun pit stop on my way to Vail.

Flies to use on the Blue this time of the year are definetly midges and mysis. Stick to a size 18 mysis dropped with a midge like a black beauty, poison tung, any thread midge with or without a beadhead. If you have to use weight, use a very small drop shot, the flows are low and you want your rig to be just off the bottom, not getting hung up by the split shot getting caught in the riverbed. You want a drag free drift and with the clarity of the water and lower flows, you don't even need an indicator.

Be sure to work the water methodically. Cast to fish you can see and let your flies drift down the lane before picking up your line to recast. There are lots of fish sitting in rows behind each other and they won't move very far to get a bite to eat. View the run as lanes and work it from the closest lane to the farthest, that way you aren't spooking fish with your line. If you aren't getting bites or flashes, change up your fly or rig. A great indication of if you have the right flies, or set up is if you see fish moving out of the way, they know that your rig is not food. Change it up. Use less weight, or no weight at all, change the color or size of your indicator, or take it off, switch to smaller or different color flies.

Winter fly fishing is very technical, and a small change can make a miserable day of standing in knee deep freezing water an awesome day of a catching some real hogs!

01/14/12 Arkansas below Pueblo

01/14/12
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Flows normal for this time of year
Air temps got up to 64.

Typical warm day down in Pueblo. I was fishing with my friend Dave again and we both decided to spend the night down in P-Lo so that we could get an early start.

Dave fished on Friday at Valco and said he got into some big fish so we decided to start there. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were already 3 cars. Plus, there was 1 car with a ticket on it already! Don't forget to pay the park fee or get a year park permit. Sucks that he could have paid $7.00 to park there but he now has to pay $27.50. So we tried to fish at Dave's favorite spot, only to see that there were 3 guys down there already. They weren't in the water, but as soon as they saw us, they starting working fast to get rigged up. We decided today would be a day to explore, so we moved upstream and found a spot that actually held plenty of fish! Sometimes it's good that your favorite hole is taken; it forces you to find new spots that are even better! Dave and I spent the better part of the morning fishing from below the gauging station up to deep hole, and everywhere in between. We both managed quite a few fish, but they were your typical Ark in Pueblo fish, 12-14 in, some with beautiful color!



Fish were taking two bit hookers, flashback midges, black beauties, and jujubaetis.

We noticed some rising fish around noon, and a pretty prolific midge hatch, but we were having a hard time getting the fish to commit to our dries. Sometimes, a good midge hatch is a blessing and a curse...you know what the fish want, but you're competing with naturals. So we decided to run over to the spillway and see what was going on there.

At the spillway, we counted 7 bait dunkers and one "clumsy" fly fisherman. As we pulled into the parking lot, the "clumsy" fly guy hurried to get his waders on and started running down the hill to get to the "good spot". Although fishing right in front of the spillway is good, it's not always the best, especially when the bait dunkers are splashing around right in front of you. Dave and I made our way down to the water to fish downstream and closer to the bridge where the fish are actually less pressured and more willing to eat. I ended up catching quite a few fish while this fly guy was still tying on, and what made it even funnier was that on his second backcast, he caught the fence. After catching a few more fish and watching him awkwardly climb up the rip rap to try to retrieve his fly, we decided to do a bit more exploring and give the Nature Center a try.



Fish at the spillway were taking just about anything. Red price nymphs, barr emergers, improved barbie dolls, and blue poison tungs.

When we got to the Nature Center, there were already 5 guys fishing downstream and at the bend hole so we decided to move upstream and fish the wall. Unfortunately, we got the big skunk. We tried everything, emergers, midges, nymphs, but we didn't get a single nibble, or a even see a fish rish. This coming weekend is the Frostbite Fish Off Tournament...I would hate to draw the Nature Center as a beat. We spent about an hour and a half exploring the water around the Nature Center, so we decided to cut our losses and go back to Valco.

Dave said that the bigger fish he caught on Friday were caught in the afternoon. It was 3:30 and the sun was just starting to move lower in the sky. Dave's favorite hole was still occupied by the guys from this morning, so we moved on upstream again just below the gauging station. Dave started the afternoon with a nice 16 incher.



I followed with my 16 incher, looks like Dave's prediction of bigger fish in the afternoon was right!



We kept fishing, picking up quite a few more fish and I finished off the day with the biggest right around 4:30.



