Friday – Roaring Fork River – Aspen (flows around 360 cfs) & Fryingpan River (flows around 208 cfs) – Basalt
Chad and I did our annual Pan trip for a long weekend. His wife had a friend (and three children) in so it was a perfect time to get away. We left late on a Thursday night with the camper and pulled into a campground in Carbondale just after 10pm – the camper was up and we were asleep by 11pm. The campground, which will remain nameless, was essentially a dump – at $33 a night they were robbing us – but it was nicely placed on the Crystal River and it was one of the few that was close to town and the Aspen/Glenwood corridor. Not having any specific plans was a good thing. When we woke up Friday morning the Crystal was badly browned out by the previous nights sprinkles and we knew we'd have to hit the upper Roaring Fork if we were going to fish it at all. The Fork has tons of access along the Rio Grande trail and we took advantage of it. We hit the first access a Lower Woody Creek Bridge and fished a quarter mile section that looked particularly fishy. We hit the water at 7am – over anxious of course – and the hatches and fish were on. Caddis of all colors were popping and the fish next to the bank were actively taking in the low morning sun. The water was still off color in this section and Chad stuck to streamers while I pitched larger than normal nymphs. After about 2 hours fishing this stretch, Chad had hooked two nice 16 inch browns, and 18 inch brown and a 20 inch rainbow all within about a 30 yard stretch. I on the other hand manage 2 small browns and not a whole lot else. It was a slow start for me and a fast start for Chad (as usual).
We moved up the frontage road and stopped at Henry Stein Park. This was a nice section of river that stretch through some pristine park land right on the Rio Grande Trail. Some of the luxury homes actually stretched right down to the water – but it appeared to be all public water and I didn't notice any land owners being picky about you fishing on their section of river. The river was beautiful. Clear as a bell and cold. I went south while Chad went north – I wade some sections that were moving fast, but were fishy. I caught a couple smaller fish – including my first on a streamer/nymph rig. While standing on a rock tying on a new rig, I saw out of the corner of my eye a brown log coming diagonal across the river towards me, when I looked up I noticed it was a small otter that was making his way to me – he hadn't really noticed me and I yelled at him to get the hell out of my hole – he looked up scared and then dove under a nearby rock. It was funny as hell – he was the cutest little guy I had seen, and the look on his face (yes, otters give looks too) was priceless.
Chad met up with me after a while and talked me into heading down river to the boulder filled, deep pool section. We stopped under the walking bridge as we could see fish – I cast to one particular eager fish that was next to the concrete pillar – of course the fish took on the first cast and I managed to pull the fly out of his mouth. That was basically my luck. I watched Chad catch a couple in the pool and then moved down. After getting broken off completely I was relaxing on the grassy section of bank – walkers/bikers were sitting close by watching Chad catch fish. As I was retying my rig I noticed a 14 inch rainbow in the shallows working the current – after tying on I cast to him and had him hooked on the first cast. He made a slight run and popped off. More back luck. Chad and I kept walking north along the trail to hit the plunge pool section – the water was much faster and you could see where the fish were holed up, but I couldn't get them to take at all. I caught a few small browns, but nothing over 12 inches. I moved down again and stumbled (literally – the water was very tough to move in and the rocks were extra slippery) upon a nice dark colored brown spinning in front of a rock holding his section of slick water picking of bugs before they moved left and right as they parted around the rock. The fish was in rods reach but I had a ton of weight on so I just stiff armed my flies by him a few times – after 3 'casts' I had him on – he was probably 16 inches and had some major fight – and of course within 10 seconds of hooking him he had wiggled off too. I have NEVER had this bad of luck on hooking or landing fish. This river is not unlike many many I have fished and I always have decent luck.
After fishing for almost an hour more I met up with Chad and we headed out. It was just about noontime and we wanted to hit the Pan. We hightailed it for the Ruedi Canyon. We headed straight for our favorite section – mile marker 12.5, just below the turn out for the dam. We had a quick lunch, a couple of beers and were very excited to be on the world famous Fryingpan. This is easily my favorite river to fish. Huge fish potential, lots of fish, spunky fish, no crowds (except at the dam), and very pretty fish.
We had the pull-out to ourselves, so we would be able to choose our stretches of river. I jumped in right at the big rock and hit all the normal spots. Flows on the Pan were about 206 cfs (which was slightly higher than the 180 cfs we had heard about) – this was almost twice as high as last years trip – so some of the normal spots were a bit trickier for me. Nymphing in fast water is difficult, especially with very small flies that the Pan is known for. I consider myself a good nympher, but I could not figure out what fly, what size or how to fish the water. Most water was different depths and slightly off color – so I went up a size in my nymphs. I caught a few fish – nothing impressive – some actually very unimpressive (less than 10 inches). I managed one of the prettiest browns I have ever seen. He was orange – not yellow/brown or brown – but orange. His spots were deeply colored with great halos and he was feisty – most were 14 inches long. Of course I saw some great fish, but couldn't get into them, and the one time I did – of course he got off very quickly. Chad returned with his same old story – great fishing, lots of big fish, and damn – he had the pics to prove it.
We fished this stretch for quite a while. During this time the thunder was rolling in and then we got one hell of a rainstorm. It down poured for about 20 minutes – soaking us for the rest of the night. We moved up to just below the dam – the bend pool area. Fishing that stretch is always crazy – you line up and fish for the same 6 huge fish as they tailwag in your wake, endlessly feeding on microscopic bugs that must be tinier than anything you are fishing. I caught a few – most were small (of course I'm going to catch the 10 inchers when I'm fishing to five 20 inch fish!). I did manage to ass hook a huge rainbow that was about 19 inches. I swiped at him with the net, but snagged the loose nymph and broke him off before getting him in the net. Just my luck.
We grew tired of the same stretches of river so we decided to head back down the canyon. Stopping at mile marker 12 to hit some smooth water. It was still raining and getting kind of late. It seemed like it was 8 pm at night all day long – the light was off the river and it just seemed gloomy all day long. I fished the stretch next to the river and Chad hiked down river. I still could not get into fish and I was starting to get cold as the water was seeping through my rain coat. I hike down to find Chad – he hit a couple of pools and then a huge rock pool where he pulled fish after fish out of the hole – nothing huge. I tried fishing the hole without a bite. I kept moving down river – not doing any fishing. The rain had caused the river to fog – so there were some great picture opportunities. I met up with Chad and took his camera and took some pictures of him while he was standing next to a huge log jam on the river. Chad told me he had just hooked the fish of the day, but the fish slammed his streamer and then shot straight under the jog jam snapping the tippet. I grabbed his camera and headed upstream to get a cool angle while he tied on another fly. He was below the log jam now and within one cast he was screaming for me to come down river. The fish had hit again with unreal power and then darted straight across river at Chad and he quickly beached it in some slower water. This stretch was very fast water with a small tail out on the far bank about 15 feet across – this fish could have gone any direction and would have broken off Chad – but it went straight across river and into somewhat slower water. I arrived to see Chad with a monster rainbow in his net – I couldn't even begin to imagine how big the fish really was. While fumbling with the camera it did not start up correctly and I had to restart it – in the 15 seconds this took Chad was working to get the fly out of his mouth and noticed his old streamer there! All he could say is "I can't believe I got my fly back!" He struggled to get the fish out of the net – his tail was completed out of the net, and his head was touching the wooden rim. As Chad went to hold the fish up and I had the camera ready, the rainbow made a suicide run for the water – Chad literally could not hold his hands around the fish and control it and it flipped back into the water right in front of me – the fish actually was tired and slid back towards Chad, but as he reached for it, it moved 6 inches to its right and was back in fast water and gone. This fish was the fish of a lifetime. It was easily 26 inches long, 9 inches tall and probably 8 inches wide – it looked as big as a human thigh, silver slick colored with a slight strip of pink. We high fived each other a couple of times, I was amazed by the fish, Chad continued to be amazed that he got his fly back. We got the hell out of there after that. Another rainy night – we made burgers on the grill inside the camper, were done eating at 9:15, considered tying some flies – decided sleep was more important and were asleep by 9:45pm.
Saturday – Fryingpan River – Basalt (flows were 206 cfs to start the day and 260 cfs to end the day)
When we woke up at 7 and looked outside, the Crystal River was literally red – not brown – but a distinctive red. The rain all night had blown out the river and would continue down river to the Fork. So it looked like another day on the Pan – ah schucks! We hit the lower section of the river and worked our way up towards the dam. We hit one of the first pull outs on the lower stretch around Quaalude Corner around 9am. I was struggling to get going after the previous days suckitude, so I took my time – Chad took off for a good run. This section was again very fast water with few places that were ideal for nymphing. So I tied on a streamer and nymph rig and tried my luck. I managed to hook a decent fish that was sitting in a slow pool on the far side of the river. After hooking him I had to figure out how to get him back to me across some rough river. Somehow I had managed to drag him over two waterfalls, he got hung up on a stick, then wiggled free and I surfed him over to my side of the bank about 20 yards down from where he was originally hooked. He was a pretty rainbow, fat, but not too large, only about 14 inches. He had taken the Czech nymph (that looked a lot like the green drake nymphs and the caddis nymphs – big black head with a bright green body) in size 16, and somehow didn't shake free. It was a good start to the day. The river started to get more crowded in this section so we moved again.
The next stretch we hit was just down river from Strawberry Rock. The river is again very fast and most of the fishable areas were spin outs across river that required great casts and great mends of the line. But, you ran the risk of having to drag the fish back to your side of the river to land it – which again, proved very difficult for me. We parked in a small turn out and I jumped in just below the truck. My first cast was to a small plunge pool that I was literally standing in – I hooked a monster brown and the fish took off into the fast water and within 5 seconds was easily 80 feet down river. Within another second or two he had popped off in the fast current. Damn, it was a nice fish too.
I fished my way up to Strawberry Rock catching a couple small browns. Chad met up with me and passed me. There was some beautiful water up there – in particular a section of chunked red rocks that was like shelves in the middle of the water, the water was spinning all around this shelf, cascading over it and making multiple water falls. It was such a cool spot – unfortunately this picture does not do it justice. I fished a little further up river, watching Chad's rod bent about every 7 or 8 minutes or so. I had a couple on, but couldn't land anymore. On the walk back to the truck Chad told me how he landed a 22 inch brown that he caught in the pool right next to the truck – he said the damn fish took off down river after he hooked it. Yep, same hole as mine and yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't – and I didn't this weekend.
We moved down again – to our normal stretch (I think it is called Old Faithful Pullout). I again jumped in just below the rocks and had very little luck. I did manage to catch one very memorable fish on a streamer – it was for sure the largest fish I had caught all weekend on the streamer. Unfortunately the fish was only 3 times bigger than the inch and a half streamer!
I saw another otter (my 2nd of the weekend) – this one was much longer, he was two toned, lighter colored brownish blonde in the upper body and dark brown on his butt and tail. He was running along the bank maybe 7 feet from me and didn't even see me at all. I spent about an hour fishing over and changing flies on one fish in particular. It was a cuttbow with spectacular ruby coloring and was actively feeding in a side pool where the current would relax and the fish could just feed. I tried everything for over an hour with no luck. I waved Chad over and told him to catch the fish – which he did in under 10 casts. The fish was in fact a spectacular color – red along its entire bottom.
