03/26/12 Eagle River

03/26/12
Eagle River
10:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Flow 77

After sending my brother to the airport, I decided to fish the Eagle above Wolcott for a little.  Around this time last year, just before run off, the fishing was phenomenal.

Unfortunately, it wasn't "on fire".  The fishing was good, but nothing to write home about.  But it was good fishing in a river again after a day at the toilet bowl on Pan.

The river was a bit stained, with visibility limited.  Run off has been going on with the warmer temps so all the rivers in the mountains are starting to get stained.  I don't think we will have a huge run off like last year with our snow pack only at 60% vs. last year.  This is good news since we will be able to get back out there sooner than later!  Last year I wasn't able to float until July, this year I hope to be floating in just a month or two.

Another 1st for me on this trip was catching some mountain whitefish.  I most have found a pod of them because I ended up catching 4 of them.

These chunks put up a good fight but I was surprised that I caught them since I didn't know they were in the Eagle. 

Catching these guys are also a challenge since they have such little mouths.  I was pulling flies out of their mouths on every hook set since I would set the hook the minute my indicator would move and I eventually got frustrated that I wasn't hooking them well...so I ended up letting them take the flies a little longer.  After the initial tick on the indicator, I would wait for the indicator to move drastically before setting the hook.  \

After moving up river to another spot just below I-70, I was able to get into a few rainbows as well.

These guys were hanging out in riffles actively feeding.  There was a bwo hatch going on, but I only saw an occasional rise.  No need to tie on any dries...the fish were still actively feeding on nymphs.

Flies for the day were a dark prince that the whitefish loved, and the bows were taken on a tungsten micro san juan in red.

So if you're up in the mountains and the skiing conditions are a bit too warm...go get on the water!  The fishing is good and it's a much more enjoyable day avoiding the crowds and slushy conditions on the slopes!

03/25/12 Frying Pan

03/25/12
Frying Pan
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Flows 91

My brother was in town to ski and after a terrible day at Vail on Saturday, he decided he wanted to do some fishing!

Since we were already up in the mountains, what better place to head to than the Frying Pan for him to get into some big fish.

My buddy Josh was also tagging along, as well as the wives and kiddos so our day didn't start out as planned.

We were up at 4:00 AM getting ready to leave so that we could be the 1st ones there.  The idea was to plop my brother and wife at the toilet bowl while Josh and I worked the flats and bend hole.

Unfortunately as it goes with babies, we didn't get out the door until 5:30, and even then we had to make a stop at Walmart for supplies.

We ended up on the water at 8:00 AM and of course there was already a group of guys at the toilet bowl.

But lucky for us, they said that they weren't staying long and left at around 10:00 AM.

So I got my brother and his wife rigged up, Josh was already slaying the fish on the flats, so I was excited to see my brother get into some big fish.

I rigged up an egg and mysis for them and my brother's 1st fish of the day was a nice brownie.

Since they seemed to getting into the fish, I decided to meet Josh out on the flats and see if I could get into some out there. 

I picked up a few browns and spotted lots of big bows on their redds.  No need to fish to the redds, there were plenty of fish all over the flats that are eager to eat!

I decided to check back with my brother at the toilet bowl to see how he was doing.  He caught a few more and decided to let my wife give it a shot.

She ended up picking up this beautiful brownie, her biggest for the day.

In between helping them untangle their lines and tie on new flies, I was able to get into a few fish as well.  Although it would have been fun stalking more fish on the flats, I had a great time watching everybody pick up fish in the toilet bowl.

Fishing was pretty much good all day long.  The toilet bowl is consistent with fish taking mysis and egg patterns eagerly.

I ended the day losing a huge rainbow that wouldn't fit into my net so with 1 more cast I caught another bow...much smaller but it's at least a decent fish.

Forgive the blatant stiff arming in the picture...he ended up being a good 20 incher.

After that fish, I decided to go find Josh and let him know that the rest of the fam was getting hungry and ready to leave.  I found him at the Bend hole fishing with his new best friend.  Andy Kim was fishing there with 2 of his buddies.  If you don't know who Andy Kim is, then you've probably never fished the San Juan.  Here's his website. http://www.fly-fish.com/  If you are heading down there, check him out.  An overall great guy who loves getting people on fish.  His flies are unique and just catch fish.  I've used the Yong Special numerous times to fool picky fish.  Andy and his buddies were catching fish left and right above the bend hole...no doubt using his "secret" flies.

Josh was doing great on dries in the bend hole with a size 22 parachute adams.  Lots of risers and fish were very active.

