Arkansas Below Pueblo Over Christmas

Fished 3 days with good action Saturday and Sunday. Monday was the best...details below...

Temps were around 40 degrees with morning temps as low as 20 degrees. Ice in the guides were an issue until about noon.

Flows are stable, typical winter flows with fish concentrated in deeper runs and tail outs. Water is super clear and sight fishing is possible, but if you can see them, then they can see you.

Saturday:
10:00 AM, started fishing at the dam. 1st cast was at cable hole with only 1 fish that took a rainbow warrior. After a few more casts, I decided to move up stream to the bridge hole and and managed to hook another on the rainbow warrior. Another jump upstream to another hole yielded a strike on a new fly that I tied up to try, a pink condom worm. It's nice when your own ties catch fish!

At around noon, I decided to hoof it over to Valco. I got a tip from a co-worker about a spot that he likes and decided to give it a shot. Fishing here was super slow. I'm not sure if it was the crowds, or the recent cold snap and the 8 in. of snow, but the fish were put off. I moved up and down looking for familiar water that might hold fish and switched up my rig many times, but still nothing. I was about to write off Valco when I made my way back upstream and I noticed a few fish rising. The warmth had started a midge hatch and there were tons of the little black buggers in the air and on the water. I tied on a size 18 griffiths gnat and a bwo and got quite a few refusals and 2 takes that I couldn't set the hook on. Discouraged, I decided to switch to some midges and tied on a blue poison tung and a black thread midge. I ended up with this pig!



Feeling validated, and not wanting to be further dissapointed, I decided to call it a day and head home.

Sunday:
Being Christmas morning, I didn't get out onto the water until about 11:00, which was just fine by me since I was getting pretty annoyed with having to remove ice from my guides in the morning anyways! Another busy day on the water with lots of people out and again, with the added pressure or cold temps, fish just weren't in the mood. I decided to move away from the dam and fish at the water treatment plant. I was the 1st car in the lot, but many more people followed shortly...

Looking over the foot bridge, I didn't see any fishing hanging out in the usualy spots so I decided to hoof it down stream to the structures just above 4th street bridge. I decided to run a triple fly rig, which probably wasn't the best idea since the water here is shallower and I'm fishing riffles. I did spend a lot of time cleaning off flies and getting algae and crap off a size 18 and 20 fly is tough!

I did get rewarded with a few fish down here, but not the numbers I've been used to fishing down here the last few times. I guess it's a good day when your catching fish, and honestly on any other water I would be happy with a 8-10 fish day, but this isn't the Ark I know! It sure is frustrating when you think you have river figured out, and it changes on you! I know...that's fishing! It wouldn't be a challenge if it didn't change, and at least I know I'm doing "well" when I don't see other fisherman catching fish!



Busy river...



Monday:
A co-worker of mine, Dave, decided to come down and fish with me again! We spent last week in the office pouring over google maps looking for new areas knowing that this weekend was going to be a busy one. We saw some good looking water below 4st. so we went over there to check it out. It looked great! Unfortunately, all the good water was way too far out to wade and with little movement, it was tough to fish. No fish here for us, but if we had a float tube or yak, I'm sure we would have caught some fish. So the decision was made to find another spot that we dubbed "The Spillway". We parked at the top of a hill and precariously made our way down. It would have been better to be on skis since the snow was so deep! We finally made it down and when we looked over the wall, we saw a large pod of bows swimming around...I looked at Dave and the look on face was priceless. He was giddy like a little kid and we both were very excited. This was a great sign, but were they eating? Is the fishing going to be good enough to make it worth the climb up the hill back?

YES!

I set up in the right under the spillway and Dave set up downstream, we proceeded to catch fish on almost every cast. They were taking many flies, and my initial rig was a two bit hooker, followed by a beadhead barr's emerger. After the fish destroyed my barr's emerger, I tied on a blue midge braid midge and a blue poison tung below the two bit hooker. I caught fish on all 3.



We easily caught well over 20 fish each with frequent doubles. Most were small stockers, with an ocassional bigger fish pushing 17 in. I even managed a small brown, my 1st on the Ark this season. I wish I had more pics, but my phone died, and besides, I was too busy catching fish! We did see some other fisherman around the spot so it's no secret, but it wasn't as busy as some other spots and we basically had it to ourselves until another guy moved upstream closer to us.

