08/19/12 Arkansas Below Pueblo

08/19/12
Arkansas Below Pueblo
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Flows 95

Sorry for the lateness is posting this report...life sometimes gets in the way of fishing!  I"m neck deep in my busy travel season right now and the wife is busy with fair season going on.  Lucky for me, this means that when the wife needs to work down in Pueblo, I get to tag along and do some fishing!

The flows have been very low all summer, allowing for easy wade fishing unlike previous years when the river is roaring at 1200.  This has been a blessing and a curse for the river...fishing has been good all summer, with great hatches going on, but fishing pressure has been extremely heavy and I'm seeing lots of people leaving the river with big fish stuck on a stringer.  I have nothing against taking some fish home for dinner, it's just sad to see these big fish, some that I'm sure I've caught and released being taken home.

I started the day at Valco, and I thought I was there early enough to beat the crowds...unfortunately, the parking lot was already full!  I rigged up my rods and made my way down to 3 rocks and was able to get into some fish right away!  There were 3 guys fishing the slack water below who immediately made their way up and tried fishing where I was when they saw I was catching fish.

I picked up a few more on a prince nymph and another that took a brown z wing caddis.

Instead of sticking around and trying to fish around the 3 guys that moved up, I decided to move on and see if the fishing was any good upstream.

I made my way past a few other fisherman fishing the hole just above the parking lot, and past another 2 that were fishing the gauging station.  The fast riffles and pocket water above didn't have anybody in there so I dropped in a picked up a couple smaller fish.

The brown z wing caddis took most fish, with a few taking the prince.  There were quite a few fish slurping the surface, but I was too lazy to change and besides, I was catching fish! 

Around noon, the fishing died down...the fish stopped slurping...and I was ready for a drink and on to some old familiar water!  I headed over to the water treatment plant played around in the riffles and pocket water.  all small fish, but it was nice to fish in an area not as crowded as Valco.

After about an hour or two, I started wondering if the city park spillway was fishing any good...so I hoofed it back to the car and headed on over. 

I didn't see anybody fishing!  I soon figured out why.

Although I caught some fish, all were small and it wasn't as productive as it's been in the past.  The low flows, the higher temps and people taking fish home most likely attributed to the poor fishing here.  Usually there's at least a couple bait dunkers trying to fill up a stringer.  I did find a pod of suckers and they proved to be fun for a little bit, but I decided to move on back to Valco to see if I could get into some bigger fish.

It was getting late, and my arm was getting tired...I haven't had a full day of fishing in a while and I was getting fatigued!  My casts were getting sloppy but I was determined to get a few more fish before I called it a day.

So after a few more fish, I decided to call it day.  I long day, filled with great fishing!  Some big, some small, but it was still fun feeling the tug of a fish.  No brownies this trip, but the rainbows put up a good fight!

I nymphed all day, being lazy, I never tied on a dry.  Even though there was a trico hatch, a midge hatch, and a small caddis hatch.  I mainly used a prince nymph, barr's emerger, a z wing caddis, and a micro mayfly.  5x tippet/leader, with a small split shot.  This rig can be fished about 90% of the time in Pueblo, even in the winter, and I'm actually looking forward to this winter when the fishing pressure will be off and some of the bigger fish will be out!

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...

01/17/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

01/17/12
12:00 - 3:00 PM
Air Temp around 30, blowing snow and very windy

Another trip up the hill means another chance for me to get some fishing in! New snow came to the mountains the day before dropping a couple of inches, but after the snow left, the wind stayed.

High wind warnings along the front range and in the foothills was on the news all morning. I was planning on going to the Pan on Wednesday, but those plans might be derailed due to high winds. The Pan tends to catch a lot of wind being in a canyon and blowing snow + freezing temps makes for miserable fishing, even if it is on the legendary Pan.

As I pulled into the parking lot behind the Silverthorne Outlets, I didn't see anybody fishing...and when the wind gust flung my door open, I knew why.

New snow and windy conditions kept a lot of people off the water. Which was great for me! I only had a few hours to fish before I had to make it up to Vail for a meeting.

Even with the wind howling, I still managed to get a few good drifts and catch some fish! Cable hole was the place to be, the fish were stacked and it was easy to sight fish to all the beautifully colored bows sitting in this run. It still wasn't easy, these fish are pressured pretty hard, but if you drift a midge or a mysis by their face with a drag free drift, they would reward you with a flash of white and a run that had your reel screaming.



This beauty took a Craven's Mysis in a size 18 that I had cut the tail a little shorter on.

A couple casts later and I landed this monster, again on the mysis pattern.



You can even see the mysis in his mouth...a couple more years and diet of mysis will turn this fish stick into a Blue River brute!

I continue fishing, changing up my midge pattern to see if I could get a bite on some new colors that I had tied up, and I picked up a few smaller fish. I guess the smaller guys like the more colorful patterns, while the smarter and bigger fish look for more natural patterns.

With the wind stinging my face, and making it hard to cast, I decided to give it a couple more casts and call it a day...

I was at the head end of the pool mending my line when all of a sudden my indicator dropped and started running across the river. After a great little fight, another 18 incher was landed and I decided to call it a day.



It's always satisfying ending the day on a good fish! So for fishing 3 hours, and catching 6 fish, it was a fun pit stop on my way to Vail.