I wish I spent more time fishing the flats and the bend hole, but it was still a very fun day.  Lots of fish, and some big guys that impressed the family.  It's a long drive, and it was a long day, but everybody had a good time.

03/23/12 Dream Stream

03/23/12
Dream Stream
7:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Flows:  97

I had the opportunity to head out for a quick morning of fishing and made the decision to head over the Dream Stream again...

I got to the Charlie Meyer SWA parking lot at 7:00 and saw that I was the 2nd car in the lot!  I figured I had plenty of time to fish my way down to the inlet since the water looked great.

I picked up quite a few fish as I moved downstream.

A nice little brownie...

Nothing too big...just a lot of little stocker sized fish, but they were readily taking flies and not at all shy.

I kept looking back to see if more cars were in the lot as I made my way downstream...

As cars started to fill the lot, I quickened my pace to get down to the inlet, but I was surprised to see there were already quite a few people staking out their spots on the river!  Apparently a lot of folks are parking on the side of the road closer to the inlet and just walking in from there!

I wish I knew that!  As I walked around, I did see lots of big fish that had made their way up from 11 mile.  Also, lots of redds were visible, but most of the fish were hiding in deeper water. 

I continued to fish my way back upstream since quite a few of the guys looked pretty intent on camping out.  As I fished my way back, I did see quite a few more big fish and with the sun higher in the sky, it was easy to spot them.

I made quite a few casts to some of the bigger fish, only to have the smaller fish pick up my flies before it could get to the big guys.

I did hook up twice with some bigger fish, only to have them break me off.  I stupidly was wrestling them in on 6x tippet.  But that's the price you pay for fishing with such fine tippet and getting too excited to land a big boy!

So I eventually made my way back towards the gauging station...I missed my chances with some of the big guys and they won't give you a second chance.

As I was leaving, I looked over the bridge and noticed a pod of fish above the bridge...I decided to give them a couple casts to see if I could entice any of them.

I ended with a nice bow and a mutant brownie!

The brownie was super humped back with a fat belly.  Maybe it had been gorging on eggs, but it sure did look funny.

I ended up leaving at 1:00 since I had to meet my brother at the airport, he was coming in to ski for the weekend...little did I know that skiing was going to be so bad that he would end up fishing with me instead!

Flies for the day were bead eggs, micro tungsten san juan worms, and flashback WD40's.  Bead eggs in pink and orange were the hot flies all day long.  The best part of the day was the fact that there was no wind!  A Dream Stream day with no wind and a few fish is a great day!

03/11/12 S. Platte Dream Stream

03/11/12
S. Platte Dream Stream
7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Flows at 112

I didn't want to go...I knew it was going to be crowded...I knew it was going to be windy...

A friend talked me into it. At the last minute, we decided to get up early and head to the Dream Stream. I'm by no means a fair weather fisherman, but considering the nice weather and the anticipation of the rainbow spawn, I knew it was going to be a busy day on the water...After my last trip down, I was hoping that some of the bigger fish had made their way up. Unfortunately, they are still taking their sweet time making their move.

Lots of these...


A little brownie...


More little guys...


A few coloring up and getting ready for the spawn...


The fishing was good and relatively consistent. Lots of 8-14 inchers in just about every bend. Unfortunately there were also fisherman in almost every bend. We were the 6th car in the lot at 7:30, and we could see that the lot was full by 9:00.

Fish were taking egg patterns, baetis patterns, and san juan worms. Red is the key. The water is slightly stained, but visibility is still very good. Fish an eggs and bacon set up and you will catch fish.

We fished our way down to the outlet, but it was so crowded that we decided to head back since we couldn't find a spot to fish. We were within sight of the outlet, and it looked like people were lined shoulder to shoulder. We didn't see a lot of catching going on, and we only spotted a few fish, but nothing of size. At the end of the day, we did hear from some other fisherman that there was a group of guys that were hole hogging the outlet that caught quite a few fish over 20 in. In a way I'm glad we didn't make it all the way down...those guys were in that hole all day long, so we wouldn't have had a chance to fish it, but it would have been cool to see where the fish are staging getting ready for their move up the river.

Towards the end of the day, we decided to goof around and fish the gauging hole and the bridge hole. We could see numerous fish and the lots of spin fishing guys chucking gear and not getting any bites. I saw a few risers so I tied on an eric's midge and managed to land 3 little bows. It was fun catching fish on dries again!

After a while, the hardware chuckers left so we put our eggs and bacon rigs through there and managed a few more fish.

