11/08/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

11/08/12
Blue River Below GM
Flows 200
10:00 - 3:00

Flows below GM are perfect right now!  Fishing has been good with good sized fish being caught.  It wasn't on fire, but it was decent.  We started the day fishing a 3 nymph rig with a golden stone up top, a copper john, and then a soft hackle pheasant tail.  We managed fish on all 3 for most of the morning, but the bite died down around noon.

So I decided to change it up and put on a good old san juan and managed a few more fish!  My buddy decided to try to swing a double articulated streamer and managed 2 more nice ones!

Overall a great day!  A good mix of browns and bows.  We tried some eggs too, but didn't get any hits.  Fish were still keyed in on bigger flies and they really liked the stonefly patterns and the san juans.  A 20 incher and golden stone were my point flies for the day.  With the water dropping and temps dropping, I can see a decline in stones, but for now, the fish are really keyed in on them!  Remember, even though we fished on the private stretch, the same things will work right below the dam at GM.  Flows are perfect bringing lots of bugs into the riffles so thing big and fish big!

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!

10/14/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

10/14/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
Flows 41
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Another day down in Pueblo!  My buddy Andy joined me today and I was looking for the fishing to improve compared to yesterday!  We started at Valco again and picked up a few fish at 3 rocks, and we made our way upstream to the gauging station shortly after.  The fishing was still pretty slow like yesterday, but we were getting consistent bites.  Not a fish every cast, but we could pass our rig through some fishy water and eventually pick up a fish.

I was rigged up with a red san juan and 2 midges.  Andy had a red san juan, a soft hackle hare's ear and a midge.

Andy managed this nice bow at the far run at the gauging station.

Later in the day, we moved over to the Water Treatment Plant and caught a few more small guys.  I was starting to get discouraged, and Andy had to leave to go back to Denver so we decided to head over to the dam to see if we could find anything bigger.  The water looked even skinnier here so we decided to call it day.  Andy made his drive back to Denver and I started heading back into town...but I just couldn't resist one more cast at Valco...

I'm glad I stopped!  I ended up finally catching a decent fish above the gauging station.  He took a beadhead olive emerger pattern.

He measured out to 19 in, so certainly not the biggest, but a nice fish when all you've been catching all day is 12 inchers.

Here he is swimming away...

On my way back to the car, I ran into this little fella.  Made me want to tie on a crayfish streamer and see what would happen!

I guess this proves that there's plenty to eat in this river for the big fish!

So...a good end to the day.  Fishing was ok, but not incredible like I've seen it before.  I'll attribute the poor fishing to the low flows and windy conditions rather than my fishing ability.  :)

If you're going to head down, stock up on midges, mayflies, bwo's and trico's.  We witnessed an amazing trico spinner fall at 11:00.  Fish were rising to them, but took our small black size 20 midges as well.  I imagine a drowned trico spinner would get lots of hits too.  I tried a z wing caddis, but had zero hits on it...looks like the caddis are pretty much done.  Moving into winter, bwo's and midges will be the go to flies.

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!