I continued fishing and hooked a couple fish in the faster water – I nice rainbow not more than 6 inches away from the bank on an errant cast, and a small brown – both of which popped off. I did manage to land a tiny (under 9 inches) brown. I was pretty much done fishing, but we decided to try the dam section again, so we moved up. The section just below the falls was completely empty – so we hit it. Chad was working just under the falls as I was stalking fish when again I saw his rod bent and he was jockeying a fish my way (not on purpose either). I helped him land a huge rainbow (technically I didn't land him – I beached him because he wouldn't fit in the net) – I took a couple of pictures, although they weren't pretty. The fish was huge – about 22 inches (maybe more) but it's mouth was very disfigured and it had other scars on it. The fish was pretty undeterred when we let him go as he swam right back to his spot.
I moved just above the falls and hooked and landed a nice 17 inch brown that fall well. I fished this section for an hour – hooking and landing 2 more 15 inch fish. I did see a HOG of a rainbow – brightly colored red on its bottom – move into my hole. As I was fishing towards him I hooked onto a nice fish – thinking it was the 20+ rainbow – but it ended up being a 14 inch brown that pulled like a log! The upper stretches along the flat water head towards that dam were stacked with guides and rednecks – all standing within casting distance, and all dry flying. Chad and I hiked into this section not knowing that there was such a crowd – we headed down one of the many bush corridors that lead to the river – when we popped out there was a guy 50 feet to our right, and 30 feet to our left. But, right in front of us feeding in the shallows were about 10 fish between 18 and 20 inches. Of course they saw us and we saw them, but they wouldn't hit for the world. Just before I left Chad to go get the truck, we saw one fish making his way up slowly from the lower stretches towards us. The shear size and length of this fish is indescribable. He was easily 24 inches low, and easily 15 lbs. But he wasn't a trout – Chad and I both agreed on that – the fish had a pouty face like a carp or whitefish, and he was a bluish dark gray in color. We weren't sure what kind he was – but if anyone knows if there are whities or carp in that river that are that big, please let me know.
I went back and got the truck and parked at the pull out with the toilets and picnic tables and waited for Chad. We headed back to the campsite around 8:30, fried up burgers again in a pan, and hit the hay at about 9:30. No tying flies, no chatting, we were completely exhausted.
Sunday – Eagle River – Wolcott (flows around 300+ cfs, water was very dark and off color but not muddy)
We got out of bed around 8am, no rain that night so perhaps the Fork would be clearer. We packed up the camper and headed down to the lower Fork. The water was again way off color so we decided to try the Eagle River closer to Vail. Well, the Eagle was also chocolate milk in color and a mess. We kept going towards Vail and eventually saw it clear up near Edwards/Wolcott. We pulled into Edwards and followed the river down a frontage road, but the entire section was private – of course it was prime water too! We finally kept heading west to Wolcott where it became public land and we stopped at a campground/picnic area and jumped in. The stretch was along some railroad tracks and was fairly flat but awefully silty. The water was about knee to waste deep and Chad and I started working runs with streamers. We waded to the far side of the river and Chad immediately hooked 2 nice browns at about 16 inches. I hooked one fish while I was trying to get my footing and just letting the fly drag as I wasn't paying attention. I never got him in as he popped off in the faster water due to the force of the river.
Chad kept moving down river and I saw his rod bent and he was moving back towards me – he motioned that he might need help so I headed his way. I helped him land a nice 17 inch brown that was thick and feisty. I fished the hole Chad was just working and again he vanished over the railroad bridge onto the other side of the river. I continued working great looking runs, but couldn't even get a strike. I too worked my way under the railroad bridge onto the other side. I managed to hook a 6 inch brown – but that was it. We maybe fished another hour and then we were ready to head home. I was surprised that a Vail guide shop was working this free/public stretch of river and actually was guiding clients on that stretch for the day. It seemed too easy of a stretch to figure out yourself, and I couldn't understand why they couldn't work a deal to get them on the better sections further upriver in the private sections.
We hit the road right around 12:30pm. The ride home was quite eventful – about 10 miles outside of Edwards I blew a tire on the camper. We pulled over and changed it. We stopped to get lunch briefly in Vail, then were back on the road. Coming down highway 70 into Silverthorne the traffic stopped dead only ½ mile from the Asbestos Alley exit in Silverthorne. We sat there for 45 minutes without moving. Obviously an accident had happened, but when we went by it looked like no one was injured – just some banged up cars. After getting going again, we flew all the way to Idaho Springs where the traffic was stop and go again for several miles. We finally got home around 4 – 4:30pm.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
July 20, 2007 - Big Thompson River - above Drake
July 20, 2007 - Big Thompson River - above Drake
Flows around 130 cfs, evening fishing - 5pm to about 9pm
Chad, Cabo and I decided we hadn't fished in a while so we wanted to do some evening fishing. We both hadn't fished the Big T in a while and so we headed up there on a Friday night. Problem was that there is a ton of traffic on a Friday evening - even when you leave at 2:45. Santa Fe and I25 were dead stopped in places and I didn't get to Chad's until 3:30. The traffic only got worse from there - it took us 2 hours to get to the Big T. So we fished our way through the Big T valley towards Drake. Our first two spots along the highway actually produced no results for either Chad or I. The next spot was a little better as Chad started hooking fish on the streamer and baetis rig. I unfortunately had no luck. Our fourth spot was on a bend and the the fish seemed to be everywhere - Chad was actually hooking into small fish on a good sized streamer. I again, caught nothing.
Our fifth spot was very fishy looking and Chad had great luck - I had 2 on, but nothing landed. The water was very warm (at least it seemed) and the hatches were coming of sporadically. Of course this isn't much of a river that you try to match the hatch on - except maybe the occassional caddis hatch. I still had no luck, but found several areas where the fish tailing and jumping out of the water after the bugs (just not my bugs). Our final spot was in a pull out just before Drake. The pull out always has a mound of dirt at the end of it. This spot was the first spot I ever caught a fish on the Big T some 7 years ago. The light was fading fast and I jumped in with a nymph rig and finally hooked and almost landed (I wasn't interested in netting a 10 inch fish so I tried to hand land him in decently fast water) a little guy. The fish in this spot were literally JUMPING out of the water and doing tail wags after the flurry of hatches that were coming off. Caddis were definitely flying, but there were some much larger bugs too - it was now closer to 8:30pm and you could tell that this must happen every night because the fish were keying on it. I switched to a black foam caddis, but I could not get a single fish to take. At about 9 (when it was too dark to see anything) I jumped out of the water and started looking for Chad (who was further down). In the pull out area I noticed a cross planted in the embankment - it read "Don Davis, Owner Great Western Fly Fishing" - it was a sad thing to see, but I realized that a piece of him (or his spirit) wanted to be in that very spot eternally fishing the Big T. RIP Mr. Davis, I caught one for you in your special spot.
The drive home was dark yet very fast. I got home at 11 - 4.5 hours of driving and 3.5 hours of fishing.
Flows around 130 cfs, evening fishing - 5pm to about 9pm
Chad, Cabo and I decided we hadn't fished in a while so we wanted to do some evening fishing. We both hadn't fished the Big T in a while and so we headed up there on a Friday night. Problem was that there is a ton of traffic on a Friday evening - even when you leave at 2:45. Santa Fe and I25 were dead stopped in places and I didn't get to Chad's until 3:30. The traffic only got worse from there - it took us 2 hours to get to the Big T. So we fished our way through the Big T valley towards Drake. Our first two spots along the highway actually produced no results for either Chad or I. The next spot was a little better as Chad started hooking fish on the streamer and baetis rig. I unfortunately had no luck. Our fourth spot was on a bend and the the fish seemed to be everywhere - Chad was actually hooking into small fish on a good sized streamer. I again, caught nothing.
Our fifth spot was very fishy looking and Chad had great luck - I had 2 on, but nothing landed. The water was very warm (at least it seemed) and the hatches were coming of sporadically. Of course this isn't much of a river that you try to match the hatch on - except maybe the occassional caddis hatch. I still had no luck, but found several areas where the fish tailing and jumping out of the water after the bugs (just not my bugs). Our final spot was in a pull out just before Drake. The pull out always has a mound of dirt at the end of it. This spot was the first spot I ever caught a fish on the Big T some 7 years ago. The light was fading fast and I jumped in with a nymph rig and finally hooked and almost landed (I wasn't interested in netting a 10 inch fish so I tried to hand land him in decently fast water) a little guy. The fish in this spot were literally JUMPING out of the water and doing tail wags after the flurry of hatches that were coming off. Caddis were definitely flying, but there were some much larger bugs too - it was now closer to 8:30pm and you could tell that this must happen every night because the fish were keying on it. I switched to a black foam caddis, but I could not get a single fish to take. At about 9 (when it was too dark to see anything) I jumped out of the water and started looking for Chad (who was further down). In the pull out area I noticed a cross planted in the embankment - it read "Don Davis, Owner Great Western Fly Fishing" - it was a sad thing to see, but I realized that a piece of him (or his spirit) wanted to be in that very spot eternally fishing the Big T. RIP Mr. Davis, I caught one for you in your special spot.
The drive home was dark yet very fast. I got home at 11 - 4.5 hours of driving and 3.5 hours of fishing.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
July 7-8, 2007 - Arkansas River - Salida
July 7-8, 2007 - Arkansas River - Salida area (Big Bend, Rincon, Hecla)
Flows 1080 cfs, tea green in color - days were in the 70's, big puffy clouds gave way to dark grey clouds and thunder, then back to puffy clouds. Sunday was slightly overcast.
With the wife away I decided to play. After having such a great day in RMNP on Wednesday I was excited to go somewhere and go fishing. I called Brian (Hydedrifter) on Thursday night and he told me that he was having phenominal days fishing - some of the best of the summer - so that sealed the deal - I was headed for Salida! I packed up the truck bright and early on Saturday morning, popped the camper on the back, threw the dog in the back and off we went. About Bailey is when it happened - I realized I had forgotten my boots. Crap. I was in a dilemma - with a log ride ahead of me, and holiday traffic coming home the next, I almost bagged it. But, I was already about an hour into the drive and so I pulled over and let the dog play in the Platte along highway 285 for a bit.
Obviously I decided to keep going. I just had to make a stop at WalMart to find a pair of wading boots. On the way I decided to drop the camper of at Brown's Canyon at a state park camp ground - a great spot over looking the river at Hecla Junction. On my way to WalMart I did manage to get lost on the back streets of Salida and stopped at a place called Riverworks to ask directions. If you have never heard of Riverworks, I'm sure you have seen their work - especially if you have fished in Salida. Riverworks is where rafters and kayakers go to get frames built for their boats. It isn't much of a place - just a three stall garage with a couple guys and a work bench with a computer. They were working on a couple of boats when I came in - one had this cool anchor seat that hung out over the back of the raft - the anchor rope went through one of the hollow pipes out the side - pretty cool. They pointed me the right direction, and wish me luck on the weekend. I pulled into WalMart around 11, grabbed a pair of $25 boots, and was at my secret spot by noon - we jumped out - it was beautiful - about 75 degrees, partly cloudy and only one other guy in our parking lot. We went down to check out the river and it was roaring. I have never fished the Ark above 600 cfs, so this would be a test.
