10/13/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

10/13/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
Flows 41
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

I got up at 4:00 AM and started my drive down to Pueblo from Vail.  I thought I might stop at the Dream Stream, but with the snow and rain, I figured it would be a better idea to make it to Pueblo before I stopped and fished.  I had a wedding Saturday afternoon and even if the weather did make me late...it wouldn't be an excuse my wife would accept!

So on down to Pueblo and my 1st stop was Valco.  I was surprised to see a lot of cars in the parking lot, and even more surprised to see this many fisherman on the water!  I guess the nice weather down south drew some Denverites to make the drive down south instead of west to fish.

I know the picture is a bit dark, but there were 4 guys fishing the gauging hole run and 2 guys standing in the middle of seams where fish lie!

So I made my way upstream and fished a red san juan, a two bit hooker, and midge.  I managed a few fish, but nothing of size.  I was pretty dissapointed with the low fish count and size so after catching a few, I hoofed it over to the Water Treatment Plant.

At the Water Treatment Plant, I didn't have much luck either.  I did run into the Steel City Angler guys and the local TU chapter who were doing a river clean up.  They managed to haul out 6 bags of trash and it still looked like they didn't do anything...glad they are out doing stuff like this, but it's hard when what they do only has a minimal impact.  Crazy how much punishment this river can take and it still produces good fishing.

I managed a few fish at the pools upstream but again, nothing too big so I decided to call it a day and focus on getting a good start tomorrow.



Fish were taking mostly the san juan and midge.  I had a few take the two bit hooker, and a few took a price nymph when I changed out the two bit hooker, but overall the fishing was slow.  The flows at 40 made the water really skinny and the fish super spooky.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

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.

08/31/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

08/31/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Flows 106

Holiday weekend traffic put a damper on my spirits during the drive down...I left Parker at 3:00 PM and I didn't make it into Pueblo until 6:30.  Who knew heading south for the holidays was in every body's plans!

I was supposed to meet Dave for some evening fishing, but he didn't get down until about 7:30.  The plan was to be there by 4:30!

I started fishing at Valco and got into a few fish before Dave arrived.  Nothing special, just a few smaller fish that took a prince nymph or a z-wing caddis in brown.  I even managed a sucker!

Overall, fishing started out slow...but once the sun set, we were treated to an amazing caddis hatch!  Fish were splashing everywhere and we were taking them on the surface and subsurface.  We had made our way to above the gauging station and fish were everywhere.  In the riffles, pocket water, and even the slack water taking caddis.  Hot flies were of course the z-wing caddis, caddis pupa, elk hair caddis, puterbaugh's caddis, flashy caddis and even stimulators!

I know...the pictures are terrible, but trying to take pictures with a camera phone in the dark sucks.  I'm not sure if it was because of the full moon or what, but the fish were super active and we continued fishing into the dark.  We each managed a couple more fish but it eventually got too dark to see our flies or indicators.  The clouds had rolled in and what little light the full moon provided, was quickly covered up.

We left happy and content with fish still crashing on caddis but it was just too dark.  We were headed up towards Salida tomorrow anyways and Dave promised a good day so I was willing to leave with hopes of some great dry fly fishing up the road!

07/07/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

07/07/12
Blue River below Green Mountain
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Flows 420

My last day in the mountains and I was stuck at the house waiting for the carpet and tile installers to come.  Our rental property has been trashed by the previous tenants so new carpet and an upgrade to the bathrooms was in order.

When they finally arrived, I figured I'd get a line wet down at the private stretch even if it was for an hour or two.

When I pulled up to the gate, I was dismayed to see 2 cars setting up with at least 4 fisherman rigging up...I guess even a private stretch will be busy for a holiday weekend! 

I made my way down to the far north of the private stretch and proceeded to try my luck where I've caught many fish before!  Today...nothing.  Not on a copper john, not on a prince, nothing...

The flows were fluctuating a bit before the holiday week, but it should have stabilized by the time I was fishing!  But still nothing...weird...

I made my way back up towards diversion and saw the 4 fisherman pounding the far bank.  Looked like they weren't getting into any fish either.

My luck did change while fishing the diversion.  I managed 3 small brownies.  They might have been small, but they sure beat the skunk!  All 3 took a rubber legged copper john.

I figured I'd better get a picture even though it was a small fish or I wouldn't have any pictures at all!

After picking up these 3, I needed to head back to the house to supervise the installs.  Plus, I would rather to end the day on some fish rather than being potentially frustrated for another couple hours!

07/05/12 Colorado River Pumphouse to Radium

07/05/12
Colorado River
7:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Flows 890

A reader of my blog brought up a good question...Have I fished the Colorado yet this year?  And the answer was no!  So a decision was made to head up to the high country for July 4th holiday week!  I also figured this would be a good time to spend some quality time with the wife and take here on a float trip!

We got to Pumphouse around 7:00 AM and unloaded the boat.  Then a quick shuttle to Radium and we were on the water around 7:30.

I rigged up the wife's fly rod with pat's rubber legs, a copper john, and a prince nymph.  I had her hit the fast riffles, the bubble lines, and the seams and she got numerous hits, but was unable to land any fish.  Most either gave a good shake or took a run and got off.

