07/01/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

07/01/12
Blue River Below Green Mountain
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Flows 498

The old tenants at our rental property moved out, so I had to head up and take pictures of the condition of the house.  Of course I was going to go do some fishing as well!

The private access on the Blue was busy with campers for the weekend.  All 3 camping areas were taken by familes but none of them were fishing.

I headed out and headed north to fish the far reach of the private stretch and managed to hook into a few fish, but lose them in the faster water.  I ended up catching a nice bow right at the end of the private stretch that took me for a run downstream.

Not huge, but it certainly was a fun fight.

This guy took a copper john.

As I made my way back upstream, I continued to fish and kept getting bites, but either the fish would spit the hook, or I was too slow on my hookset.  I guess it's just one of those days...

At the bend, I managed to hook up with another fish that hook a rubber legged copper john/prince that took me into my backing!  Now that was a fun fight.  After 2 runs, I was finally able to wrangle him into the shallow riffles and netted him.

It's good to see that there's still lots of big healthy fish in this stretch.  They certainly are more spaced out at these higher flows, but this stretch is still easily fishable and wadeable at 500.

Back at the car, I decided to get 1 more drift at the cut bank and was rewarded with a nice brownie.  He took a copper john as well.

A fat little guy that obviously has been eating well.

Fishing has been fair down here.  For those of you who might be trying to fish below the dam, stick to stonefly patterns.  What works here, will work down there as well. 

The green drakes haven't really started coming up yet.  But try a green drake nymph.  And if you are floating the canyon, a green drake nymph would always be on the end of my line.  It's getting close...any day now and we should see a hatch.

06/24/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

06/27/12
Blue River Below Green Mountain
7:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Flows 492

1st float trip of the season!  They finally raised the flows on the Blue enough to float.

We decided to get to the Blue Valley put in early to avoid the crowds and the heat of the day.  We ran shuttle and noticed that we weren't the only ones with that idea!

There were already 2 cars at the take out, so we hustled back and got on the water by 7:30.

As we were getting the boat ready, I decided to get a quick drift right where we launch the boat, and quickly had a nice brownie that took a pat's rubber leg!  A good sign the for the day.

So we shoved off and fished some fishy run and managed a few more brownies on the pat's rubber leg and a 20 incher.

No pictures...got those fish back in the water quickly so we could pursue bigger fish!!!

As we made our way to Jurassic, the fishing slowed just a bit...a few missed strikes, but no fish to the net, so Josh decided to tie on a big articulated streamer and managed his 1st fish!

A beautiful bow that absolutely hammered the streamer.

We switched up rowing duties which allowed me to bring a couple fish to the net!  A few more small brownies and a "dink" bow here and there, with a few big boys sprinkled in.

My biggest of the day was this bow that took a pellet fly on the Jones Ranch.

Josh was able to score his biggest fish just before the Jones Ranch on a copper john.

Fishing was good, but not great.  We did have good luck finding some big fish, but the fishing wasn't lights out like we've seen before on the Blue.  We didn't see any fish rising, and all fish were taken on nymphs.  Pat's Rubber Legs, Copper Johns, Tung Teasers, 20 Inchers, and Pink San Juans were hot flies.  The pellet fly brought 2 fish to the net, but we didn't see any pellets in the water which is probably why it didn't produce like it normally does.

Lots of changes to the diversions and braids were done on the Jones Ranch.  Time will tell if this will improve or harm the fishing.  For now, it helps make some of the diversions easy to navigate, and at higher water this could be a plus!

Flows are still "low" so if you're going to float, account for extra time.  A float that normally takes 5 hours ended up taking 7.

04/05/12 Blue River Below Green Mountain

04/05/12
Blue River Below Green Mountain
Temp 65
Flows 72
1:00 - 4:00 PM

I had to take care of some business up in Hot Sulphur Springs so I decided to bring the rod and see how the Blue Below Green Mountain was doing.

The flows have been reduced quite a bit from normal so I figured sight fishing and clear water would be the name of the game.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...even though the flows are low and wading is easy, visibility isn't the greatest.  Not sure why, but I wasn't able to spot too many fish.  Hopefully it clears up a bit, but even still, the stained water didn't turn the fish off.

This bow took a size 20 grey WD40.

I tried to fish some bigger flies, but got no takers, so I switched back to flash back rs2's and other midge patterns.  Dark and tiny were on the menu...

I did get into quite a few browns that were feeding in the riffles.  Occasionally, one would rise and take emergers so a 3 rig of midges and rs2's with no weight fooled many fish.

Fish count for the day was 8 fish, all browns except for 1 rainbow caught in the diversion.  I did hook into quite a few more fish in the diversion, but they either spit the hook, or ran up into the waterfall creating slack in the line which caused the hook to fall out.  All the browns were caught in the riffles and were actively feeding.

Flies for the day definitely were rs2's in black, flash back, and regular as well as dark midge patterns in a size 18 - 22.