I didn't get into fish right away - I was trying a streamer and that lasted about 15 casts and I was done. I moved on to a green weenie (as Brian calls it) size 16, this is a pattern that Brian showed me a couple years back and the thing is always on. It is basically a pheasant tail, with mylar body, charteuse wire ribbing, a big gold bead and peacock herl behind the bead (you can add some hen soft hackle for a variation that works just as well). I tied a red version up top and a green version on the bottom and began nymphing around rocks and along seams. The fish weren't on right away and the normal spots, so I kept working my way down. We disturbed a gaggle of geese on one of the little islands, they wanted to attack me, but dog trumps goose every time - although my dog is afraid of fish. I set up below a huge boulder in the middle with a long slow slot with fast moving water in the seam. I'd cast into the slow stuff along the edge and the fish would take it at about the 1 o'clock lie. I hooked and landed about 10 or 12 in this section - all browns except one bow. Two browns were pushing 17 inches and all were fiesty as heck. Cabo kissed each fish and looked for them when I plopped them back into the water. It was 3 pm and I had worn out my welcome here, so I headed down to Howard to see if Brian and Mary were around - and they were. We chatted for about an hour and then I was on my way to fish some more.
I stopped just above Rincon at a nice area where Brian had floated me by last year. The spot was very nice with a sand bar in the middle and downed logs in a jam along the shore. I fished the edges and the flat stuff and hooked and landed several nice fish - one was easily 17 inches and fought great. I think two were rainbows and they were fat. I moved up to a rock wall area that the water pushed up against and created an eddy. I hook and lost a HUGE brown - I saw him flash and I would estimate him at 18 inches - he broke everything off. I hooked and landed a small bow out of the hole and then called it a night at 7:30 ish.
We camped at Hecla Junction at the base of Brown's Canyon - I figured I'd fish the next morning and then head out. The canyon is a great place to fish IF you can get across the river to the tracks. I drove the 3 miles on the dirt road - stopped at the boat ramp to throw the ball for Cabo for 30 minutes while chatting with some rafters packing their gear. Cabo and I made cheeseburgers, had a Pepsi, then went to bed. I read for an hour or so, I surprisingly got a text message while in the canyon - somehow I had just enough reception (strange).
Woke up at 7:15, packed the camper, moved the truck and camper down to the lot - and was fishing by 8am. We hiked down the canyon (not up the canyon since I couldn't get across!!) and hit some holes the looked fishy - but weren't. On all the websites they say the fishing has been on from 5am to 10am - that's crap. The day before I caught all my fish from noon on, and this morning I didn't catch a single fish until almost 11am. I was making my way back to the truck along the shoreline and casting up ahead tight to the bank - I was hooking into tons of fish (finally). And these fish were pretty big - all were over 14 inches (with the occassional youngin'). There's an island right below the boat ramps that a guy was fishing on - the island made for some great slack water behind rocks and there are tons of fish there - he was hooking into lots of them, but they were all small. I was working the shoreline - ducking under tree branches and dodging bushes to get in the perfect spot to cast along the bank ahead. It paid off as the big fish were in the hard to reach water. One brownie was about 16 inches and string. Again, Cabo kissed all my fish and then dunked her head under the water to see where they "went".
That was it - I hike out of the canyon and was out at the highway at 12:15pm and home by 2:30pm. I had to wash the wife's truck and vacuum it as it was well worn with bug splats and wader sauce on the floormats.
Flows 1080 cfs, tea green in color - days were in the 70's, big puffy clouds gave way to dark grey clouds and thunder, then back to puffy clouds. Sunday was slightly overcast.
With the wife away I decided to play. After having such a great day in RMNP on Wednesday I was excited to go somewhere and go fishing. I called Brian (Hydedrifter) on Thursday night and he told me that he was having phenominal days fishing - some of the best of the summer - so that sealed the deal - I was headed for Salida! I packed up the truck bright and early on Saturday morning, popped the camper on the back, threw the dog in the back and off we went. About Bailey is when it happened - I realized I had forgotten my boots. Crap. I was in a dilemma - with a log ride ahead of me, and holiday traffic coming home the next, I almost bagged it. But, I was already about an hour into the drive and so I pulled over and let the dog play in the Platte along highway 285 for a bit.
Obviously I decided to keep going. I just had to make a stop at WalMart to find a pair of wading boots. On the way I decided to drop the camper of at Brown's Canyon at a state park camp ground - a great spot over looking the river at Hecla Junction. On my way to WalMart I did manage to get lost on the back streets of Salida and stopped at a place called Riverworks to ask directions. If you have never heard of Riverworks, I'm sure you have seen their work - especially if you have fished in Salida. Riverworks is where rafters and kayakers go to get frames built for their boats. It isn't much of a place - just a three stall garage with a couple guys and a work bench with a computer. They were working on a couple of boats when I came in - one had this cool anchor seat that hung out over the back of the raft - the anchor rope went through one of the hollow pipes out the side - pretty cool. They pointed me the right direction, and wish me luck on the weekend. I pulled into WalMart around 11, grabbed a pair of $25 boots, and was at my secret spot by noon - we jumped out - it was beautiful - about 75 degrees, partly cloudy and only one other guy in our parking lot. We went down to check out the river and it was roaring. I have never fished the Ark above 600 cfs, so this would be a test.
I didn't get into fish right away - I was trying a streamer and that lasted about 15 casts and I was done. I moved on to a green weenie (as Brian calls it) size 16, this is a pattern that Brian showed me a couple years back and the thing is always on. It is basically a pheasant tail, with mylar body, charteuse wire ribbing, a big gold bead and peacock herl behind the bead (you can add some hen soft hackle for a variation that works just as well). I tied a red version up top and a green version on the bottom and began nymphing around rocks and along seams. The fish weren't on right away and the normal spots, so I kept working my way down. We disturbed a gaggle of geese on one of the little islands, they wanted to attack me, but dog trumps goose every time - although my dog is afraid of fish. I set up below a huge boulder in the middle with a long slow slot with fast moving water in the seam. I'd cast into the slow stuff along the edge and the fish would take it at about the 1 o'clock lie. I hooked and landed about 10 or 12 in this section - all browns except one bow. Two browns were pushing 17 inches and all were fiesty as heck. Cabo kissed each fish and looked for them when I plopped them back into the water. It was 3 pm and I had worn out my welcome here, so I headed down to Howard to see if Brian and Mary were around - and they were. We chatted for about an hour and then I was on my way to fish some more.
I stopped just above Rincon at a nice area where Brian had floated me by last year. The spot was very nice with a sand bar in the middle and downed logs in a jam along the shore. I fished the edges and the flat stuff and hooked and landed several nice fish - one was easily 17 inches and fought great. I think two were rainbows and they were fat. I moved up to a rock wall area that the water pushed up against and created an eddy. I hook and lost a HUGE brown - I saw him flash and I would estimate him at 18 inches - he broke everything off. I hooked and landed a small bow out of the hole and then called it a night at 7:30 ish.
We camped at Hecla Junction at the base of Brown's Canyon - I figured I'd fish the next morning and then head out. The canyon is a great place to fish IF you can get across the river to the tracks. I drove the 3 miles on the dirt road - stopped at the boat ramp to throw the ball for Cabo for 30 minutes while chatting with some rafters packing their gear. Cabo and I made cheeseburgers, had a Pepsi, then went to bed. I read for an hour or so, I surprisingly got a text message while in the canyon - somehow I had just enough reception (strange).
Woke up at 7:15, packed the camper, moved the truck and camper down to the lot - and was fishing by 8am. We hiked down the canyon (not up the canyon since I couldn't get across!!) and hit some holes the looked fishy - but weren't. On all the websites they say the fishing has been on from 5am to 10am - that's crap. The day before I caught all my fish from noon on, and this morning I didn't catch a single fish until almost 11am. I was making my way back to the truck along the shoreline and casting up ahead tight to the bank - I was hooking into tons of fish (finally). And these fish were pretty big - all were over 14 inches (with the occassional youngin'). There's an island right below the boat ramps that a guy was fishing on - the island made for some great slack water behind rocks and there are tons of fish there - he was hooking into lots of them, but they were all small. I was working the shoreline - ducking under tree branches and dodging bushes to get in the perfect spot to cast along the bank ahead. It paid off as the big fish were in the hard to reach water. One brownie was about 16 inches and string. Again, Cabo kissed all my fish and then dunked her head under the water to see where they "went".
That was it - I hike out of the canyon and was out at the highway at 12:15pm and home by 2:30pm. I had to wash the wife's truck and vacuum it as it was well worn with bug splats and wader sauce on the floormats.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
July 4, 2007 - Roaring River, RMNP
July 4, 2007 - Roaring River, RMNP
Mostly sunny, normal grey clouds towards early afternoon, blew over then sunny again. About 72 degrees.
My buddy Steffan and I fished RMNP today and had a great time. We got their early - before 7am and the ranger let us in without paying (which we tried to do but he wasn't in his "booth"). Hit the Lawn Lake parking lot and were on the river and suited up after a 3/4 mile hike around 7:30 or so.
The river was crystal clear, flowing nice - not too high - and was actually warmer than I remember. The hike in seemed shorter too. But the fish were exactly the same!!
I wanted to teach Steffan to fish a little, so I showed him what we were using - red and charteuse PTs/copper john mixes - big gold bead, wire body, pheasant tail, peacock behind the bead in size 16. We caught all our fish on the red one - after having success, we stuck to a double rig of just that fly.
I had 3 on in a few cast trying to show him how to flick cast and keep his casts short and sweet. The second fish ran almost 12 inches and was gorgeous. Steffan quickly got the hang of the tight casting and was hooking into fish all day - pulling bunches out of the typical holes. I caught my share, but one fish in particular caught my eye. If anyone knows the Roaring River, they know this hole. The hole sits on top of a huge set of boulders - the river actually is roaring through this section and drops down off an 8 foot bolder falls. This pool sits on top of the boulder field on the left side. This area is the only area that does not have a path on either side close to the river - the path actually pulls away from the river because there is no way to stay next to the river - it goes straight up.
The pool had a bunch of fish in it - but this fish in particular was bullying its way around the pool pushing the youngin's around. Well, I caught a smaller fish sitting in a crease between two rocks where the water dumps out into the waterfall section. The pool had no discernible drift pattern - unless you can fish in a toilet. Most fish sat backwards in this hole or sat up close to the bank to get away from the swirl. This fish was dancing in the hole - pushing fish out of his holes or just throwing his weight around - and there was plenty of it. I managed to hook him and landed him in the tight water - he was 13 inches and very brightly colored orange (pic coming soon). I put him next to the rod, so I got a good size on him. That is the largest fish I have seen in this river.
We fished a good 1.5 miles in and then headed out around 3:30pm. I pulled into my house at 6:30pm.
I will have the pictures of the trip after I get the disposable camera developed and scanned. My wife took the digital back to Boston for her trip home - so I was stuck with the disposable!
Mostly sunny, normal grey clouds towards early afternoon, blew over then sunny again. About 72 degrees.
My buddy Steffan and I fished RMNP today and had a great time. We got their early - before 7am and the ranger let us in without paying (which we tried to do but he wasn't in his "booth"). Hit the Lawn Lake parking lot and were on the river and suited up after a 3/4 mile hike around 7:30 or so.
The river was crystal clear, flowing nice - not too high - and was actually warmer than I remember. The hike in seemed shorter too. But the fish were exactly the same!!
