12:00 - 3:00 PM
Air Temp around 30, blowing snow and very windy
Another trip up the hill means another chance for me to get some fishing in! New snow came to the mountains the day before dropping a couple of inches, but after the snow left, the wind stayed.
High wind warnings along the front range and in the foothills was on the news all morning. I was planning on going to the Pan on Wednesday, but those plans might be derailed due to high winds. The Pan tends to catch a lot of wind being in a canyon and blowing snow + freezing temps makes for miserable fishing, even if it is on the legendary Pan.
As I pulled into the parking lot behind the Silverthorne Outlets, I didn't see anybody fishing...and when the wind gust flung my door open, I knew why.
New snow and windy conditions kept a lot of people off the water. Which was great for me! I only had a few hours to fish before I had to make it up to Vail for a meeting.
Even with the wind howling, I still managed to get a few good drifts and catch some fish! Cable hole was the place to be, the fish were stacked and it was easy to sight fish to all the beautifully colored bows sitting in this run. It still wasn't easy, these fish are pressured pretty hard, but if you drift a midge or a mysis by their face with a drag free drift, they would reward you with a flash of white and a run that had your reel screaming.
This beauty took a Craven's Mysis in a size 18 that I had cut the tail a little shorter on.
A couple casts later and I landed this monster, again on the mysis pattern.
You can even see the mysis in his mouth...a couple more years and diet of mysis will turn this fish stick into a Blue River brute!
I continue fishing, changing up my midge pattern to see if I could get a bite on some new colors that I had tied up, and I picked up a few smaller fish. I guess the smaller guys like the more colorful patterns, while the smarter and bigger fish look for more natural patterns.
With the wind stinging my face, and making it hard to cast, I decided to give it a couple more casts and call it a day...
I was at the head end of the pool mending my line when all of a sudden my indicator dropped and started running across the river. After a great little fight, another 18 incher was landed and I decided to call it a day.
It's always satisfying ending the day on a good fish! So for fishing 3 hours, and catching 6 fish, it was a fun pit stop on my way to Vail.
Flies to use on the Blue this time of the year are definetly midges and mysis. Stick to a size 18 mysis dropped with a midge like a black beauty, poison tung, any thread midge with or without a beadhead. If you have to use weight, use a very small drop shot, the flows are low and you want your rig to be just off the bottom, not getting hung up by the split shot getting caught in the riverbed. You want a drag free drift and with the clarity of the water and lower flows, you don't even need an indicator.
Be sure to work the water methodically. Cast to fish you can see and let your flies drift down the lane before picking up your line to recast. There are lots of fish sitting in rows behind each other and they won't move very far to get a bite to eat. View the run as lanes and work it from the closest lane to the farthest, that way you aren't spooking fish with your line. If you aren't getting bites or flashes, change up your fly or rig. A great indication of if you have the right flies, or set up is if you see fish moving out of the way, they know that your rig is not food. Change it up. Use less weight, or no weight at all, change the color or size of your indicator, or take it off, switch to smaller or different color flies.
Winter fly fishing is very technical, and a small change can make a miserable day of standing in knee deep freezing water an awesome day of a catching some real hogs!
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