But this didn't put a damper on Brenda's spirits!  She was determined to land some fish!  Our float through the canyon and up to the Needle's Eye was pretty uneventful, it wasn't until the stretch before the hot springs that she finally got into some fish!

She managed a few more of this size, but we were looking for the bigger guys!  The hot fly for this stretch was a red two bit hooker.

With the fish rising, we decided to switch to a dry/dropper rig for the last little bit before the take out.  A rubber legged stimulator and a beadhead BWO nymph was the rig for the last stretch.

With Brenda being relatively new to fishing dries, she missed quite a few hits, but managed to take her biggest brown of the day on the dropper!

It was pretty exciting since she caught it and landed it in front of a bunch of boats!  Everybody was hollering to see what it was.

I didn't get a chance to really get my line wet, but it still was a great day.  I put the wife on some fish and she really had a good time.  It was a scenic float and the fishing just added to it!

The fishing wasn't really good by any means...the fish are keyed in on smaller flies.  No need for a size 6 or 8 pat's rubber legs, but dries and size 16/18 nymphs will bring fish to the boat.  We only caught browns, no rainbows, but at least we didn't get a skunk!

The best part of the trip was when we were driving back to pick up the car at Pumphouse and she asked when we could do this again!  Better yet, when can we float the Blue!

06/17/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

06/17/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
7:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Flows: 130

Father's Day!

After fishing the Ark a week before with the flows around 400, I was disappointed to see the flows drop to 130.  The problem was I didn't realize this and showed up at the river and noticed it was significantly lower!  Oh well...

I headed to the water treatment plant and immediately got into some fish!  Nothing big...seems the bigger guys had moved out of the faster runs into deeper water for cover but it was good action!  Around 7:30 I noticed a lot of fish rising and the water was literally boiling with fish rising.  I switched my nymph rig to a black foam back emerger and a black rs2 and proceeded to catch fish on almost every cast!  Again, nothing big...but it was a memorable morning.  And of course I forgot the camera in the car...

After meeting up with the wife and kid for a Father's Day breakfast, we decided to head back to the river and bring Kaycee along in her backpack!  She really loves that thing and loves looking around as mommy or daddy fishes.

Brenda started off by catching a couple nice fish and this 17 incher was pretty much the norm when we fished the deeper runs.

Another smaller guy, but the action was consistent and Brenda ended up catching 4 and lost quite a few more before we could net them.  She was so excited that she didn't want to leave!

I even managed to catch a Brownie!

But of course my wife out fished me...making her 17 incher the biggest of the day!

Fish were taking two bit hookers, pheasant tails, rainbow warriors, 20 inchers, and all types of mayfly patterns.  Lots of mayflies were in the air as well, but no fish were really rising in the mid day heat.  I think if we stuck around longer, we would have seen a nice hatch as the temps went down in the afternoon.

Overall a great Father's Day!  Good fishing and quality time spent with the wife and kid!

05/29/12 - 05/30/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

05/29/12 - 05/30/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
1:00 - 5:00 PM
Flows 429

Memorial Day weekend means spending time with the family down in Pueblo.  I wasn't planning on fishing in town, and I was planning on heading to Canon City to fish the Ark, but since I only had an afternoon, I thought I'd give town a shot and see what I could stir up!

I headed to Valco and I wasn't too surprised to see the parking lot full.  But I didn't see another fly fisherman...just bait dunker and hardware chuckers.

I started off doing pretty well...just nothing of size.

I was pretty surprised since this was usually where we caught bigger fish in the winter, but with the higher water, I assume that the fish are moving around quite a bit.

After catching quite a few cookie cutters, I decided to head over to the water treatment plant since I haven't been there in a long time!

Again, picked up the usual cookie cutters down by weirs.

After catching a few of these guys, I would have been happy calling it a day, but I was rewarded  few casts later when landed this nice 16 incher.

With family obligations in the morning on Monday, and considering that the fishing was actually good in town, I decided to stick around again instead of driving out to Canon City or Salida.

I immediately headed to the water treatment plant and found my groove!  Fish were actively eating in the riffles and the tail outs.  Just about any place that looked fishy, held some fish.

I was even able to get into some bigger fish!

I capped off the day with a nice 19 incher!

 Sorry for the bad picture, a fish that big is kind of hard to hold with one hand and snap a picture!

Hot flies of the day were mayflies and caddis patterns.  Actually, any nymph will do in a size 16 or 18.  I used the same 3 flies for both days and only changed to experiment with new flies as the the ones I was using were getting too beat up to recognize.

Red two bit hookers, z-wing caddis, and olive mico mayflies.  Other flies that worked well too were copper johns, prince nymphs, and even some midge patterns and rs2's.

With the higher flows, more weight is needed so pinch on lead about 12 inches above your lead fly and run a longer leader.  5x tippet is good, and fluro isn't necessary, but I think it helps.  Fish are also eating on the surface, but they are not rising to a specific hatch.  I did see some caddis out fluttering about, and I even saw a few being slurped off the surface.  Unfortunately I left my fly box with my dries in the car...no matter, the nymphing was still great with the big guys feeding in the riffles.