It seems like the fishing overall is slowing down a bit. The usual spots are getting hammered pretty hard. I think the cold temps is pushing the fish to key in on midges, but I'm still confident that when you present something different, the fish will eat. They've moved off of the czech nymphs and egg patterns, but will still take a baetis and midges. The rainbow spawn is coming soon as well, so egg patterns will be coming back, and with the color on some of the fish, it looks like they are getting ready too!

Overall, a great Christmas weekend. Time well spent with the family, and time well spent fishing!

Ark Below Pueblo 12/04/11 and 12/11/11

Sorry for condensing 2 reports into 1, it's been super busy with ski season in full swing now, I've had a super busy early December!

But that doesn't stop me from getting on the water! I made two trips down to Pueblo this month, and it worked out perfectly with my wife visiting family down there.

12/04/11
Cold is the word of the day. The forecast was a high of 20 with blowing snow. I had a friend join me on this trip and we decided to start a little later to see if it would warm up a bit. No reason to stand in freezing water with blowing snow in your face and no fish!

We got on the water at 10:00 at the Nature Center. There was nobody else was on the water, except for a "guide" gearing up. We headed upstream, and he headed downstream. We tried fishing the hole right under the nature center deck with no hits and so we moved upstream more and fished the riffles. We picked up a few fish on egg patterns with my friend using beads.





After picking up a few more fish that hit nymph patterns and san juans along "the wall", we worked our way back downstream and decided to hit the water treatment plant to see if we could find some risers. The weather was warming up nicely and with just a hint of cloud cover, we figured there might be a good BWO or midge hatch making easy pickings at the bridge hole there. As we left, we saw the "guide" again who claims he hit his 20 fish over 18 in. for the day and he was done...funny thing was we never even saw him playing a fish let along bring one to his net...oh well, not gonna call him a liar, but the proof is in the pudding!

At the water treatment plant, there still wasn't a hatch, but we managed a few fishing the downstream at the rock pile. We saw a few risers but we didn't see any bugs on the surface so we figured emergers...a RS2 and foam back emerger fished in the film got a few fish to the net, but nothing of size of course...





With the day starting to come to an end, we decided to head over to the dam to see if we could manage a smallie or coax a bigger fish out of the depths at the base of the dam...after picking up a few in the tailings of the runs, we managed some bigger guys lurking in the plunge pools closer to the dam.

What a great way to finish out the day! My biggest of the day took a flashwing prince size 18 and my buddies beautiful hen took a bead egg.





12/11/11

Another weekend down in Pueblo afforded me time on the ark again! This time a work friend joined me after spending the night in Salida. He said the fishing wasn't as good...no ice, but no fish until around 3:00 when the bite turned on for him.

He didn't get down to Pueblo until about 11:00 so I fished the dam by myself. I arrived with no cars in the lot at 8:30 AM and managed quite a few fish between cable hole and up to the dam. Most were taking a size 18 rainbow warrior with a few taking a new czech nymph I tied up with less weight. I got no hits on eggs, wierd since they were really keyed in on eggs the weekend before. My buddy called, so as I was taking off, I noticed how busy it all of a sudden got. There were 3 guys lined up at the cable hole and somebody in just about every hole on the way to the bridge and guys fishing every riffle on the way to the big bend after the bridge. The nice weather really brought people out, unlike last weekend!

When my buddy arrived, we decided to meet at the water treatment plant since he could park there for free. Fishing was good with fish taking eric's midges and a glass back baetis pattern. I stuck to nymphing with a czech, lightning bug and rainbow warrior. I was easily outfished by my buddy who was sticking to dries...

We ended up fishing at the water treatment plant until about 3:00 and then we decided to hoof it over to the dam to see if the crowds had lightened up and to see if there were any big guys up there. Unfortunately, it was still pretty busy with some bait chuckers fishing some of the good holes. We fished it for about a half hour before deciding that it these spots have been fished out with so much pressure all day long...my buddy did however have a big fish break him off in the big pool with the "observation deck" over it. He was pretty bummed but realized that he should have been using 6x for big guys like that!

