6:30 AM - 1:00 PM
The wind was howling in Vail. I set my alarm for 5:00 AM and tried to get some sleep. I could hear the wind all through the night and it wasn't looking good for my plans to run up to the Pan.
I didn't even wait for my alarm to go off, I was out the door by 4:30. The gusts on I-70 were getting bad, 70 mph winds. I stopped to get gas and coffee in Avon and almost turned around to go home. But I thought, "I already made it this far...".
It's dark, and quiet. No cars in the parking lot of course, but plenty of tire tracks. Looks like the Pan was fished pretty hard yesterday.
I get out of my car to put on my waders, what happened to the wind? There were no gusts, no rustling in the trees.
It was calm, very calm...very unlike the Pan.
I get back in the car and start re-rigging my rod. I put on a 4x leader with a bead egg up top and a size 16 Craven's Mysis. A few more sips of coffee and I can see light trying to break through the clouds.
I can't wait any longer...I hop out and head to the flats. I can see an occasional swirl and a few splashes in the distance, the fish are feeding!
A few smaller browns, a rainbow or two, but nothing of size...looks like the bigger fish were chased off the flats.
It's light out now, but no sun in sight. The clouds are thick, but still no wind...
I want to feel a big bend in my rod, so I head over to the toilet bowl.
The bead egg worked well on the flats, so I decided to keep my rig the same and see what I could come up with. Plenty of brownies! But no football rainbows! I'm not complaining...the fishing was good, but I think the pressure from previous days has really turned off some of the bigger fish.
I was contemplating changing up my rig, most of the browns hit the bead egg and I was wondering if I rigged up a mysis/midge combo, I might be able to coax out a big bow. But before I do that...one more drift...
This skinny beast of a brownie took my bead egg hard! This skinny thing measured out to 20 inches...I thought all the fish in the Pan were supposed to be fat!?!?
I re-rigged, Mysis on top and a thread midge on the bottom.
1st fish on the midge, and wouldn't you know it...a bow.
It's looking good! Not a football, but still a nice fish. A size 20 black thread midge with a copper wire wrap was on the menu. I managed a few more browns and bows, with fish taking both the mysis and midge.
It's almost 10:30 now, and people are showing up. Fishing conditions have been great all morning, no wind, slightly overcast skies. 2 guys show up and I see them walking down towards me. They set up at the riffles and respect the fact that I'm fishing the bowl. An older gentleman shows up and doesn't show me the same courtesy...he stands behind with 2 rods in hand waiting...he gets impatient and tries to fish downstream a little. He snags a rock, breaks off his rig and trudges back up behind me to tie on again. I can feel him staring me down as he continues to try to fish downstream of the bowl without catching a single fish...eventually he leaves, but not without mumbling under his breath something about how I should let others fish the bowl...great idea!
I call the two guys over and say you are welcome to come fish the tail end if they would like. One of the guys says, "are you sure? I don't want to encroach." I say it's no problem. Besides, I had to leave soon, so they might as well stake the hole. After talking to them for a bit, I learned they were from Fort Collins and that one of them was studying fisheries biology at CSU. A fellow Rammie!
They each start hooking up with some fish and I continue to do well. The bite did die off around noon, but a change in flies brought more fish to the net.
I was worried that the weather on I-70 was going to get worse, so I decided to take a few more casts and then head home.
On my last cast, I caught this beauty. I haven't caught a lot of Cutthroats, so I was super excited to catch such a pretty one. A diet of mysis will do this I guess!
Overall, another great trip to the Pan. I didn't get into the big legendary rainbows of the pan, but plenty of good fish made it a worthwhile day. And best of all! No wind! I guess you just can't trust the weatherman...
Flies that did well this trip were bead eggs, mysis patterns (cravens and epoxy), midge patterns and even chocolate emergers in a size 20. As I was leaving the two guys from Fort Collins mentioned that they were here a couple of weeks ago and the streamer bite was great...next time I come up, I'll definitely have to stick around at dusk to strip some streamers through the bowl.
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