My trophy for the day was this nice 17 in. brown.


So...would I go again? Well...yes. The fishing is good, but I would get there early. Unless they bump the flows again, the big guys are still going to stick around the outlet without moving up. They need the higher flows to feel more protected on their journey upstream to spawn.

I would also try to go on a weekday. The weekends are brutal and the pressure keeps the big fish weary.

03/06/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

03/06/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
10:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Air Temp: 78

With Tuesday being forecasted as the nicest day of the week, Dave talked me into taking the day off. We decided to head to Pueblo since it was going to be a warm day and we expected lots of fish!

The wife and kid were even able to tag along!

Here is Kaycee meeting her 1st trout!



It was fun having the wife and kid around. Brenda hasn't been fishing since before Kaycee was born so this was our 1st family outing together. A friend of ours got us a Kelty backpack kid carrier which worked perfectly.

We decided to start the day at Valco and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, we realized that a lot of people had the same idea as us to take the day off of work and do some fishing. The parking lot was packed!

We quickly geared up and headed down to the 3 rocks and there were already 2 guys fishing the run behind there. A quick hello and we started fishing just above them. Brenda immediately hooked up by being out of practice, she lost the 1st 5 fish that she hooked up with. A few of them were quite big as well!

I was able to hook into quite a few fishing behind the 3 rocks while Brenda continued to fish the side run.





No monsters, but decent fish. It was fun having Kaycee on my back and to hear her squeal as I was catching fish.

After a couple of hours, Brenda and Kaycee were getting hungry so they took off to get some lunch. Dave and I continued to fish and we moved up to our #2 spot down from the gauging station.

The fishing here was a little slower, but Dave was able to hook into a few larger fish. Unfortunately they would come unbuttoned before he could get them in the net.





This was the biggest of the day, a nice 17 incher.



At around 2, the bite started to die. Maybe it was all the pressure...there was a ton of people out there. When we left, we counted at least 15 cars in the parking lot. So to end the day, we decided to run to the spillway and see how that was fishing.

Dave set up below the bridge and proceeded to catch a few, and I set up in the runs below the spillway and picked up quite a few stockers.





Overall, a great fishing day! It was crowded, but we were able to find the fish. Flies for the day were midge patterns. Jujubee Midges, Zebra Midges with a chartreuse wrap, WD40's and Flashback Black Beauties. Mayfly patterns like two bit hookers and prince nymphs also worked great as a lead fly. I even picked up quite a few fish at the spillway with a red micro san juan.

A lot of the rainbows were also starting to get colored up for the spawn. I would suspect egg patterns will start working again so have a few in your arsenal if you plan on heading down there. Flows should be jumping up pretty soon to so keep your eye on the flows before you head down there.

03/04/12 S. Platte Dream Stream

03/04/12
Dream Stream
7:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Flows at 107 from 53

With the jump in flows, I thought it would be a great time to hit the Dream Stream. I was coming back from the mountains so a quick jaunt through Fairplay and Hartsel led me to the Dream Stream.

Flows have been at the seasonal low around 50 and the bump on Saturday, there was a good chance that some big fish were going to be making their way up from Eleven Mile.

Unfortunately, I hit it a little too early. There certainly were a lot of fish around, but nothing of size.

Since I didn't have much time, I decided to stick to the lower section thinking that I would find some big fish downstream closer to the inlet of Eleven Mile. I was the second car in the lot at 7:00 am so I thought I would get into some fish quickly at the gauging station.



I certainly did get into some fish but nothing of size...lots and lots of 10-12 inchers.





After catching a ton of these little guys, I decided to move downstream and see if I could sight fish before the parking lot filled up.

I worked my way downstream and picked up a fish or two in the usual spots. Fence hole, bend hole, and the long run just before the outlet to Eleven Mile. Lots of "regular" fish and no big lake run or even the bigger resident fish were present just yet. I suspect that some of the bigger fish moved upstream with the bump in flows.

Fish weren't too picky, I was running a 3 fly rig, bead egg, dark prince, and a rojo midge and I took fish on all 3. I also used some zebra midges, regular prince nymphs and a nuke egg and those were all taking fish as well.

The wind wasn't too bad. There were a few gusts that blew through, but overall not a bad day in South Park.

The crowds did show up bright and early. There were 5 cars in the lot by 8:00 and when I left at noon, the lot was full. Lots of people on the water but everybody was relatively respectful of your space and the run you were fishing. It was funny to see people come running and trying to fish around you when you did catch a fish, but it certainly wasn't as bad as it could be.