I wanted to teach Steffan to fish a little, so I showed him what we were using - red and charteuse PTs/copper john mixes - big gold bead, wire body, pheasant tail, peacock behind the bead in size 16. We caught all our fish on the red one - after having success, we stuck to a double rig of just that fly.
I had 3 on in a few cast trying to show him how to flick cast and keep his casts short and sweet. The second fish ran almost 12 inches and was gorgeous. Steffan quickly got the hang of the tight casting and was hooking into fish all day - pulling bunches out of the typical holes. I caught my share, but one fish in particular caught my eye. If anyone knows the Roaring River, they know this hole. The hole sits on top of a huge set of boulders - the river actually is roaring through this section and drops down off an 8 foot bolder falls. This pool sits on top of the boulder field on the left side. This area is the only area that does not have a path on either side close to the river - the path actually pulls away from the river because there is no way to stay next to the river - it goes straight up.
The pool had a bunch of fish in it - but this fish in particular was bullying its way around the pool pushing the youngin's around. Well, I caught a smaller fish sitting in a crease between two rocks where the water dumps out into the waterfall section. The pool had no discernible drift pattern - unless you can fish in a toilet. Most fish sat backwards in this hole or sat up close to the bank to get away from the swirl. This fish was dancing in the hole - pushing fish out of his holes or just throwing his weight around - and there was plenty of it. I managed to hook him and landed him in the tight water - he was 13 inches and very brightly colored orange (pic coming soon). I put him next to the rod, so I got a good size on him. That is the largest fish I have seen in this river.
We fished a good 1.5 miles in and then headed out around 3:30pm. I pulled into my house at 6:30pm.
I will have the pictures of the trip after I get the disposable camera developed and scanned. My wife took the digital back to Boston for her trip home - so I was stuck with the disposable!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
June 9, 2007 - Chatfield Res.
June 9, 2007 - Chatfield Res.
Water was super high and super off color - although not sure if the water is usually any clearer - never really fished here. The day was hot 82 or so and partly cloudy (although the tops of my legs and arms are fried). I took the kayak and the dog and went carpin'!
Got there around 12 noon and went to the dog park to try and wear out the dog first. Got on the water after inflating the kayak around 1:15 pm. The dog was pooped so she didn't fight me too much about getting in the front of the kayak and laying down. We hit a section on the back side of the reservior close to where the river dumps in - but I did not really see where the river dumped in. Right off the bat I saw a carp jump out of the water to the left side in the frog water next to the shore. The land fishermen weren't anywhere near it so I dropped anchor and cast to the carp. I'm not exactly sure what I am doing - so I tied on a 10 foot leader and 2 green damsel fly imitations I had tied earlier in the week. They weren't pretty flies, but they were buggy. I cast to the torpedo multiple times, but got not luck. I couldn't see the fish, or even see any tailing fish or wakes, just a huge splash every 7 or 8 minutes. Pretty crazy. The fish was huge - like 12-15 lb range and he was brownish orange with a brighter belly than his back. I'm not sure of the make or model - but it was definitely a carp.
No luck there so I decided to work the muscles a little on the kayak. I went to a small island and dropped anchor just offshore - no luck there either, so I pulled anchor and decided to explore. The water is super super high right now and I could literally paddle between the trees and shrubs and make my way over what lloked like a peninsula - the water was only a foot deep, but this kayak doesn't go very deep. This is very very carpy water - I can imagine that a pro would have a blast. I could hear fish jumping out of the water and would see one every once in a while out of the corner of my eye. I didn't stop in the shallows, instead went to this small island and parked the kayak. The dog was happy to get out and walk around and I wanted to wade a little and see if I could "see" fish - nope. I actually got bit by mosquitos and thought to myself just how "snakey" the water looked and decided to get back in the kayak. I started paddling back when I saw a guy in a pontoon boat and went in his direction. He was right at the entrance to a lagoon that had some really froggy water. I paddled past him and dumped anchor in 2.5 feet of water. Two HUGE carp jumped out of the water in a lagoon between me and the pontooner. Damn, I wanted to try and get him, but I didn't want to get to close to the other guy.
I was having a ton of problems with cottonwood puffs clinging to my line and my fly. No way can you get these things off - they are like yarn and hard to cut. I went into some really dead water and saw a sweet turtle and scared something off in front of the kayak that scared the crap out of me. I moved on as the water was skinny and I didn't want to pop the kayak on all the sticks in the water. I moved finally to a spot that I thought for sure would be good. I finally got the cottonwood puffs off my line and I was twisted facing backwards by the wind, so I would myself back with the paddle and again had cottonwood puffd on my line. After finally cleaning them off I made 4 casts into the brush where I had seen a fish jump (not sure how they got into the shrubs and bushes) and I hooked a branch and lost my flies. I decided I had had enough - so I paddled for home. The kayak takes about 9 minutes to set up and 9 minutes to break down and pack away - pretty damn easy.
This was my first time fishing from the kayak. I like the kayak - although in the wind it will SUCK! Also, I'm very low in the boat and I can't see crap/carp. Sometimes I boost myself up on the back that is inflated, but it isn't very easy to balance. I need to make some sort of high seat in it - to see better, but also to keep my ass dry - when you paddle, the water goes into the bottom and then rolls to the heaviest place in the boat (my ass). I need to make a rod holder or something so that I can paddle easier without hitting the rod. I also need to make some sort of lap box/bag to put all my stuff in. There isn't a ton of room for your feet, so having a waist pack at your feet is crowded. My fly line was also getting caught often on the velcro look on the side of the kayak - not sure how to fix that.
Well, that was my adventure in a nut shell.
Water was super high and super off color - although not sure if the water is usually any clearer - never really fished here. The day was hot 82 or so and partly cloudy (although the tops of my legs and arms are fried). I took the kayak and the dog and went carpin'!
Got there around 12 noon and went to the dog park to try and wear out the dog first. Got on the water after inflating the kayak around 1:15 pm. The dog was pooped so she didn't fight me too much about getting in the front of the kayak and laying down. We hit a section on the back side of the reservior close to where the river dumps in - but I did not really see where the river dumped in. Right off the bat I saw a carp jump out of the water to the left side in the frog water next to the shore. The land fishermen weren't anywhere near it so I dropped anchor and cast to the carp. I'm not exactly sure what I am doing - so I tied on a 10 foot leader and 2 green damsel fly imitations I had tied earlier in the week. They weren't pretty flies, but they were buggy. I cast to the torpedo multiple times, but got not luck. I couldn't see the fish, or even see any tailing fish or wakes, just a huge splash every 7 or 8 minutes. Pretty crazy. The fish was huge - like 12-15 lb range and he was brownish orange with a brighter belly than his back. I'm not sure of the make or model - but it was definitely a carp.
No luck there so I decided to work the muscles a little on the kayak. I went to a small island and dropped anchor just offshore - no luck there either, so I pulled anchor and decided to explore. The water is super super high right now and I could literally paddle between the trees and shrubs and make my way over what lloked like a peninsula - the water was only a foot deep, but this kayak doesn't go very deep. This is very very carpy water - I can imagine that a pro would have a blast. I could hear fish jumping out of the water and would see one every once in a while out of the corner of my eye. I didn't stop in the shallows, instead went to this small island and parked the kayak. The dog was happy to get out and walk around and I wanted to wade a little and see if I could "see" fish - nope. I actually got bit by mosquitos and thought to myself just how "snakey" the water looked and decided to get back in the kayak. I started paddling back when I saw a guy in a pontoon boat and went in his direction. He was right at the entrance to a lagoon that had some really froggy water. I paddled past him and dumped anchor in 2.5 feet of water. Two HUGE carp jumped out of the water in a lagoon between me and the pontooner. Damn, I wanted to try and get him, but I didn't want to get to close to the other guy.
I was having a ton of problems with cottonwood puffs clinging to my line and my fly. No way can you get these things off - they are like yarn and hard to cut. I went into some really dead water and saw a sweet turtle and scared something off in front of the kayak that scared the crap out of me. I moved on as the water was skinny and I didn't want to pop the kayak on all the sticks in the water. I moved finally to a spot that I thought for sure would be good. I finally got the cottonwood puffs off my line and I was twisted facing backwards by the wind, so I would myself back with the paddle and again had cottonwood puffd on my line. After finally cleaning them off I made 4 casts into the brush where I had seen a fish jump (not sure how they got into the shrubs and bushes) and I hooked a branch and lost my flies. I decided I had had enough - so I paddled for home. The kayak takes about 9 minutes to set up and 9 minutes to break down and pack away - pretty damn easy.
This was my first time fishing from the kayak. I like the kayak - although in the wind it will SUCK! Also, I'm very low in the boat and I can't see crap/carp. Sometimes I boost myself up on the back that is inflated, but it isn't very easy to balance. I need to make some sort of high seat in it - to see better, but also to keep my ass dry - when you paddle, the water goes into the bottom and then rolls to the heaviest place in the boat (my ass). I need to make a rod holder or something so that I can paddle easier without hitting the rod. I also need to make some sort of lap box/bag to put all my stuff in. There isn't a ton of room for your feet, so having a waist pack at your feet is crowded. My fly line was also getting caught often on the velcro look on the side of the kayak - not sure how to fix that.
Well, that was my adventure in a nut shell.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007 - Blue River above Dillon
Saturday, May 12, 2007 - Blue River above Dillon
Flows were about 175cfs and the water was slightly tea colored.
The wife got a massage for mother's day and Cabo, Avelyn and I had to wait out some rain. After the massage the wife dropped the dog and I off at the bridge and went shopping for a couple of hours. We skipped the actual river and jumped in just as it dumps in. The reservoir was pretty low, you had to walk about 100 yards from the delta to the actual reservoir. I saw a few fisherman working the river, so skipping ahead was risky (I thought that maybe the number of rods would triple as I got closer to the inlet), but there was no one actually fishing down by the reservoir area.
The weather was clearing, and not 5 minutes after I hit my destination the sun came out at full force and it started getting warm. It was probably close to 65 degrees when the sun was out, but the big fluffy clouds dropped the weather 5 degrees every time one came by. The water was cold, cold enough to make the dog shiver - which only happens once in a blue moon. The water running down the slopes to the reservoir was fast and shallow - so I headed right to the area where it dumps in and was slightly flatter. The main channel looked nice, but I could see that there was some flats areas where the water was 2 feet deep and then dropped off quickly to 6 foot deep areas. I knew that the fish would be in the deeper areas, usually in schools. Of course the nympher in me wanted to catch them on nymphs, which I did manage to hook two and almost land one (a SDR). The rainbows seemed frisky and small, but that was fine. I switched to my microstreamer pattern reluctantly. I casted into the drop offs and hooked and landed 4 frisky rainbows. qall were maybe 13 inches, not overly fat, and almost completely bleached out and all silver. They all seem to have pouty snouts, smaller than an average rainbow. Their snouts seemed too small for your their faces - it just seemed odd. All fish took the streamer hard. All were offered up to Cabo for a look, she "tried" to bite them all (she's a big wimp - not much of an attempt, she's more afraid of them!), then she looked for them as they plopped in the water and disappeared. She'd look for them underwater for about a minute or two and then give up.