Overall, a good day. Not as many fish for me, since I stuck with fishing nymphs all day. My buddy had a much better day fishing dries. The warm weather was key in having hatches all day long but the weather also made the river super busy. Next time, I think I'll try fishing around Valco. Although that parking lot had a few cars in it, it didn't look as busy as the dam. The Frost Bite Fish Off is coming up in Jan, so I need to get some practice in on the beats that the tournament will be held...I will need to force myself to stay away from the water treatment plant and fish some new water!

Arkansas River Below Pueblo 11/23/11 - 11/24/11

Spending 2 days down in Pueblo with the in-laws does have it's upside...

Flows are down at about the norm for the Arkansas this time of year. 55 CFS.

Temps for both days of fishing were warm, with a cold front that blew in shutting down fishing for a couple hours on the second day, but the fishing over all was excellent!

I ended up with 2 new species, the 1st was a surprise...the second, not so much.



A little walleye that took a red copper john.



A sucker that took a pink san juan worm. I'm kind of surprised that I had not caught more suckers since I've heard they are pretty common. It was actually a pretty fun fish to land, it fought hard and took some long runs.

Besides the two surprises, the rest of the fish were bows. Mostly stocker sized with an occasional brute at 18 in. No browns, and I didn't see any spawning beds, but this is probably just because of location. I'm sure if I had fished up torwards the dam and the nature center, I would have seen a redd or two.

Below is a little video of how the action was, the clip is only about 5 mins long, but I was picking up fish about every cast. Again, nothing of size, but still fun. I wish my battery on my go pro hadn't died, since there a few other spots that I wanted to get video of as well. Oh well...



Flies that worked for trip was almost everything and anything.

The standard copper johns worked well in a size 16 and 18, copper and red worked very well.



A new fly that I had been working on were some czech nymphs. I was really surprised to actually catch quite a few fish on them since I only tied them up to help get my rig down.





This green with a hot spot was a very favorite until it started falling apart...

A standard green czech nymph also worked!



Also rainbow warriors in a size 18 worked great...



And of course egg patterns were still very popular...



Orange...red...pink...they all worked well.

This is a great stretch of water that generally isn't too busy. There's lots of fish habitat since it is the Pueblo Whitewater Park, and you will see all kinds of people fishing this area from fly fisherman to bait casters...it's a very productive area, but with smaller fish and I would assume this is the case because it is not a catch and relase stretch of water.



On my next trip down, I'll do a little more fishing closer to the dam and around the nature center to see if I can find some bigger fish. I've even heard of people catching some nice fish down by the riverwalk in downtown...

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...

Clear Creek at Georgetown 11/07/11

No solid lid of ice yet, and there is still open water at the inlet with good fishing available...

Fishing is still good with nymphs and egg patterns. Size of the fish has dropped, I suspect that people have been taking the larger fish.

I know fishing to spawning fish is quite controversial, so please practice catch and release and there is no need to play the fish to exhaustion. I fish with a 5x leader and 6x tippet and I've had no problem bringing fish in quickly and releasing them.

When I arrived today at noon, there was nobody there, but people started filling up the parking area by 2:00. EVERYBODY was fishing close to the bridge and quite a few people were snagging. One guy even had the nerve to show me what he was using to catch fish...2 bare lead head jig hook. He asked me how the fishing was upstream and I replied good...I should have said terrible because he made his way up there to snag some more fish and run them back to his car. He only caught two and moved back to the bridge saying it was easier to fish off the bridge.

Anyways...it's going to happen at most fisheries with close access to Denver and decent fishing... do what you can to educate others and if someone is knowingly breaking the law, call the DOW's operation game theft line.

No pictures, since I just got a go pro and was playing with that, enjoy the little video! I know the resolution is terrible...I gotta figure out a way to make the editing software to save in high res.



I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it back to Georgetown before it all ices up, but I'll be fishing the Arkansas below Pueblo around Thanksgiving as well as the Blue River in Silverthorne. Keep your eyes peeled for those fishing reports.