Flies to use on the Blue this time of the year are definetly midges and mysis. Stick to a size 18 mysis dropped with a midge like a black beauty, poison tung, any thread midge with or without a beadhead. If you have to use weight, use a very small drop shot, the flows are low and you want your rig to be just off the bottom, not getting hung up by the split shot getting caught in the riverbed. You want a drag free drift and with the clarity of the water and lower flows, you don't even need an indicator.

Be sure to work the water methodically. Cast to fish you can see and let your flies drift down the lane before picking up your line to recast. There are lots of fish sitting in rows behind each other and they won't move very far to get a bite to eat. View the run as lanes and work it from the closest lane to the farthest, that way you aren't spooking fish with your line. If you aren't getting bites or flashes, change up your fly or rig. A great indication of if you have the right flies, or set up is if you see fish moving out of the way, they know that your rig is not food. Change it up. Use less weight, or no weight at all, change the color or size of your indicator, or take it off, switch to smaller or different color flies.

Winter fly fishing is very technical, and a small change can make a miserable day of standing in knee deep freezing water an awesome day of a catching some real hogs!

01/10/12 Blue River in Silverthorne

01/10/12
12:30 - 3:30
Sunny, no wind normal winter flows

On my way to Aspen for the night, I figured I would stop and see how the Blue was doing...

Right away, I knew the fishing was going to be tough. As I was putting on my waders, 2 fisherman were walking to the 7-11 and when I asked if they were done for the day, they said "You wish! The fishing is ok, but the river is busy! Good luck finding a spot to fish!"

Not sounding good...as I made my way over to the foot bridge, there were 3 anglers under the bridge, with 2 anglers downstream, and another 2 anglers upstream. What the heck is going on?!?! Since when is the river this busy on a Tuesday?

I decided not to waste my time trying to fish this stretch and I walked up towards the dam. I pulled a little bow out of the I-70 hole, nothing picture worthy so I kept on moving. When I got to cable hole, there were already 2 people there fishing so I kept moving up...

Big mistake...it was even busier upstream! Every bend, every hole had someone fishing, and these weren't locals, guys in ski jackets and rented waders pounding the water and catching branches with their rented fly rods.

I made my way back to cable hole and was pretty surprised to see one of the fisherman leaving saying, "It's all yours, I can't catch a fish here...". Excellent...1st cast, fish on!



Nothing special, but this at least brought my fish count up two 2. I continue fishing, with a few more hook ups, but none to the net. The fish definitely were feeling the pressure of lots of people on the water, and a good drift with 7x fluro was what made the difference.

I was thinking of calling it day, and thought...one more cast...and fish on! The fisherman upstream from me was hollering, "That's a monster!" It was a great fight, and a cautious one with 7x tippet, but I did eventually get her to the net, and the guy fishing upstream was nice enough to take a picture for me! I wouldn't say she's a monster, but she's very pretty, had some girth and measured out to be just shy of 18 in.



I figured this would be a great way to end the day, so I humped it back to the foot bridge and hit the road...but not before stopping at the new fly shop in Silverthorne. I needed to pick up a few different mysis patterns for my day on the pan tomorrow. After talking to the owner for a bit, I asked why he thought the river was so busy, he said that with ski conditions this bad, people are looking for other things to do...makes sense. He said that he rented out 6 pairs of waders and rods just today...
He also mentioned that most people were coming back skunked...this goes to show that the Blue is a technical fishery. Especially in the winter with flows being low, fish are weary and not easy to fool.

I would say that 7x is mandatory, and drop down in size. Mysis in a size 20 with a midge or rs2 in a size 22 will work. Either tight line nymph, or use a white, black, or clear indicator. All my fish came on a blue poison tung, or a jujubee midge. But I heard from the fly shop owner that black and red were good midge colors and that the streamer action heats up at 4:00...I would have stuck around, but the big fish of the pan were calling my name...

Blue River in Silverthorne 11/23/11

1st trip up to fish the Blue in Silverthorne this season.

10/23/11
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Partly cloudy, warm temps. Not cold enough to ice up guides on the rod yet.

Flows are low at 88 but the water is clear. There is still lots of algae so you are spending a lot of time cleaning up your flies.

Even though it's still early, a move to smaller tippet is key. Fluro is a must and use a 6x leader with 7x for your droppers.

Fishing today was fair to good, lots of fisherman are on the water, and being a holiday week and weekend, it was too be expected. I did not see any other fisherman catch a fish. I think most people are still in a "summer" mindset and with the warmer temps, they might not be thinking winter fishing yet.

Flies that caught fish:
Size 16 Mysis
Size 18 Rainbow Warrior
Size 20 Thread Midge Red/Black



Fish were pooled up under the bridge, a few large ones, but they were extremely spooky and with people walking over the bridge non-stop, they were lock jawed all afternoon. I ended up pulling only 2 fish out of the bridge hole, nothing of size, but it's still fun having people cheer you on when they see your rod bending.



After fishing the bridge hole, I moved upstream to the bench hole and caught more fish here. Again, nothing of size but it was nice beating a skunk with so many people not catching around me.



Ended the day with 8 fish mostly bows with an occasional cutbow. I'm looking foward to when the weather gets a bit colder and there are less people on the water. This makes it much easier to catch some of the bigger guys as they are less spooky.

Next trip I'm planning on fishing upstream closer to the dam. Lots of good riffles and some deep holes along the way that hold some big fish...