Jen was going to meet me at the boat ramp around 3 - 3:30, so I started walking through the mud over. These flats were all silt and were only about 2 feet or less deep for about 40 yards out. When Jen showed up it was nice and warm so we decided to get the kayak out and give Avi a ride. The kayak takes less than 7 minutes to set up and it is quite stealth on the water. I took her for a ride and then Jen took her for another. Jen took it out by herself. We really need to get that thing out more often. This thing will be awesome for still water fishing - it is stealth and not overly tippy.
That was pretty much my day in a nutshell.
Flows were about 175cfs and the water was slightly tea colored.
The wife got a massage for mother's day and Cabo, Avelyn and I had to wait out some rain. After the massage the wife dropped the dog and I off at the bridge and went shopping for a couple of hours. We skipped the actual river and jumped in just as it dumps in. The reservoir was pretty low, you had to walk about 100 yards from the delta to the actual reservoir. I saw a few fisherman working the river, so skipping ahead was risky (I thought that maybe the number of rods would triple as I got closer to the inlet), but there was no one actually fishing down by the reservoir area.
The weather was clearing, and not 5 minutes after I hit my destination the sun came out at full force and it started getting warm. It was probably close to 65 degrees when the sun was out, but the big fluffy clouds dropped the weather 5 degrees every time one came by. The water was cold, cold enough to make the dog shiver - which only happens once in a blue moon. The water running down the slopes to the reservoir was fast and shallow - so I headed right to the area where it dumps in and was slightly flatter. The main channel looked nice, but I could see that there was some flats areas where the water was 2 feet deep and then dropped off quickly to 6 foot deep areas. I knew that the fish would be in the deeper areas, usually in schools. Of course the nympher in me wanted to catch them on nymphs, which I did manage to hook two and almost land one (a SDR). The rainbows seemed frisky and small, but that was fine. I switched to my microstreamer pattern reluctantly. I casted into the drop offs and hooked and landed 4 frisky rainbows. qall were maybe 13 inches, not overly fat, and almost completely bleached out and all silver. They all seem to have pouty snouts, smaller than an average rainbow. Their snouts seemed too small for your their faces - it just seemed odd. All fish took the streamer hard. All were offered up to Cabo for a look, she "tried" to bite them all (she's a big wimp - not much of an attempt, she's more afraid of them!), then she looked for them as they plopped in the water and disappeared. She'd look for them underwater for about a minute or two and then give up.
Jen was going to meet me at the boat ramp around 3 - 3:30, so I started walking through the mud over. These flats were all silt and were only about 2 feet or less deep for about 40 yards out. When Jen showed up it was nice and warm so we decided to get the kayak out and give Avi a ride. The kayak takes less than 7 minutes to set up and it is quite stealth on the water. I took her for a ride and then Jen took her for another. Jen took it out by herself. We really need to get that thing out more often. This thing will be awesome for still water fishing - it is stealth and not overly tippy.
That was pretty much my day in a nutshell.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
April 12-15, 2007 - Bighorn River, Ft Smith, MT
April 12-15, 2007 - Bighorn River, Ft Smith, MT
Flows about 1,500 cfs - gin clear.
Thursday, April 12 - Afterbay to 3 Mile
Woke up at 3am - about 30 minutes early, couldn't wait to pick up Chad and Nate and start the drive. Chad was waiting, Nate was sleeping. The plug on Nate's boat wouldn't reach the outlet, so Nate's boat stayed at home. The drive was uneventful, but driving my wife's new 4Runner with only 190 miles on it was pretty sweet - we rode in style.
Stopped at StX to grab Buster's boat - a HUGE thanks to Buster!! Got to Ft. Smith around 1pm, hit Cottonwood, dropped off our crap and then over to Bighorn we went. We were on the water at 1pm. The water was nice and there was no real traffic as we were heading out late. I decided to get some rowing experience in the the soft water right off - but after one cast Chad had a snag or a fish - it ended up being the latter and I quickly learned how to beach the boat and net a fish. Chad hooked a killer 21 inch rainbow that had some really nice heft. What a great start. I think a few dinks were cuaght in the first stretch and we docked just above the Meat Hole. We wanted to make sure we got Nate into some huge fish and so we waited about a half hour for the traffic to move on. We holed up in the Meat Hole and landed some decent fish. Nate work the shelf closest to the bank and hooked a ton, Chad pulled them in steadily as usual, I didn't catch quite as many but did manage a few. PaulM, OB and SemperFish met us there at around 3:30 or so - they fished the hole and then decided to move on. We had seen TPlane and Dad drift by us as well, but we weren't exactly sure that was him - sorry Tim! The flies of the day seemed to be pink soft hackles and pink ray charles.
We moved down past Suck Hole and docked on the right. PaulM/OB/SF stopped at the hole and Paul pulled out some beauties. Nate hooked a few in the flats and I managed a couple small fish. We kept moving, hitting some of the usual spots and trying to get Nate into fish and acquainted with the river. He did well, and we managed some fish. Not much else memorable about the day (my memory is shot too). We were off the river by 7. We hit the cabin, made dinner and I was in bed by 8:30. Chad and Nate tried to tough it out and chat, but they hit the hay soon after.
Friday, April 13th - Afterbay to 3 Mile
We were met by Buster in the morning - about 7:30 am knocking on the door. He was checking to see if we made it. We hit the water closer to 9am. Nate manned the oars for this one (as he had most of the day before). We were thinking about two trips - but we knew we could stretch one trip into 3 Mile. We launched with literally 6 boats within 40 yards of us. We managed to stop above the Meat Hole and wait it out. We moved in on the Hole as a group of guys looked like they were leaving - but they weren't. Bastards all got out of their boat and walked back onto the shelf. Stupid. But Chad wasn't giving in - he stayed put. Eventually Nate and I hit the shelf - Nate worked the far side of the river (not really on the shelf) and had his rod bent consistently. I worked the far right of the shelf and did pretty damn well. Even had a lunker on of over 20 inches that Chad decided was best to flail at and NOT net (thanks Chad). Chad of course caught his limit. We were in the Meat for about 4 hours then moved on.
We didn't fish the Suck Hole for very long, but Nate let me row it. And although Chad was paniced in the front of the boat, Nate said I did very well. The hole isn't that bad, it just throws you at the concrete, but then kind of pulls you back into the calm eye of the hole and then you can back paddle out. We fished our way down past the fallen trees on the right to the next riffle that bends left to right and stopped. This was a great hole last year for browns, and we weren't disappointed. I landed a nice 18 inch brown and Chad landed a FAT brown of over 20 inches. Huge difference in 2 inches of fish - I'd say probably over a pound difference. Nate did real well too - hitting some other spots. We fished down to the cliffs on the left and had even better luck. My first lame cast landed a 20 inch rainbow with a hook jaw. Landed land probably 12 fish right at the boat, and Chad of course walked the entire half mile bank and caught his share. The fish were hitting tiny midges - black with some sparkle. My killers worked well, as did the mercuries and black beauties. I caught a bunch of fish in the stretch and walked all the way down the cliffs with Chad. Nate had to meet us in the boat.
We fished our way to 3 Mile and called it a day at 7:30pm. We hit the cabin, ate dinner, met up with TPlane and Dad, tied some flies and then hit the bed. TPlane admitted he had snuck a white fish and was the clear leader to win the white fish trophy - even if it was only an 8 inch dink! No one else had caught one, and after a day and a half it looked like we might get skunked.
Saturday, April 14th - 3 Mile to Bighorn
No screwing around today, Paul met us at 6:40 - to say the least, none of us were up. We managed to get on the water by about 8am. Before we headed out we met FredYellowEgg in the parking lot - it was nice meeting you! Paul and Chad in his boat and Nate and I in the other. We pulled over about 1/4 mile down on a nice riffle next to the house that everyone overlooked - they were more interested in getting out on the water. It had a nice long sandbar with some nice back channel riffles that Chad hit quickly. I waded to the end where the fast water and slow water connected and hit a nice fat brown about 17 inches on a big 14 pink ray charles.
Nate had some luck in the channel nailing three fish. We moved down again to another great stretch - this time across from the drive in on the far bank. Paul knew this hole and knew the deep sandy bottom often had fish hanging on the edge. Nate hooked 3 fish in the hole, then jumped out, Paul got right in the hole and hooked 3 and then obliged me to try - I hooked 3 nice fish and then it went dead. The guys across from us were hooking some hogs. Next to Pauls boat in the flat stuff there were some fish feeding in the deep stuff - of course there was no way to make the fly look really enough for them to eat it - but the fish were huge - maybe 2 or 3 close to 30 inches! I hooked and landed a 16 inch brown, and Nate had on one of those hogs - but that was it. We moved down to try and find Chad who constantly is like a lost puppy and moves around unstoppable. Chad was scoping out a hole that Paul mentioned and he was determined to get it. That was a very good this too. We hit the hole with an island in the middle - most of the traffic stays far left, but you can hole up in the side channel were it dumps into the main channel that is easilt 15 feet deep. Chad hook moster after monster by just letting the streamer and nymph sink into the deep channel. One brown was easily 20 inches and I saw him catch at least 10 more. Nate was hitting the bottom of the run and hooking fish hand over fish - he's a pro with that low profile eager nymphing pose ready to strike at any time. Paul and I fished the side channel as it dumped in and he caught a ton of fish. I did very very well - landing fish after fish on my double weighted nymph rig that had about 8 or 9 feet of tippet between my indicator and flies. I caught a ton, but every fish I had to wade out of the channel over to Paul in the slow stuff. Since it was over 65 degrees, I had taken off my jacket and only had a box of flies down my pants, forceps clung to my t-shirt and tippet and weights pinned to my shirt. Net and camera and everything else was in the boat. Paul was more than willing to help me net a few and take some pics. Of course BlackOtter and Kyo pulled in just as I was landing a lunker of a fish - this thing wouldn't fight, but was a log - I kind of knew in the back of my mind what it was, a whitie! Of course I got the official ribbing and the picture taken for proof. It was a lot of fun though. I caught some more while the guys shot the shiit.
We moved down, hopping more boats and seeing some beautiful young ladies fishing along the way. It was nice seeing the ladies enjoying the day and fishing as well. We saw a bunch of ladies with hook ups, including one gal that was a pro with a dry fly (and she was hot too!). We moved into some less crowded water - a real flat stretch that was only about 6 feet deep max all the way across, but over a 100 yards wide. Nate headed north, Paul jumped out next to the boat, Chad went running for the riffles and shelves further down - and I just relaxed - watching Nate and Paul and tying on a new rig. Paul has an unorthodexed nymphing motion, slapping the water on his false cast and then he can throw a line a good 80 feet. I'm not kidding - he gets some torque behind the fly and almost flips it 80 feet. I've never seen anyone do this - ever! And he catches fish way the hell out there too! He landed some biggies - a nice rainbow with a hooked jaw that I couldn't quite land, and then a few more fish. I dropped into the hole below him and had 4 fish on in 10 minutes. I moved down again and proceeded to hook about 35 fish and landed about two dowzen in the next two hours. I was in a zone, and every other cast I had a fish on. The hard part was landing them with no net - I dragged them onto the shallows and tried to hand land them. They were all mostly browns, all were at least 17 inches, and all jumped! I landed probably 5 rainbows, not as large (except one), and landed one brown that was 14 inches. One brown was huge, I was out to my waste, and couldn't get back to shore and tried to hand land him and he snapped me off. All the fish were taking the same style fly - Paul Bighorn swap jujubee bead head black and white with a tuft of peacock dubbing behind the bead. After shredding those two they kept hitting tan zebras with bead heads. And occassionally they hit the killer - all in size 18 or 20. Blackotter and Kyo pulled up and hit some fish, but we ended up chatting for a good 45 minutes.
