But that doesn't stop me from getting on the water! I made two trips down to Pueblo this month, and it worked out perfectly with my wife visiting family down there.
12/04/11
Cold is the word of the day. The forecast was a high of 20 with blowing snow. I had a friend join me on this trip and we decided to start a little later to see if it would warm up a bit. No reason to stand in freezing water with blowing snow in your face and no fish!
We got on the water at 10:00 at the Nature Center. There was nobody else was on the water, except for a "guide" gearing up. We headed upstream, and he headed downstream. We tried fishing the hole right under the nature center deck with no hits and so we moved upstream more and fished the riffles. We picked up a few fish on egg patterns with my friend using beads.
After picking up a few more fish that hit nymph patterns and san juans along "the wall", we worked our way back downstream and decided to hit the water treatment plant to see if we could find some risers. The weather was warming up nicely and with just a hint of cloud cover, we figured there might be a good BWO or midge hatch making easy pickings at the bridge hole there. As we left, we saw the "guide" again who claims he hit his 20 fish over 18 in. for the day and he was done...funny thing was we never even saw him playing a fish let along bring one to his net...oh well, not gonna call him a liar, but the proof is in the pudding!
At the water treatment plant, there still wasn't a hatch, but we managed a few fishing the downstream at the rock pile. We saw a few risers but we didn't see any bugs on the surface so we figured emergers...a RS2 and foam back emerger fished in the film got a few fish to the net, but nothing of size of course...
With the day starting to come to an end, we decided to head over to the dam to see if we could manage a smallie or coax a bigger fish out of the depths at the base of the dam...after picking up a few in the tailings of the runs, we managed some bigger guys lurking in the plunge pools closer to the dam.
What a great way to finish out the day! My biggest of the day took a flashwing prince size 18 and my buddies beautiful hen took a bead egg.
12/11/11
Another weekend down in Pueblo afforded me time on the ark again! This time a work friend joined me after spending the night in Salida. He said the fishing wasn't as good...no ice, but no fish until around 3:00 when the bite turned on for him.
He didn't get down to Pueblo until about 11:00 so I fished the dam by myself. I arrived with no cars in the lot at 8:30 AM and managed quite a few fish between cable hole and up to the dam. Most were taking a size 18 rainbow warrior with a few taking a new czech nymph I tied up with less weight. I got no hits on eggs, wierd since they were really keyed in on eggs the weekend before. My buddy called, so as I was taking off, I noticed how busy it all of a sudden got. There were 3 guys lined up at the cable hole and somebody in just about every hole on the way to the bridge and guys fishing every riffle on the way to the big bend after the bridge. The nice weather really brought people out, unlike last weekend!
When my buddy arrived, we decided to meet at the water treatment plant since he could park there for free. Fishing was good with fish taking eric's midges and a glass back baetis pattern. I stuck to nymphing with a czech, lightning bug and rainbow warrior. I was easily outfished by my buddy who was sticking to dries...
We ended up fishing at the water treatment plant until about 3:00 and then we decided to hoof it over to the dam to see if the crowds had lightened up and to see if there were any big guys up there. Unfortunately, it was still pretty busy with some bait chuckers fishing some of the good holes. We fished it for about a half hour before deciding that it these spots have been fished out with so much pressure all day long...my buddy did however have a big fish break him off in the big pool with the "observation deck" over it. He was pretty bummed but realized that he should have been using 6x for big guys like that!
Overall, a good day. Not as many fish for me, since I stuck with fishing nymphs all day. My buddy had a much better day fishing dries. The warm weather was key in having hatches all day long but the weather also made the river super busy. Next time, I think I'll try fishing around Valco. Although that parking lot had a few cars in it, it didn't look as busy as the dam. The Frost Bite Fish Off is coming up in Jan, so I need to get some practice in on the beats that the tournament will be held...I will need to force myself to stay away from the water treatment plant and fish some new water!
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