10/12/12 Clear Creek at Georgetown

10/12/12
Clear Creek at Georgetown
Flows 45
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Another trip to the mountains means another stop at Georgetown!  Flows are super low but the browns are stacked up nicely.  Even though it was a Friday, I did see 4 other fisherman, and a guide with 2 clients. 

The guide and his 2 clients were up at the deep pool behind the culvert, so I stayed downstream and fished the fast water all the way to the bridge and managed quite a few fish!  Bead eggs were still the favorite with a size 4 mm orange trailed by a red copper john.  Both were taking fish, with most interested in the egg.

I did get stopped by a DOW officer who was checking licenses and was happy to see him!  This little stretch gets hit pretty hard and since it is not a C&R only piece of water, it gets harvested pretty hard too.  Glad to see him out and about checking licenses and limits.

I only fished for about and hour, but caught probably 20+ fish!

Again, the hot flies were bead eggs and copper johns.  Since I only fished for about an hour, I never did change my rig up, but I'm sure similar patterns will still produce!

10/09/12 Clear Creek at Georgetown

10/09/12
Clear Creek at Georgetown
4:00 - 6:00 PM

Cooler temps means fall is in the air!  And as the cooler temps settle in, the browns start staging for their spawning run!

Clear Creek is my go to place to catch fall browns.  They move up out of the Georgetown Lake and into Clear Creek and tend to congregate here for spawning activity.

Last year, I made it here much earlier than this year so I was happy to see lots of browns stacked up under the bridge and up in the deep pool behind the apartments.  The water is way lower than it was last year, but I don't think that has stopped the browns from making their run up.  Numbers look to be about the same as last year, but that's just from eyeballing and I have no empirical data to back that.

It was relatively busy; I saw 3 cars in the parking lot, but this short little stretch can get fished out quickly when you have a fisherman at every bend and run.  Luckily, there wasn't anybody at the deep pool when I arrived, but 2 guys were fishing under the bridge and another downstream.

I rigged up with a 4 mm orange bead egg, followed by a hare's ear and red copper john.

I had hits on all three patterns, with most taking either the bead egg or copper john.  Weird since the hare's ear was the preferred pattern last year.  No need for a lot of weight, just a little to get your rig down if you aren't running tungsten beadheads.

Lots of fish were between the 12-16 in. range with one or 2 pushing 17 and maybe a  long and skinny 18 incher.

Be careful of the redds, fish are already starting to stake their spots on the gravel beds in preparation for spawning.  Avoid walking through them

Also, be careful and try not to snag the fish.  They are stacked in there tight, and they are eating aggressively so watch your indicator carefully and look for true takes and not the slight wiggle from your flies and tippet brushing up against the fish.

04/13/12 Inlet at Green Mountain

04/13/12
Inlet at Green Mountain
2:00 - 3:00 PM

Before heading to Vail, I noticed that nobody was fishing the inlet at GM, so I pulled over and made the hike down to the inlet.  The water was stained and rising, and it didn't look promising...

I decided not to change up my rig from fishing below GM and lazily made a cast into a seam behind some rocks.  Immediately after my indicator made a swirl in a whirlpool, it dove under water and shot upstream!  Fish on!

What a surprise!  A nice little chunk of a rainbow.  Not too long, but it had plenty of fight.  Another cast into the same spot and a little longer drift yielded another, and another!

The fishing was hot!  Even though the water was dirty, the fish are stacked at the inlet and feeding heavily.

No monsters, but consistent action with hard fighting rainbows is always fun!  I did have to change up my flies as there are quite a few snags in this section, but fish were eating everything.  Large beadhead flies as a lead, and drop an egg, san juan, or a smaller attractor nymph and all flies would catch fish.  An orange bead egg was also an extremely effective pattern.
All fish were rainbows, and all gave a great fight.  If you can get a long cast out, you can systematically fish the seams and bubble lines without standing in the water, but with the way the water is moving, getting a good drift is a little tough.  Luckily these fish were very forgiving to poor presentations! 

Since GM is filling slowly, access at the inlet will remain good for a couple more weeks, but as the water warms up, these fish are going to make their way into deeper water and the wade ability of this stretch will diminish greatly, so get out there while it's good!

04/05/12 Clear Creek at Georgetown

04/05/12
Clear Creek at Georgetown
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

On my way home from the mountains, I figured I'd stop and check out Clear Creek at Georgetown.  The inlet fished incredibly well in the fall and I was hoping that there were still some spawning rainbows up in the creek.

To my disappointment, the flows were super low and it wasn't likely that any fish were able to make it up in to the creek to spawn.

I was able to catch quite a few fish, but nothing of size.  Lots and lots of stocker sized fish willing to hit any fly that was put in their face.  Bead eggs, pheasant tails, copper johns, anything drifting by got a look, of not a taste.

It was a fun hour of non-stop catching, and I even managed a little brookie that took a bead egg.  I fished up from the diversion all the way to the inlet with fish holding in every pool or bend that looked fishy.

Although the fishing was good, if I was going to make a drive up to the mountains, I think hitting the Eagle or the Blue for a chance at bigger fish is a better idea.  However, if I were happened to be skunked up the hill, this would be a great spot to stop and get that skunk off my back!