We moved on again, stopping here or there, but we had to make up some time as we were still about 5 miles away from take out. One place we stopped was next to the huge tree that dropped some shade over the bank. The water was fast and Paul was into a fish immediately. Nate and I pulled across the water from them, and hooked a fish in a back eddy - but that was it. Paul nailed about 4 fish in there and then let Chad fish his spot. Chad hooked into a pig and needed Paul's help. Paul got the boat net and tried to help Chad, not before falling in above his chest waders first. He managed to net the fish, but only after Chad pointed out that it was behind him. From the other side of the river, this was pretty entertaining - a comedy of errors - but it had a happy ending. We got out of there and hit the confluence of Soap Creek and fished the seams. I actually put on a streamer and managed 2 small browns while Nate rowed us. Chad was hooking into fish left and right and was slowed down a lot. We hit Bighorn access around 8 pm as it was getting dark. We said good bye to Paul and we headed back to the cabin.
We cooked dinner - and waited for the masses, but only TPlane showed up. He chatted a while, and headed back to his nicer accomodations. We drank a few beers and then hit the sack. Not much of a trophy ceremony, but I got to keep my baby!
Sunday, April 15th
We headed home around 9 am after dropping the boat off at Busters. Not much else to say really. I hate that drive!
I just wanted to thank everyone who we met and had a great time fishing with. I'd like to really thank Buster for hooking us up with the boat - we hope you enjoy your Ice Cold Makers Mark and your T-Shirt! As always, it was a blast. I was sunburned and burnt out when I got home, but it was so worth it. Year 3 went off without a hitch and it was a great trip. Thanks again guys, and I hope you all enjoy your T-Shirts!!
Flows about 1,500 cfs - gin clear.
Thursday, April 12 - Afterbay to 3 Mile
Woke up at 3am - about 30 minutes early, couldn't wait to pick up Chad and Nate and start the drive. Chad was waiting, Nate was sleeping. The plug on Nate's boat wouldn't reach the outlet, so Nate's boat stayed at home. The drive was uneventful, but driving my wife's new 4Runner with only 190 miles on it was pretty sweet - we rode in style.
Stopped at StX to grab Buster's boat - a HUGE thanks to Buster!! Got to Ft. Smith around 1pm, hit Cottonwood, dropped off our crap and then over to Bighorn we went. We were on the water at 1pm. The water was nice and there was no real traffic as we were heading out late. I decided to get some rowing experience in the the soft water right off - but after one cast Chad had a snag or a fish - it ended up being the latter and I quickly learned how to beach the boat and net a fish. Chad hooked a killer 21 inch rainbow that had some really nice heft. What a great start. I think a few dinks were cuaght in the first stretch and we docked just above the Meat Hole. We wanted to make sure we got Nate into some huge fish and so we waited about a half hour for the traffic to move on. We holed up in the Meat Hole and landed some decent fish. Nate work the shelf closest to the bank and hooked a ton, Chad pulled them in steadily as usual, I didn't catch quite as many but did manage a few. PaulM, OB and SemperFish met us there at around 3:30 or so - they fished the hole and then decided to move on. We had seen TPlane and Dad drift by us as well, but we weren't exactly sure that was him - sorry Tim! The flies of the day seemed to be pink soft hackles and pink ray charles.
We moved down past Suck Hole and docked on the right. PaulM/OB/SF stopped at the hole and Paul pulled out some beauties. Nate hooked a few in the flats and I managed a couple small fish. We kept moving, hitting some of the usual spots and trying to get Nate into fish and acquainted with the river. He did well, and we managed some fish. Not much else memorable about the day (my memory is shot too). We were off the river by 7. We hit the cabin, made dinner and I was in bed by 8:30. Chad and Nate tried to tough it out and chat, but they hit the hay soon after.
Friday, April 13th - Afterbay to 3 Mile
We were met by Buster in the morning - about 7:30 am knocking on the door. He was checking to see if we made it. We hit the water closer to 9am. Nate manned the oars for this one (as he had most of the day before). We were thinking about two trips - but we knew we could stretch one trip into 3 Mile. We launched with literally 6 boats within 40 yards of us. We managed to stop above the Meat Hole and wait it out. We moved in on the Hole as a group of guys looked like they were leaving - but they weren't. Bastards all got out of their boat and walked back onto the shelf. Stupid. But Chad wasn't giving in - he stayed put. Eventually Nate and I hit the shelf - Nate worked the far side of the river (not really on the shelf) and had his rod bent consistently. I worked the far right of the shelf and did pretty damn well. Even had a lunker on of over 20 inches that Chad decided was best to flail at and NOT net (thanks Chad). Chad of course caught his limit. We were in the Meat for about 4 hours then moved on.
We didn't fish the Suck Hole for very long, but Nate let me row it. And although Chad was paniced in the front of the boat, Nate said I did very well. The hole isn't that bad, it just throws you at the concrete, but then kind of pulls you back into the calm eye of the hole and then you can back paddle out. We fished our way down past the fallen trees on the right to the next riffle that bends left to right and stopped. This was a great hole last year for browns, and we weren't disappointed. I landed a nice 18 inch brown and Chad landed a FAT brown of over 20 inches. Huge difference in 2 inches of fish - I'd say probably over a pound difference. Nate did real well too - hitting some other spots. We fished down to the cliffs on the left and had even better luck. My first lame cast landed a 20 inch rainbow with a hook jaw. Landed land probably 12 fish right at the boat, and Chad of course walked the entire half mile bank and caught his share. The fish were hitting tiny midges - black with some sparkle. My killers worked well, as did the mercuries and black beauties. I caught a bunch of fish in the stretch and walked all the way down the cliffs with Chad. Nate had to meet us in the boat.
We fished our way to 3 Mile and called it a day at 7:30pm. We hit the cabin, ate dinner, met up with TPlane and Dad, tied some flies and then hit the bed. TPlane admitted he had snuck a white fish and was the clear leader to win the white fish trophy - even if it was only an 8 inch dink! No one else had caught one, and after a day and a half it looked like we might get skunked.
Saturday, April 14th - 3 Mile to Bighorn
No screwing around today, Paul met us at 6:40 - to say the least, none of us were up. We managed to get on the water by about 8am. Before we headed out we met FredYellowEgg in the parking lot - it was nice meeting you! Paul and Chad in his boat and Nate and I in the other. We pulled over about 1/4 mile down on a nice riffle next to the house that everyone overlooked - they were more interested in getting out on the water. It had a nice long sandbar with some nice back channel riffles that Chad hit quickly. I waded to the end where the fast water and slow water connected and hit a nice fat brown about 17 inches on a big 14 pink ray charles.
Nate had some luck in the channel nailing three fish. We moved down again to another great stretch - this time across from the drive in on the far bank. Paul knew this hole and knew the deep sandy bottom often had fish hanging on the edge. Nate hooked 3 fish in the hole, then jumped out, Paul got right in the hole and hooked 3 and then obliged me to try - I hooked 3 nice fish and then it went dead. The guys across from us were hooking some hogs. Next to Pauls boat in the flat stuff there were some fish feeding in the deep stuff - of course there was no way to make the fly look really enough for them to eat it - but the fish were huge - maybe 2 or 3 close to 30 inches! I hooked and landed a 16 inch brown, and Nate had on one of those hogs - but that was it. We moved down to try and find Chad who constantly is like a lost puppy and moves around unstoppable. Chad was scoping out a hole that Paul mentioned and he was determined to get it. That was a very good this too. We hit the hole with an island in the middle - most of the traffic stays far left, but you can hole up in the side channel were it dumps into the main channel that is easilt 15 feet deep. Chad hook moster after monster by just letting the streamer and nymph sink into the deep channel. One brown was easily 20 inches and I saw him catch at least 10 more. Nate was hitting the bottom of the run and hooking fish hand over fish - he's a pro with that low profile eager nymphing pose ready to strike at any time. Paul and I fished the side channel as it dumped in and he caught a ton of fish. I did very very well - landing fish after fish on my double weighted nymph rig that had about 8 or 9 feet of tippet between my indicator and flies. I caught a ton, but every fish I had to wade out of the channel over to Paul in the slow stuff. Since it was over 65 degrees, I had taken off my jacket and only had a box of flies down my pants, forceps clung to my t-shirt and tippet and weights pinned to my shirt. Net and camera and everything else was in the boat. Paul was more than willing to help me net a few and take some pics. Of course BlackOtter and Kyo pulled in just as I was landing a lunker of a fish - this thing wouldn't fight, but was a log - I kind of knew in the back of my mind what it was, a whitie! Of course I got the official ribbing and the picture taken for proof. It was a lot of fun though. I caught some more while the guys shot the shiit.
We moved down, hopping more boats and seeing some beautiful young ladies fishing along the way. It was nice seeing the ladies enjoying the day and fishing as well. We saw a bunch of ladies with hook ups, including one gal that was a pro with a dry fly (and she was hot too!). We moved into some less crowded water - a real flat stretch that was only about 6 feet deep max all the way across, but over a 100 yards wide. Nate headed north, Paul jumped out next to the boat, Chad went running for the riffles and shelves further down - and I just relaxed - watching Nate and Paul and tying on a new rig. Paul has an unorthodexed nymphing motion, slapping the water on his false cast and then he can throw a line a good 80 feet. I'm not kidding - he gets some torque behind the fly and almost flips it 80 feet. I've never seen anyone do this - ever! And he catches fish way the hell out there too! He landed some biggies - a nice rainbow with a hooked jaw that I couldn't quite land, and then a few more fish. I dropped into the hole below him and had 4 fish on in 10 minutes. I moved down again and proceeded to hook about 35 fish and landed about two dowzen in the next two hours. I was in a zone, and every other cast I had a fish on. The hard part was landing them with no net - I dragged them onto the shallows and tried to hand land them. They were all mostly browns, all were at least 17 inches, and all jumped! I landed probably 5 rainbows, not as large (except one), and landed one brown that was 14 inches. One brown was huge, I was out to my waste, and couldn't get back to shore and tried to hand land him and he snapped me off. All the fish were taking the same style fly - Paul Bighorn swap jujubee bead head black and white with a tuft of peacock dubbing behind the bead. After shredding those two they kept hitting tan zebras with bead heads. And occassionally they hit the killer - all in size 18 or 20. Blackotter and Kyo pulled up and hit some fish, but we ended up chatting for a good 45 minutes.
We moved on again, stopping here or there, but we had to make up some time as we were still about 5 miles away from take out. One place we stopped was next to the huge tree that dropped some shade over the bank. The water was fast and Paul was into a fish immediately. Nate and I pulled across the water from them, and hooked a fish in a back eddy - but that was it. Paul nailed about 4 fish in there and then let Chad fish his spot. Chad hooked into a pig and needed Paul's help. Paul got the boat net and tried to help Chad, not before falling in above his chest waders first. He managed to net the fish, but only after Chad pointed out that it was behind him. From the other side of the river, this was pretty entertaining - a comedy of errors - but it had a happy ending. We got out of there and hit the confluence of Soap Creek and fished the seams. I actually put on a streamer and managed 2 small browns while Nate rowed us. Chad was hooking into fish left and right and was slowed down a lot. We hit Bighorn access around 8 pm as it was getting dark. We said good bye to Paul and we headed back to the cabin.
