Oct 1, 2011 - Colorado and Blue Rivers

Cabo and I had a chance to fish with Darren on Saturday - first time we've gotten to fish in over a month - and first time fishing together in 2 months. Started out early around 4:30am, hit the parking lot of Hot Sulphur Springs at just before 6:30 - made good time. It was still dark, so we decided to take our time stringing up. The light started coming up pretty quickly after that and we were soon on the water. The water was low, but the river had completely changed. All of the drop offs and holes were completely filled in. You had to find the fish in the deeper sections and nymph for them.

Darren and I fished the 1/4 mile stretch, picking up a few 12-13 inch browns and a few dinks. Darren picked up a nice rainbow by a downed tree. They were hitting a pink worm and a small jujubee. We decided to hit below the bridge before leaving, at the big pool where the hot springs dumps in - D caught a couple of fish, but besides them it wasn't on there. We were done with the stretch by about 10:30 and decided to head down and hit below Byers Canyon. I love this stretch, having basically learned to fly fish here back about 10 years ago.

We had a beer, ate some chips, then dropped down into the flooded bridge area and immediately started catching dinks. They were fun. We worked our way down to the picnic bend pool area - catching a few here and there, then worked our way back up to the highway bridge and worked the run right by the parking lot. Usually this run is waist deep and full of fish, but the river has changed and now it is mostly shin deep all the way across. We switched to dry dropper, floating nymphs and then 1 dry and caught dinks for about an hour.

The only pic I took all day.

At 1pm we decided to see what the crowd looked like at Parshall Hole. Every spot we had seen today was full with at least 3 cars (some had more). Parshall was no different - 7 cars, 10 anglers and no where to stand, so we just drove by. We decided to head for the kokes on the Blue above GMR. Unfortunately all those spots were taken too - with about 12 cars in one turnout and 5 in another. even Palmer Gulch had 10 cars, so we parked on the Palmer Gulch road in a spin off closer to the bridge - dropped down into a fishy hole and tried it there.

Palmer Gulch is beautiful, but it can be a tough place to fish. The holes there all look fishy and there can be some pigs in there. No kokes in sight yet. I ass hooked a big rainbow and was dragging him in when he popped off. We moved to a hole above us and D saw a fish in a roll hole. We both hooked up on back to back casts - he got a 16 inch rainbow and mine was a beautiful 17 inch cuttbow - what a pretty fish. There seemed to be threats of thunderstorms, but we never got a drop or saw any lightning. We decided to head up to Silverthorne and see what the Observation Bridge or Asbestos Alley was holding. The "O" was full but the I70 bridge was open. We decided to hop in there.

Unfortunately the river has changed here too - no "pools" rather just a long run now. No real depth to hold fish in an easy spot. We fish for maybe 15 minutes and got out of there.

The leaves are changing in the mountains and it is beautiful up there. I wish I had taken more pics, but I forgot the GoPro in the truck most of the day. The water was beautiful, the weather was even better. It was a great day to be out and we caught some fish. Winter is coming up in the high country, you can smell it, feel it and see it - the days are shorter, the air is crisper, and the leaves are falling. Get up there while the fall is here and before winter kicks in.

Thanks D for a great trip.