I did snap a pic of this guy fishing from the bridge...I should have said something and told him that there's plenty of good spots, but I'm not one to interject my opinion... Besides, he seemed to enjoy not catching any fish.



:)

02/29/12 Yampa Below Stagecoach

02/29/12
Yampa Below Stagecoach
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM

A client of mine called me up and said he was going to be in Steamboat and was wondering where to fish...

I jumped at the chance to show him around!

The drive up from Denver was a bit hairy, and after stopping in Silverthorne to fish the Blue in a snowstorm, I was excited to get to Steamboat. That day, about 12 inches fell and another 6 inches was forecasted to fall that night, but we had a window of clear weather on Wednesday.

With all the recent snowfall, County Road 18 is no longer driveable. You have to walk in from Stagecoach Res, which is about a 45 min hike. The snow from last night made it a tough hike, and the road didn't get plowed until after we trudged our way in.



Once we got to the river, the guys got set up, and I helped them select flies for the day. These guys were from Chicago, so their experience with tailwater fishing was pretty limited. I spent a majority of the day helping re-tie flies since they aren't used to fishing with 6x tippet.

Playing guide all day long cut into my fishing a little, but it was fun watching these guys catch fish and they couldn't stop talking about how good the fishing was in the middle of winter.

Here's Karl and his 1st fish of the day. I assured him he would catch much bigger ones...



And he did! He ended up with quite a few big fish, and lost many more. Fishing with little flies takes practice to play and hook up with fish, something these guys aren't used to.

Here's Blaze and his 1st fish of the day.


A nice 19 incher.

Between helping the guys tie on their flies and putting them on the fish, I was able to get into some fish myself!







Most fish caught were between 14-18, with quite a few bigger fish hooked, but with limited experience and small tippet, the guys lost more fish than they landed.

My fishing buddies have a few more pictures on their camera that I'll be posting as soon as they send them to me. I did catch a nice 20 incher which was the biggest fish landed for the day, and I can't wait to see it. I hope it turned out well.

We fished midges all day long. WD40's, zebra midges (copper, silver, chartreuse wraps) red hots, jujubee midges, blue poison tungs, RS2's and egg patterns all worked. I ended up using just about every pattern of midges in my box since the guys were breaking off and losing so many fish but at least I learned that all my patterns were effective! Fish were keyed in on midges and took eggs on occasion. We didn't try scuds since they didn't work last time.

Fish were rising around noon, but mostly they were sipping in the film. We could have tried to fish some dries or an rs2 in the film, but we had a constant bite on midges so we didn't try anything else.

At around noon, 2 other fisherman made their way in. We didn't see anybody else the entire time.

Even though we had a great day fishing, the guys weren't looking forward to the long hike out. Thankfully, the road was plowed so we weren't trail busting like we were on our way in.

The road opens again April 1...considering the great fishing, expect crowds once the road opens. If you can make it before then, you just might have it all to yourself...

02/28/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

02/28/12
Blue River
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Conditions: Blowing snow, wind gusts up to 40 mph

A miserable day on the river...

I was traveling to Steamboat for another work function and I decided to stop and fish the Blue. It was snowing on my drive up, but the wind wasn't gusting so I was looking forward to having the river all to myself!

By the time I got to Silverthorne, things had changed. The wind was howling and the snow was blowing sideways. As I rigged up at the car, I was having second thoughts. But the thought of feeling a big fish tugging on the other end of my line pushed me on.

I parked behind the outlet mall right above cable hole. Through the blowing snow, I could see plenty of rainbows stacked in the hole. After a few drifts through the pod, I managed to catch a dink at the end of my drift. No pictures...we've all seen those little dinks! He took a Craven's Mysis by the way...

After a few more fruitless drifts, I decided to move upstream to the long run above cable hole and managed to catch a fish on my second cast. A decent fish by anyone's standards, but a small fish for the Blue. He ended up being a decent 16 1/2 inches, and I thought about taking a picture, but decided against it because of the blowing snow and the thoughts that I would catch an even bigger fish!!! Little did I know that would jinx me.

I moved back down to cable hole, and tried a few more casts, but the wind and snow drove me off the water pretty quickly.

My two fish both came on Craven's Mysis in a size 18. Cut the tail a little shorter if you are buying them.

I was hoping to stay a little longer and try some streamers around sunset, but conditions were just getting worse...

So...no pictures and a short trip, but I was looking forward to getting to fish the Yampa again on Wednesday.