We cooked dinner - and waited for the masses, but only TPlane showed up. He chatted a while, and headed back to his nicer accomodations. We drank a few beers and then hit the sack. Not much of a trophy ceremony, but I got to keep my baby!
Sunday, April 15th
We headed home around 9 am after dropping the boat off at Busters. Not much else to say really. I hate that drive!
I just wanted to thank everyone who we met and had a great time fishing with. I'd like to really thank Buster for hooking us up with the boat - we hope you enjoy your Ice Cold Makers Mark and your T-Shirt! As always, it was a blast. I was sunburned and burnt out when I got home, but it was so worth it. Year 3 went off without a hitch and it was a great trip. Thanks again guys, and I hope you all enjoy your T-Shirts!!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007 – Cheesman Canyon
Sunday, February 18, 2007 – Cheesman
30 degrees in the morning – almost 55 by mid-day. About 100 cfs and clear.
SKUNKED!
Not much else to say - fished with Cabo, Chad and homebru. Didn't see a whole lot of fish. I did help a guy land a fat pig - 20 inch rainbow - took some photos and emailed them to him. That was about it. The dirt road down there and back was crazy deep with sand, water and ruts.
30 degrees in the morning – almost 55 by mid-day. About 100 cfs and clear.
SKUNKED!
Not much else to say - fished with Cabo, Chad and homebru. Didn't see a whole lot of fish. I did help a guy land a fat pig - 20 inch rainbow - took some photos and emailed them to him. That was about it. The dirt road down there and back was crazy deep with sand, water and ruts.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007 – South Platte, Deckers
Sunday, February 4, 2007 – South Platte River, Deckers
40 degrees in the morning – almost 50 by mid-day. About 148 cfs (clear) above muddy Creek, and almost 200 cfs (off color) below muddy Creek.
Caught 2 fish, both rainbows, one 13 inches, one 15 inches. Size 20 tan zebra and size 20 red zebra black head.
Fished for three hours with Cabo. Met Chad and Quinn down in Deckers down the dirt road and up and over the hill right before the opening to the mini canyon. Big crowds - which was surprising. Lots of spin rodders and some older guys who looked like they knew what they were doing, but jumped in the nxt hole next to me no further than 40 feet. The water seemed much warmer than usual, even the dog stood in the water quite a bit without shaking. Since it has been easily 5 weeks since the last time I fished, it was good to see fish in the river and feeding, and having the chance to catch them.
The first fish I caught within minutes of starting - in the shallow runs right after the huge rock. The second fish I caught at the little island just before the fast stretch that enters the canyon. I could see the fish and I just had to get in the right spot to hook him. He was hooked quickly and I landed him and showed him to Cabo. She curled up her lip and acted like she wanted to bite him - but she's too chicken too. I put the fish in the water and she face dived under to try and find it.
We moved down to the rest area right down river of the fly shop. The water was really off color - and I didn't catch anything. It was almost 1pm by now, and I told Chad I was out of there. Chad was done too - and we climbed out of there - there was about 3 feet of snow still in some areas. Cabo loved it - playing fetch with pine cones and trying to get my attention the entire time I fished. I needed to get home for the SB - so I headed out.
I forgot to mention that I did see a bald eagle as I was driving down - it was about a 1/4 mile down river from the fly shop - very cool sight.
40 degrees in the morning – almost 50 by mid-day. About 148 cfs (clear) above muddy Creek, and almost 200 cfs (off color) below muddy Creek.
Caught 2 fish, both rainbows, one 13 inches, one 15 inches. Size 20 tan zebra and size 20 red zebra black head.
Fished for three hours with Cabo. Met Chad and Quinn down in Deckers down the dirt road and up and over the hill right before the opening to the mini canyon. Big crowds - which was surprising. Lots of spin rodders and some older guys who looked like they knew what they were doing, but jumped in the nxt hole next to me no further than 40 feet. The water seemed much warmer than usual, even the dog stood in the water quite a bit without shaking. Since it has been easily 5 weeks since the last time I fished, it was good to see fish in the river and feeding, and having the chance to catch them.
The first fish I caught within minutes of starting - in the shallow runs right after the huge rock. The second fish I caught at the little island just before the fast stretch that enters the canyon. I could see the fish and I just had to get in the right spot to hook him. He was hooked quickly and I landed him and showed him to Cabo. She curled up her lip and acted like she wanted to bite him - but she's too chicken too. I put the fish in the water and she face dived under to try and find it.
We moved down to the rest area right down river of the fly shop. The water was really off color - and I didn't catch anything. It was almost 1pm by now, and I told Chad I was out of there. Chad was done too - and we climbed out of there - there was about 3 feet of snow still in some areas. Cabo loved it - playing fetch with pine cones and trying to get my attention the entire time I fished. I needed to get home for the SB - so I headed out.
I forgot to mention that I did see a bald eagle as I was driving down - it was about a 1/4 mile down river from the fly shop - very cool sight.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007 Blue River, Silverthorne
Monday, January 15, 2007 Blue River, Silverthorne
Very cold (-5 degrees) in the morning - but sunny and no real breeze. Water was clear below the dam, about 64 cfs.
Frickin cold!! I asked Chad about 6 times on the way up what the hell we were thinking?!?!?!?
We started right below the dam around 9:30 - fished my way to the bridge, then under the bridge, back to the bridge and headed back to the car around 2 pm. I managed to catch 2 fish - one small 8 inch rainbow up by the outlets on a blue poison tongue size 20 and another, a nice 14 inch rainbow just under the foot bridge on a red juju bee midge size 22. I saw lots of fish - some were huge and some were small, none were very active, and few were actively feeding. I saw two fish that had to be over 24 inches easy - of course they were sitting in the deepest pools at the bottom. Chad managed 5 fish or so and a few got off.
We saw at least 5 accidents on the way up to Dillon. One car in the median, one pick up truck flipped over in the median, one car flipped over a guard rail onto an on-ramp, one car slammed into the guard rail and had gotten itself stuck on the embankment, and a rear ender coming down the big hill out of Evergreen. People seriously need to learn to slow down - accidents don't need to happen if some of those people learned to drive a little better. Sad.
Very cold (-5 degrees) in the morning - but sunny and no real breeze. Water was clear below the dam, about 64 cfs.
Frickin cold!! I asked Chad about 6 times on the way up what the hell we were thinking?!?!?!?
We started right below the dam around 9:30 - fished my way to the bridge, then under the bridge, back to the bridge and headed back to the car around 2 pm. I managed to catch 2 fish - one small 8 inch rainbow up by the outlets on a blue poison tongue size 20 and another, a nice 14 inch rainbow just under the foot bridge on a red juju bee midge size 22. I saw lots of fish - some were huge and some were small, none were very active, and few were actively feeding. I saw two fish that had to be over 24 inches easy - of course they were sitting in the deepest pools at the bottom. Chad managed 5 fish or so and a few got off.
We saw at least 5 accidents on the way up to Dillon. One car in the median, one pick up truck flipped over in the median, one car flipped over a guard rail onto an on-ramp, one car slammed into the guard rail and had gotten itself stuck on the embankment, and a rear ender coming down the big hill out of Evergreen. People seriously need to learn to slow down - accidents don't need to happen if some of those people learned to drive a little better. Sad.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006 Cheesman Canyon
Monday, November 27, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Very cold (19 degrees) in the morning - but sunny and slightly breezy. Water was clear in the canyon, about 150 cfs.
Fished with Chad on his birthday (I took the day off). Ice cold morning - took a bit to get the blood flowing. Got to the canyon around 8:30 - in the canyon around 9:15. Tons of fish everywhere. I started out with a bugger and scud combo, but quickly switched to a double scud/czech nymph rig. I surprising hooked an enormous pig right next to a sand bar that ran across the river and popped off - right out of the gate! I hooked a couple smaller trout in the hole directly below the family hole, but had no luck getting them in. I moved up river, seeing lots of fish. I fished the big rock up to the riffles, with no luck. I did manage to hook a small brown and a 13 inch brown above the riffles. Other than that I couldn't catch a thing. Chad had some luck - 6 or 7 fish, mostly browns.
That's about it for the day! I think I'm done fishing for the winter - three times in a row and I haven't caught much.
Very cold (19 degrees) in the morning - but sunny and slightly breezy. Water was clear in the canyon, about 150 cfs.
Fished with Chad on his birthday (I took the day off). Ice cold morning - took a bit to get the blood flowing. Got to the canyon around 8:30 - in the canyon around 9:15. Tons of fish everywhere. I started out with a bugger and scud combo, but quickly switched to a double scud/czech nymph rig. I surprising hooked an enormous pig right next to a sand bar that ran across the river and popped off - right out of the gate! I hooked a couple smaller trout in the hole directly below the family hole, but had no luck getting them in. I moved up river, seeing lots of fish. I fished the big rock up to the riffles, with no luck. I did manage to hook a small brown and a 13 inch brown above the riffles. Other than that I couldn't catch a thing. Chad had some luck - 6 or 7 fish, mostly browns.
That's about it for the day! I think I'm done fishing for the winter - three times in a row and I haven't caught much.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006 - Winter Park
rday, November 25, 2007 - Winter Park Resort
Traffic was below average, weather was snowing in Denver, blue sky from Idaho Springs to WP
Although not a fishing experience, I had the chance to go snowboarding on Saturday with the wife. My mother in law was in town and she watched Avi for the day. This is the first time Jen and I have been together alone snowboarding in over a year. The weather was crappy in Denver and I think it scared some people away. By the time we hit Idaho Springs the weather was beautiful - sunny skies and it was actually warmer. The lift lines were non-existant - right up Zephyr Express and down the other side - the skiing on the WP side was ok, but the skiing on MJ side was killer! Tons of powder - which actually slows you down - but we did 2 or 3 runs in knee deep powder and it was awesome. We only did about 6 runs before Jen called it quits - we were home by 2:30. Great day!
Traffic was below average, weather was snowing in Denver, blue sky from Idaho Springs to WP
Although not a fishing experience, I had the chance to go snowboarding on Saturday with the wife. My mother in law was in town and she watched Avi for the day. This is the first time Jen and I have been together alone snowboarding in over a year. The weather was crappy in Denver and I think it scared some people away. By the time we hit Idaho Springs the weather was beautiful - sunny skies and it was actually warmer. The lift lines were non-existant - right up Zephyr Express and down the other side - the skiing on the WP side was ok, but the skiing on MJ side was killer! Tons of powder - which actually slows you down - but we did 2 or 3 runs in knee deep powder and it was awesome. We only did about 6 runs before Jen called it quits - we were home by 2:30. Great day!
Friday, November 10, 2006
Friday, Nov 10, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman
Friday, November 10, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Cold in the morning - about 45 degrees - but sunny and slightly breezy. Water was clear in the canyon, slightly off color above Deckers - about 119 cfs.
I fished with Cabo today, and there isn't much to report. The parking lot at 10 am was packed with about 15 cars, tons of anglers. I saw a ton of fish, most of the good holes were taken. I couldn't find out what the fish were eating. I tried everything from scuds that Chad had luck with to tiny midges to no avail. Nice day, but the wind made it very cold. I was out of the canyon by about 2 pm.
