06/28/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

06/28/12
Blue River in Silverthorne
8:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Another day with work in the mountains...I got up there early so I decided to get my fish on for a couple hours!

Even for a Thursday, the river was busy!  Lots of fisherman out, but at least they were moving up and down the river.  I suspect because the fishing has slowed somewhat and the spots like cable hole and rodeo hole have been pounded on for the last couple of months.

Still, with only 2 hours, I decided to start at cable hole and see how the fishing was.  I think the key here is to change up your offerings.  Most guys are fishing midges, but maybe changing to some small mayfly patterns and emergers might be the ticket.  I did see a couple fish slurping so I decided to try a foamback RS2.

At first, it was hard getting into the swing of things...I couldn't get my timing right and the fish weren't really actively feeding on the surface or subsurface.  But once I got a good drift in, I was able to hook up with some nice fish.

I managed another 2 on the foamback rs2 and even managed a few on a size 20 black mayfly and another on a mysis.

Overall, the fishing is good.  The fish are still there, but are very selective now.  Switch it up if you aren't having luck with the standard tailwater patterns.  Or fish early or later in the day. 

Is it still worth heading to the Blue in Silverthorne?  Not if you are making a special trip.  But if you are headed up there for work or are headed to another body of water, it's worth stopping to catch a few brooders.

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!

04/13/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

04/13/12
Blue River Below Green Mountain
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Flows: 72

Flows are low making wading and sight fishing super easy.  Flows are predicted to remain low as Green Mountain fills...this puts a damper on trying to float the Blue a bunch this year, but luckily fishing here is great at lower flows.

I was able to catch quite a few browns and bows today, all feeding in the riffles.  Hot flies were sparkle wing rs2's in black and flashback WD40's.

I even tied up a few rs2's with a tungsten bead, and without tails and managed a few fish on it as well.

I ended up catching quite a few dink rainbows, surprising since there usually aren't a lot of small fish in the stretch.

After spending a couple hours exploring, I had to head back for a meeting in Vail so I had to cut this trip a little short...but the fishing was great and I expect that it won't change much for the next month or so.  I am hoping the low water doesn't affect the hatches...the green drake hatch is awesome on the Blue and I hope I get a chance to fish it...

04/05/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

04/05/12
Blue River Below Green Mountain
Temp 65
Flows 72
1:00 - 4:00 PM

I had to take care of some business up in Hot Sulphur Springs so I decided to bring the rod and see how the Blue Below Green Mountain was doing.

The flows have been reduced quite a bit from normal so I figured sight fishing and clear water would be the name of the game.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...even though the flows are low and wading is easy, visibility isn't the greatest.  Not sure why, but I wasn't able to spot too many fish.  Hopefully it clears up a bit, but even still, the stained water didn't turn the fish off.

This bow took a size 20 grey WD40.

I tried to fish some bigger flies, but got no takers, so I switched back to flash back rs2's and other midge patterns.  Dark and tiny were on the menu...

I did get into quite a few browns that were feeding in the riffles.  Occasionally, one would rise and take emergers so a 3 rig of midges and rs2's with no weight fooled many fish.

Fish count for the day was 8 fish, all browns except for 1 rainbow caught in the diversion.  I did hook into quite a few more fish in the diversion, but they either spit the hook, or ran up into the waterfall creating slack in the line which caused the hook to fall out.  All the browns were caught in the riffles and were actively feeding.

Flies for the day definitely were rs2's in black, flash back, and regular as well as dark midge patterns in a size 18 - 22.