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.

06/21/12 Blue River North of Silverthorne

06/21/12
Blue River North of Silverthorne
12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Flows 53

I had work obligations in the mountains so of course I brought along my rod to fish the Blue in town.  A buddy called and asked what I was up to and I told him to meet me at cable hole and we could catch some fish and call it a day.

The fishing in town has been good, but not great.  Lots of pressure and lots of fisherman all over the river.  Fish are getting smart and are staying out of feeding lanes for most of the day avoiding any fly that drifts by...

It doesn't mean you won't catch any fish...it's just much more technical now...
Here's one from cable hole...

And the fly it took...an orange larvae in size 18

The fly actually looked more red at the shop, but in the sun it looked way more orange.

Shortly after catching this fish, my buddy showed up and hollered that we need to get out of town!  He had found a spot north of town where the fishing was insane...

I was skeptical, but I hustled up the hill and we drove a little ways north of town.

I switched up my flies to a 20 incher, a tung teaser, and a prince nymph since I heard reports that the stoneflies were starting to come up.

All 3 flies produced lots and lots of fish!!!  This spot was on fire and fish were even rising.

My buddy caught his personal best with a 24 in, taken on a dry.

Of course there were smaller fish...a few brownies even...

Here's a long skinny guy...

But the majority of fish were bruisers that were +20 in!

What an incredible day!  We had lots of fish to the net, and quite a few that were able to break us off.  This spot was definitely a wonderful place that not a lot of fisherman know about unless they're exploring the Blue north of town.  Today definitely taught me a lesson to sometimes take a risk and try to fish a new place instead of going to the old stand by.  Especially with how the fishing is declining in town, this spot was a great escape from the crowds and lock jawed fish!

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!

03/06/12 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.