Yampa Below Stagecoach
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Air Temp started at around 20 degrees warming up to mid 30's
I had a great opportunity to fish the Yampa below Stagecoach because I had to head to Steamboat for work. And what a trip it was.
This was the most incredible day of fishing I've ever had. Especially in the winter.
We were the 1st to arrive at the tailwater. It was still chilly as we put on our waders but the sun was making its way over the mountains. We rigged up with scuds and midges with hopes that one of use would find what the fish were keying in on.
Right away, we are getting bites, but for some reason...maybe the cold air, or the coffee induced shaking hands, I couldn't land a fish! My buddy hooks up right away and lands a beautiful 16 incher.
As the sun starts coming over the mountains, we see two trucks pull in on County Road 14. Assuming they were just the guys that work for the dam, we continued fishing...but wait a second...they were wearing waders, and hauling gear down towards the river.
As we continued to fish, the guys kept hauling gear to the river. We saw buckets and coolers...
As they continued to work, we kept right on catching fish...until one fish that we caught was spitting up eggs!
That's when we realized what was going on. My buddy went to talk to the guys and it turns out that they were with the DOW and were doing a special project on artificial redds. These guys were literally chumming the water with eggs for us!
So we switched it up! Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity that doesn't EVER happen, we rigged up with eggs and the "egg hatch" was on! It was surprising to see so many fish key in on the eggs, especially since we are in between spawning seasons, but these fish wanted eggs and that's what we were going to give them.
We were catching fish with every cast! Around 11:00 we started seeing people show up, and there was even a guide with 4 people. Most people set up above the artifical redd not realizing what was going on. But they definitely could see us catching fish on every cast. A few people stopped and asked the guys what was going on but nobody else was catching fish with the frequency that we were. I think most people didn't have the right egg patterns or they just didn't want to match the hatch!
My friend and I kept trading off fishing the run right behind the redd, and we also kept moving around downstream to see if there were other runs loaded with fish. The fish must have heard a dinner bell because every run we fished had fish in it. And these weren't small fish! Most were between 16 and 18 inches. We didn't catch anything over 20 inches like we were hoping to do, but consistent fishing with big fish is just fine by me!
The DOW guys finished up around 3:00 and set up a fence with a sign to keep people out.
By this time, the "egg hatch" was dying off, so we went back to dropping a midge behind the egg. Fish were still keying in on the egg, but we also got plenty of hits on black beauties, miracle midges, mercury midges, and zebra midges. All size 18-22. Every fish we caught in the afternoon was also super fat, having gorged on eggs all morning. Some fish were so full that they eggs were just sitting in their mouths waiting to be swallowed.
As the sun was setting, the fish were still biting, we didn't want to leave, but it was getting late and getting stuck out there in the dark was not a happy thought. We decided to head up to the dam to take a look and passed two spin fisherman who didn't look like they were catching much. We snapped a quick picture of the dam and decided to make our way home. Arms tired from catching fish all day, this was one of the most epic days of fishing I've ever experienced.
This truly was a once in a lifetime experience that will probably never happen again. We got lucky and picked the right day. Obviously the Yampa doesn't usually fish this good, but even if there wasn't the "egg hatch", we found that fish here are eager to eat.
If you're going to head up there now, I would most definitely have an egg pattern to lead. The fish still have eggs on the mind, and I'm sure there is quite a few eggs still being pushed out of the redds.
We tried scuds, in different colors (olive, brown, grey, etc...) but actually didn't have a single fish pick the scud. Weird since we found a TON of scuds in a mat of moss that was floating down river.
Overall, stick with midge patterns. Honestly anything in a size 18-22 was catching fish. Even some weird no name patterns that we tied up last night to try worked remarkably well. A sparkle braid beadhead midge with a copper wrap was an amazing fly...I fwsh I had tied more since I lost them all later in the day!
Flour0carbon is a must, but you can get away with 5x and 6x. No need for 7x...at least not the day we were there.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it up to the Yampa again this winter, but it will be on the list for next winter for sure!
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