12:30 - 3:30
Sunny, no wind normal winter flows
On my way to Aspen for the night, I figured I would stop and see how the Blue was doing...
Right away, I knew the fishing was going to be tough. As I was putting on my waders, 2 fisherman were walking to the 7-11 and when I asked if they were done for the day, they said "You wish! The fishing is ok, but the river is busy! Good luck finding a spot to fish!"
Not sounding good...as I made my way over to the foot bridge, there were 3 anglers under the bridge, with 2 anglers downstream, and another 2 anglers upstream. What the heck is going on?!?! Since when is the river this busy on a Tuesday?
I decided not to waste my time trying to fish this stretch and I walked up towards the dam. I pulled a little bow out of the I-70 hole, nothing picture worthy so I kept on moving. When I got to cable hole, there were already 2 people there fishing so I kept moving up...
Big mistake...it was even busier upstream! Every bend, every hole had someone fishing, and these weren't locals, guys in ski jackets and rented waders pounding the water and catching branches with their rented fly rods.
I made my way back to cable hole and was pretty surprised to see one of the fisherman leaving saying, "It's all yours, I can't catch a fish here...". Excellent...1st cast, fish on!
Nothing special, but this at least brought my fish count up two 2. I continue fishing, with a few more hook ups, but none to the net. The fish definitely were feeling the pressure of lots of people on the water, and a good drift with 7x fluro was what made the difference.
I was thinking of calling it day, and thought...one more cast...and fish on! The fisherman upstream from me was hollering, "That's a monster!" It was a great fight, and a cautious one with 7x tippet, but I did eventually get her to the net, and the guy fishing upstream was nice enough to take a picture for me! I wouldn't say she's a monster, but she's very pretty, had some girth and measured out to be just shy of 18 in.
I figured this would be a great way to end the day, so I humped it back to the foot bridge and hit the road...but not before stopping at the new fly shop in Silverthorne. I needed to pick up a few different mysis patterns for my day on the pan tomorrow. After talking to the owner for a bit, I asked why he thought the river was so busy, he said that with ski conditions this bad, people are looking for other things to do...makes sense. He said that he rented out 6 pairs of waders and rods just today...
He also mentioned that most people were coming back skunked...this goes to show that the Blue is a technical fishery. Especially in the winter with flows being low, fish are weary and not easy to fool.
I would say that 7x is mandatory, and drop down in size. Mysis in a size 20 with a midge or rs2 in a size 22 will work. Either tight line nymph, or use a white, black, or clear indicator. All my fish came on a blue poison tung, or a jujubee midge. But I heard from the fly shop owner that black and red were good midge colors and that the streamer action heats up at 4:00...I would have stuck around, but the big fish of the pan were calling my name...
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