Now is the time to get down to Pueblo!  These higher flows and summer bugs have the fish out and about feeding heavily.  The flows are perfect this year, and depending on snow pack and water conditions next year, it probably won't happen again.

02/21/12 Eagle River

02/12/21
Eagle River near Avon
2:00 - 4:00 PM
Flows 77

After spending a week on the road, I had another 3 days scheduled for work in the mountains.  Having an itch to fish with rivers so close drew me out for a quick 2 hours of fishing on the Eagle.

Flows are low compared to last year, and run off is almost non-existent.  Water clarity is good, only getting a little brown in the afternoons, but still plenty clear fish, and the lower flows make it super easy to wade.

1st fish of the day

Followed by a few of these...

And a few of these...

Overall, the fishing was great!  I ended up with 10 fish in about 2 hours of fishing.  Nothing of size besides the 1st brownie that I caught, but I can't complain!  It's great to wet a line and catch some fish while taking a break from work!

Hot flies for the day were 20 inchers, rubber leg copper johns, and soft hackle hare's ears.  The obvious trend is stoneflies!

Although there isn't a full blown hatch, fish are keying in on larger flies and darker stones are on the menu.  I didn't really try any other flies, but I've heard that caddis and bwo's are still on the menu.  With the limited amount of time to fish, I wasn't planning on spending too much time experimenting with different flies.

05/03/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

05/03/12
Blue River in Silverthorne
Flows 70
9:30 AM - 2:00 PM

It's been almost 3 weeks since I've been out fishing...The itch was getting too strong and I had to go get it scratched!

After an early morning flight in from Chicago, I decided to head up to the Blue to see what was shaking.  It's been over a month since they stocked it with the brooders and I wanted to see if they were still there in good numbers.

I was pleasantly surprised...

Lots of fish and they were all still eating.  Although they aren't readily eating everything you throw at them, they have acclimated nicely to "wild" life and are learning what is food and what isn't.  You can't just toss in a size 14 prince nymph anymore and expect a fish on every cast, but the fishing is still consistent if you have the right flies and can get a good drift.

I worked my way up from cable hole and sight fished to lots of fish.  Again, getting a good drift and presenting the right flies were key.  You could easily see fish moving out of the way of your rig or a nice flash of white as they inhaled your flies.

I caught a good mix of brooders and "resident" fish.  (fish without their adipose fins clipped)

Another thing to consider when fishing the Blue is to keep moving.  The fish are on the move so if you are staying at one hole throwing the same rig, the fish will wise up.  If you really want to catch lots of fish, move up and down the river and have fun sight fishing to the big fish!  Find new runs and tailouts!

Or, if you prefer not to move, at least change up your rig.  What's that saying by Einstein?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

Hot flies for the day were top secret midges, uv emergers, miracle midges and rojo midges.  A few also came on a black rs2 fished in the film to rising fish.

If you haven't fished the Blue this spring yet, get up there!  Now is the time for redemption from a winter of poor fishing on the Blue!!!

Here's a little vid before the go pro died...I didn't edit it on purpose to leave out what fly it took...it took a miracle midge.

04/15/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

04/15/12
Blue River in Silverthorne
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Flows 75

The fishing is on fire!  DOW stocked the river with brooders about 10 days ago.  Lots of "dumb" fish eating everything drifting in front of them and lots of residents still around post spawn looking great!  Although local shop reports are saying that the fishing has slowed...the fishing is still excellent and now is your chance to get into some big fish without having to use 7x fluro and a perfect cast and drift.

Here are some hatchery tagged fish.

Pretty cool to see the tags that the DOW uses to mark them.

In addition to the tags, they also cut off the adipose fins on these brooders.

Fish were taking just about anything you had on.  I started my set up with a two bit hooker to bring the flies down and dropped a rs2 and a WD40 behind and caught fish on all flies.  I did start with 6x tippet, but after losing 2 flies to fish breaking me off, I switched to 5x and I didn't have any problem horsing in the fish after that.  Bead eggs also produced and fish really liked the smaller pink sparkle bead.

After breaking a few fish off and losing my flies, I switched up the droppers to some random midges in various colors that I tied up to give them a shot.  These "experimental" flies are crazy color combinations and styles that I like to try out on winter tailwaters to try to "bust the hatch".  Even though they caught lots of fish today, it's not a true test as to their effectiveness since these brooders are willing to eat just about anything.

But, I did have a resident fish take one of my multi-color midges so I'll be sure to tie up more of them for the Blue this winter!

 A great day on the Blue!  I was pretty excited to see that the DOW put some brooders in there.  The fishing this winter has been average to poor which could have been for lots of reasons.  (high fishing pressure, lower flows, weather conditions) But the fish survey that was done last year has shown a significant decline in fish population and size.  Hopefully these fish will add to the numbers there and help increase the quantity of resident fish in the river when they spawn next spring.

I wish I didn't have to leave since the fishing was so good, but 3 hours of fishing and over 20 fish to the net equals a good day.  I didn't want to end the day stuck in skier traffic so I left with a sore arm and memories of big fish peeling line off!