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.