This 18.5 incher took a black beauty in a size 18. The fly of the evening was definitely midges.

Fishing was great all day long, with the exception of the Nature Center. Pretty surprising since I've had good days there before. The DOW must have also recently stocked, since there were a ton of fish at the spillway all stacked up and all the fish we caught at the spillway looked like stockers with a more silverly look rather than the more colorful markings of natural rainbows or holdovers who have stopped eating pellets.

Don't forget, that next weekend is the tournament. They apparently have 23 teams already so the river will be pretty busy with the tournament going on. I would stick to water east of Pueblo Blvd, or avoid it all together and find a new place to fish!

01/11/12 Frying Pan River

01/11/12
7:30 - 3:30
Forecast was a high of 29, with some blowing snow.

I couldn't sleep. I dreamed of footballs. Big rainbow footballs. I hit the road at 5:30, I had to be the 1st person on the parking lot.

I was.

I ate my pop tarts and drank my gas station coffee as the sun came up. I expected other cars, but nobody was as dumb as me. Why would you get up early in the winter to fish? It'll be too cold...the fish won't be biting...

I was on the water at 7:30, my 1st fish at 7:31.



I continued to sight fish on the flats, keeping an eye out for cars, but none showed up. A few more fish to the net...and then a car shows up at the lower lot. I decided to make my way to the toilet bowl and get a few casts in before it became a zoo.

I warmed up in the car, as I changed out my leader from a 6x to a 4x. I tied on a Craven's mysis and an epoxy mysis hoping to see what they would key in on, and switch the lower fly to a baetis or midge. A red truck pulls up next to my car...no more thinking about what the fish are hungry for...time to move!

I jumped out of my car and hoofed it to the toilet bowl. My footprints were the only tracks there. I cast into the whirlpool, and let the current take my rig a little downstream. My indicator pauses and then suddenly dives. Fish on! It's been a long time since I felt a fish pull so hard and it almost ran me into my backing, but I managed to wrestle him to the net! He took a couple runs, but it wasn't a long battle with 4x tied on. I heard a "Nice fish!" over my shoulder, and I see an indicator land right where I was fishing...ugh...



Thankfully, as soon as I snapped the picture and released the fish, the guy literally fishing over me decided to move. Two more cars pulled into the lot, it was 9:00 AM. Most people would rush over to see if anybody was fishing in the bowl, and then they resigned themselves to fishing in the flats. Honestly, the flats was fishing well. But the pigs were sitting in the toilet bowl.



I managed a few more fish, a few browns, a few bows, and a few cutts!



Catching a true cutt was rare for me, since I mostly catch cutbows in most of the rivers I fish.

I continue to fish, pulling out "dink" browns and a few smaller bows.







By now, the wind is howling. It's blowing snow and continually putting my hand in the water to release fish is killing my hands...I decide to take a break and warm up in the car. I count 8 cars in the parking lot, not including mine. Everybody was out on the flats, their back turned into the wind. Every once in a while, you would see someone's rod shoot up and bend with a fish being played on the other end.

I was honestly getting bored with fishing the toilet bowl and was contemplating heading down to the bend pool or trying my luck in the flats again...but with all the fisherman on the flats, the fish had to be getting spooky. Oh well...I guess I will try my hand at more footballs!

I walk back to the bowl, half expecting to see someone there already, but there isn't. Just my tracks in the snow and my spot on a rock that is clear of snow. A few more fish to the net, nothing impressive, and a few long distance releases...a few curse words for the big ones that got away and a few prayers for the hogs to just stay on the line!



This was certainly the biggest of the day. He took a Craven's Mysis and pulled like a freight train. Most of the footballs would lose their steam after a run or two, but this guy continued to fight all the way to the net. It's not a great picture, I had to prop my phone up on a rock, leaning on my fly rod, set the timer and hustle to get in front of the camera. He measured out to 19 in, and felt like 10 lb'er. He didn't have much color, looking more like a steelhead...maybe it's a donaldson that escaped from a privately stocked pond?

Catching fish of this size reminded me of floating the Blue...I can't wait for summer. But I do love winters...I love to ski (we just need more snow!), and the winter does afford me more time in the mountains...I guess I'll just have to plan another trip to the pan to get my fill of big fish. Or maybe I should make it to the Taylor...