03/25/12 Frying Pan

03/25/12
Frying Pan
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Flows 91

My brother was in town to ski and after a terrible day at Vail on Saturday, he decided he wanted to do some fishing!

Since we were already up in the mountains, what better place to head to than the Frying Pan for him to get into some big fish.

My buddy Josh was also tagging along, as well as the wives and kiddos so our day didn't start out as planned.

We were up at 4:00 AM getting ready to leave so that we could be the 1st ones there.  The idea was to plop my brother and wife at the toilet bowl while Josh and I worked the flats and bend hole.

Unfortunately as it goes with babies, we didn't get out the door until 5:30, and even then we had to make a stop at Walmart for supplies.

We ended up on the water at 8:00 AM and of course there was already a group of guys at the toilet bowl.

But lucky for us, they said that they weren't staying long and left at around 10:00 AM.

So I got my brother and his wife rigged up, Josh was already slaying the fish on the flats, so I was excited to see my brother get into some big fish.

I rigged up an egg and mysis for them and my brother's 1st fish of the day was a nice brownie.

Since they seemed to getting into the fish, I decided to meet Josh out on the flats and see if I could get into some out there. 

I picked up a few browns and spotted lots of big bows on their redds.  No need to fish to the redds, there were plenty of fish all over the flats that are eager to eat!

I decided to check back with my brother at the toilet bowl to see how he was doing.  He caught a few more and decided to let my wife give it a shot.

She ended up picking up this beautiful brownie, her biggest for the day.

In between helping them untangle their lines and tie on new flies, I was able to get into a few fish as well.  Although it would have been fun stalking more fish on the flats, I had a great time watching everybody pick up fish in the toilet bowl.

Fishing was pretty much good all day long.  The toilet bowl is consistent with fish taking mysis and egg patterns eagerly.

I ended the day losing a huge rainbow that wouldn't fit into my net so with 1 more cast I caught another bow...much smaller but it's at least a decent fish.

Forgive the blatant stiff arming in the picture...he ended up being a good 20 incher.

After that fish, I decided to go find Josh and let him know that the rest of the fam was getting hungry and ready to leave.  I found him at the Bend hole fishing with his new best friend.  Andy Kim was fishing there with 2 of his buddies.  If you don't know who Andy Kim is, then you've probably never fished the San Juan.  Here's his website. http://www.fly-fish.com/  If you are heading down there, check him out.  An overall great guy who loves getting people on fish.  His flies are unique and just catch fish.  I've used the Yong Special numerous times to fool picky fish.  Andy and his buddies were catching fish left and right above the bend hole...no doubt using his "secret" flies.

Josh was doing great on dries in the bend hole with a size 22 parachute adams.  Lots of risers and fish were very active.

I wish I spent more time fishing the flats and the bend hole, but it was still a very fun day.  Lots of fish, and some big guys that impressed the family.  It's a long drive, and it was a long day, but everybody had a good time.

03/23/12 Dream Stream

03/23/12
Dream Stream
7:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Flows:  97

I had the opportunity to head out for a quick morning of fishing and made the decision to head over the Dream Stream again...

I got to the Charlie Meyer SWA parking lot at 7:00 and saw that I was the 2nd car in the lot!  I figured I had plenty of time to fish my way down to the inlet since the water looked great.

I picked up quite a few fish as I moved downstream.

A nice little brownie...

Nothing too big...just a lot of little stocker sized fish, but they were readily taking flies and not at all shy.

I kept looking back to see if more cars were in the lot as I made my way downstream...

As cars started to fill the lot, I quickened my pace to get down to the inlet, but I was surprised to see there were already quite a few people staking out their spots on the river!  Apparently a lot of folks are parking on the side of the road closer to the inlet and just walking in from there!

I wish I knew that!  As I walked around, I did see lots of big fish that had made their way up from 11 mile.  Also, lots of redds were visible, but most of the fish were hiding in deeper water. 

I continued to fish my way back upstream since quite a few of the guys looked pretty intent on camping out.  As I fished my way back, I did see quite a few more big fish and with the sun higher in the sky, it was easy to spot them.

I made quite a few casts to some of the bigger fish, only to have the smaller fish pick up my flies before it could get to the big guys.

I did hook up twice with some bigger fish, only to have them break me off.  I stupidly was wrestling them in on 6x tippet.  But that's the price you pay for fishing with such fine tippet and getting too excited to land a big boy!

So I eventually made my way back towards the gauging station...I missed my chances with some of the big guys and they won't give you a second chance.

As I was leaving, I looked over the bridge and noticed a pod of fish above the bridge...I decided to give them a couple casts to see if I could entice any of them.

I ended with a nice bow and a mutant brownie!

The brownie was super humped back with a fat belly.  Maybe it had been gorging on eggs, but it sure did look funny.

I ended up leaving at 1:00 since I had to meet my brother at the airport, he was coming in to ski for the weekend...little did I know that skiing was going to be so bad that he would end up fishing with me instead!

Flies for the day were bead eggs, micro tungsten san juan worms, and flashback WD40's.  Bead eggs in pink and orange were the hot flies all day long.  The best part of the day was the fact that there was no wind!  A Dream Stream day with no wind and a few fish is a great day!