10/27/12 Little Pigeon River

10/27/12
Little Pigeon River
Flows ?
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

A business trip to Gatlinburg, TN allowed me a chance to fish in the Smokey Mountains!  But...I spent all my time fishing in town!

I had originally intended to fish in town on Friday and spend Saturday in the park, but I missed a connecting flight in Houston, so Friday was shot.

I stopped by the local fly shop and asked for some advice.  The first words out of his mouth was earthworms and powerbait.  I was pretty surprised to hear that since I was in a fly shop!!!

After I told him I was fly fishing, he got a little more friendly and opened up about the park, and fishing through town.  He circled a few spots on a map and recommended that I start around the aquarium.

I couldn't find any parking close, so I drove a little ways through town and I figured I would fish my way to the aquarium.

I parked next to the parking structure and started fishing at one of the bridges.  Right away I was able to get into some fish!

I had a 3 fly rig with a price nymph, hare's ear, and a san juan.

He hit the san juan hard!  The water was very clear and flowing very slowly so sight fishing was key.  You could see the fish either take an interest in your flies, or get out of the way.

I ended up changing my flies to an orange stimulator, a red san juan and an orange egg after I had quite a few fish come up and hit my thingamabobber.

The stimulator was a great choice!  I had lots of hits on it with many fish too small to take it, but quite a few that were big enough.

I made my way down to the aquarium and the fish size dropped...

Lots of these little guys were taking the san juan.

As I made my way back to my car, I bumped into quite a few people fishing conventional tackle with spinners and bait.  I also noticed that EVERYBODY was keeping fish!  I completely forgot that this is a put and take fishery.  Hence, the many takes on the egg and the san juan! 

The town actually closes down the river to fishing on Thursday and stocks it!  By Saturday however, most of the fish have been taken and you need to move away from the stocking areas and upstream to get into the fish.

Lots of beautiful water that did hold fish!

Even though they were all stockers, it still was a nice chance to wet a line and get into some fish!  Hot flies were stimulators, san juans, and egg patterns.  I tried different egg colors and stimulator colors and it didn't matter...

I don't think you can go wrong fishing in town on a Friday or a Saturday!

I was a fun trip and I look foward to fishing in the park next time!

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!

03/26/12 Eagle River

03/26/12
Eagle River
10:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Flow 77

After sending my brother to the airport, I decided to fish the Eagle above Wolcott for a little.  Around this time last year, just before run off, the fishing was phenomenal.

Unfortunately, it wasn't "on fire".  The fishing was good, but nothing to write home about.  But it was good fishing in a river again after a day at the toilet bowl on Pan.

The river was a bit stained, with visibility limited.  Run off has been going on with the warmer temps so all the rivers in the mountains are starting to get stained.  I don't think we will have a huge run off like last year with our snow pack only at 60% vs. last year.  This is good news since we will be able to get back out there sooner than later!  Last year I wasn't able to float until July, this year I hope to be floating in just a month or two.

Another 1st for me on this trip was catching some mountain whitefish.  I most have found a pod of them because I ended up catching 4 of them.

These chunks put up a good fight but I was surprised that I caught them since I didn't know they were in the Eagle. 

Catching these guys are also a challenge since they have such little mouths.  I was pulling flies out of their mouths on every hook set since I would set the hook the minute my indicator would move and I eventually got frustrated that I wasn't hooking them well...so I ended up letting them take the flies a little longer.  After the initial tick on the indicator, I would wait for the indicator to move drastically before setting the hook.  \

After moving up river to another spot just below I-70, I was able to get into a few rainbows as well.

These guys were hanging out in riffles actively feeding.  There was a bwo hatch going on, but I only saw an occasional rise.  No need to tie on any dries...the fish were still actively feeding on nymphs.

Flies for the day were a dark prince that the whitefish loved, and the bows were taken on a tungsten micro san juan in red.

So if you're up in the mountains and the skiing conditions are a bit too warm...go get on the water!  The fishing is good and it's a much more enjoyable day avoiding the crowds and slushy conditions on the slopes!

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!