This is a picture of the Family Hole in Cheesman, as you can see the river has changed quite a bit and this hole is completely filled in. This hole is usually about 4 to 6 feet in the middle - now it is about 1 foot deep.
I fished above the bridge at Deckers at the bend with no luck either. Caught a 6 inch fish on a red brassie beadhead soft hackle (my first). I also had a fish about 2 feet from me go after my streamer, but then stop just before the strike. I'm not sure why, I guess I need to understand how to make the streamer look and act more real. That was about it for the day.
Cold in the morning - about 45 degrees - but sunny and slightly breezy. Water was clear in the canyon, slightly off color above Deckers - about 119 cfs.
I fished with Cabo today, and there isn't much to report. The parking lot at 10 am was packed with about 15 cars, tons of anglers. I saw a ton of fish, most of the good holes were taken. I couldn't find out what the fish were eating. I tried everything from scuds that Chad had luck with to tiny midges to no avail. Nice day, but the wind made it very cold. I was out of the canyon by about 2 pm.
This is a picture of the Family Hole in Cheesman, as you can see the river has changed quite a bit and this hole is completely filled in. This hole is usually about 4 to 6 feet in the middle - now it is about 1 foot deep.
I fished above the bridge at Deckers at the bend with no luck either. Caught a 6 inch fish on a red brassie beadhead soft hackle (my first). I also had a fish about 2 feet from me go after my streamer, but then stop just before the strike. I'm not sure why, I guess I need to understand how to make the streamer look and act more real. That was about it for the day.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
November 9, 2006 - Fly Tying Clinic - Cherry Creek TU
November 9, 2006 - Fly Tying Clinic - Cherry Creek TU
Hit the Fly Tying Clinic on Thursday with Chad and Brian. Before the show we hit Applebee's for dinner and to shoot the sh!t. Hit the show around 7pm. Wasn't overly crowded at all. Good door prizes and raffles. Chad of course won something.
I hung out at a few tables - Sue Armstrong was tying her woven huge stone flies - unbelievable work, 2 hours per fly or so, crazy! Bill Searles was very cool - he's a member of the RMF board too, ties an amazing crayfish pattern that I just had to buy! He had a cool way to make wings with larger feather - splits it, then over laps the feathers and ties off - pretty good and unique idea. I sat with Frank Prekel and saw his epoxy shad streamer that looked cool. Sat with Al Makkai and he showed me his scud/shrimp pattern. Interesting stuff. The usually suspects had a crowd around tham all night (Garcia, Bartholemew, Dorsey).
Al Makkai's scud patterns.
I gave out a few RockyMtnFly stickers, but not nearly enough. A few people seemed very interested. It was a nice night and went by really quickly. I met two members of this forum that I hadn't know before Bill (flashback) and David (ScruffyFly) - I hope to hang out with these guys and do some fishing!
Hit the Fly Tying Clinic on Thursday with Chad and Brian. Before the show we hit Applebee's for dinner and to shoot the sh!t. Hit the show around 7pm. Wasn't overly crowded at all. Good door prizes and raffles. Chad of course won something.
I hung out at a few tables - Sue Armstrong was tying her woven huge stone flies - unbelievable work, 2 hours per fly or so, crazy! Bill Searles was very cool - he's a member of the RMF board too, ties an amazing crayfish pattern that I just had to buy! He had a cool way to make wings with larger feather - splits it, then over laps the feathers and ties off - pretty good and unique idea. I sat with Frank Prekel and saw his epoxy shad streamer that looked cool. Sat with Al Makkai and he showed me his scud/shrimp pattern. Interesting stuff. The usually suspects had a crowd around tham all night (Garcia, Bartholemew, Dorsey).
Al Makkai's scud patterns.
I gave out a few RockyMtnFly stickers, but not nearly enough. A few people seemed very interested. It was a nice night and went by really quickly. I met two members of this forum that I hadn't know before Bill (flashback) and David (ScruffyFly) - I hope to hang out with these guys and do some fishing!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Saturday, October 21, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Evening fishing - evening was nice around 45 degrees, cooled off into the evening but not too cold. Water was clear - about 150 cfs.
Fished with Chad at Cheesman - got there around 5:30 and fished into the canyon. Hard to see any fish with the sun almost down so early and throwing a weird light tint on the water. Nymphed the runs first then moved down to the boulder. I hooked one in the middle boulder to the far bank where they sit in the hole and chill out. The fish was a 18 inch rainbow.
Moved down to the family pool and had no luck - weren't there very long before we called it a night. I wasn't cold, and I could feel my hands the entire night - which is unusual. Good night of fishing. Chad caught one small rainbow, so I out fished him. Miracles do happen!
Evening fishing - evening was nice around 45 degrees, cooled off into the evening but not too cold. Water was clear - about 150 cfs.
Fished with Chad at Cheesman - got there around 5:30 and fished into the canyon. Hard to see any fish with the sun almost down so early and throwing a weird light tint on the water. Nymphed the runs first then moved down to the boulder. I hooked one in the middle boulder to the far bank where they sit in the hole and chill out. The fish was a 18 inch rainbow.
Moved down to the family pool and had no luck - weren't there very long before we called it a night. I wasn't cold, and I could feel my hands the entire night - which is unusual. Good night of fishing. Chad caught one small rainbow, so I out fished him. Miracles do happen!
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Saturday, Sept 30, 2006 Colorado River, Gore Canyon
Saturday, Sept 30, 2006 Colorado River, Gore Canyon
Full day of fishing - morning was nice around 55 degrees, afternoon was awesome, no clouds and around 75 degrees. Water was slightly off color - about 680 cfs.
Where should I start, first of all, for a late September day it was probably the best possible day you could ask for. The sun was out the entire day without a cloud in the sky and the temp was around 75 degrees. Of course sun does bad things for fishing.
My buddy Nate and I headed down to Gore Canyon early - got to the canyon slightly after 8 am. We didn't make it very far down the dirt road before I decided I wasn't "in to" 4x4ing and pulled off. We walked the rest of the way - which was ok on the way down, but brutal on the way back. We actually saw quite a few fishermen today - which was different from last year.
First off - the water in Gore Canyon looks amazing - plenty of holes and rocks were you just know the fish are in. Problem is, we just could scare any up. I hooked into a few fish, but most were tiny and when they were being pulled in they twisted and turned until they fell off the hook. I managed to land a small 7 incher and on the next cast landed a fat 17 inch white fish. I was so excited, until I realized it wasn't a trout.
We fished until about 2:30 and hiked our asses out of the canyon. Even Cabo was pooped by the time we made it back to the truck. We decided to head down to the Blue River - where it dumps into Dillon. No one was there this late in the day, so we had the delta access to ourselves. The river wasn't producing so we decided to strip streams on the "flats" where the river delta meets the reservior. Nate hooked into 2 rainbows that were about 14 inches and he called me over. He found a nice little pod of fish and we hook a half dozen or so. That was my first stillwater experience and it was a good one. I learned that stripping streamers blind can be frustrating, but if you find a pod of fish it can be great fun.
We were back in Denver around 6:30. It was a nice day to get out, but the fishing was disappointing.
Full day of fishing - morning was nice around 55 degrees, afternoon was awesome, no clouds and around 75 degrees. Water was slightly off color - about 680 cfs.
Where should I start, first of all, for a late September day it was probably the best possible day you could ask for. The sun was out the entire day without a cloud in the sky and the temp was around 75 degrees. Of course sun does bad things for fishing.
My buddy Nate and I headed down to Gore Canyon early - got to the canyon slightly after 8 am. We didn't make it very far down the dirt road before I decided I wasn't "in to" 4x4ing and pulled off. We walked the rest of the way - which was ok on the way down, but brutal on the way back. We actually saw quite a few fishermen today - which was different from last year.
First off - the water in Gore Canyon looks amazing - plenty of holes and rocks were you just know the fish are in. Problem is, we just could scare any up. I hooked into a few fish, but most were tiny and when they were being pulled in they twisted and turned until they fell off the hook. I managed to land a small 7 incher and on the next cast landed a fat 17 inch white fish. I was so excited, until I realized it wasn't a trout.
We fished until about 2:30 and hiked our asses out of the canyon. Even Cabo was pooped by the time we made it back to the truck. We decided to head down to the Blue River - where it dumps into Dillon. No one was there this late in the day, so we had the delta access to ourselves. The river wasn't producing so we decided to strip streams on the "flats" where the river delta meets the reservior. Nate hooked into 2 rainbows that were about 14 inches and he called me over. He found a nice little pod of fish and we hook a half dozen or so. That was my first stillwater experience and it was a good one. I learned that stripping streamers blind can be frustrating, but if you find a pod of fish it can be great fun.
We were back in Denver around 6:30. It was a nice day to get out, but the fishing was disappointing.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006 Clear Creek, Idaho Springs
Saturday, September 23, 2006 Clear Creek, Idaho Springs
Cold afternoon, very overcast - about 50 degrees. Water was slightly off color and flows were over 100 cfs or so.
I watch the daughter today while the wife worked - she got out early so I made a break for some fishing while I had the chance. I took cabo and headed for Clear Creek. Having been here the week before for the clean up, I knew where the fish were stacked up - well, at least I thought.
I tried nymphing, then streamer/SJW rig, then dry/dropper, then streamer, then back to a double nymph rig. I managed to catch 4 browns all about 10 to 12 inches.
Basically I gave up after 2 hours and went home. Nothing to see here, just keep moving!
Cold afternoon, very overcast - about 50 degrees. Water was slightly off color and flows were over 100 cfs or so.
I watch the daughter today while the wife worked - she got out early so I made a break for some fishing while I had the chance. I took cabo and headed for Clear Creek. Having been here the week before for the clean up, I knew where the fish were stacked up - well, at least I thought.
I tried nymphing, then streamer/SJW rig, then dry/dropper, then streamer, then back to a double nymph rig. I managed to catch 4 browns all about 10 to 12 inches.
Basically I gave up after 2 hours and went home. Nothing to see here, just keep moving!
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Clear Creek River CleanUp with Trout Unlimited - September 16, 2006
Clear Creek River CleanUp with Trout Unlimited - September 16, 2006
Not much to report here. Kind of sad about the turn out we got - not a whole lot of people and most were up in age. I'm also disappointed by how much trash we picked up - not the fact that we picked it up, but the fact that there was still a lot there.
We cleaned up the same stretch 2 years prior - yes there was a lot of trash then, but that stretch had never had trout fishermen cleaning it up.
The majority of what we cleaned up was McDonald's trash, beer cans, styrafoam coffee cups and cigarette packs. The beer of choice for the littering folk is Budweiser. The two extremes were either Bud or Milwaukee's best. The cigarette of choice was Marlboro (shocker). Needless to say the people doing the littering are inbred Bud drinking, Marlboro smoking losers - yeah that's right I said it - and you know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves. The McDonald's trash is due to there being a McD's in Idaho Springs and this must have been the main exit point. But there is still no excuse!
Volunteers also bother me. Not because they are usually an older crowd, but mostly because a bunch of them were there more for the free food, for the socialization or the raffle - rather than being there to pick up trash. For example - I was working Stanley Road as I was instructed and came across three orange bags that were blown into the brush by the wind - here I am carrying a bag full of garbage that weighed close to 40 or 50 lbs - I'm thinking, how can these bags get blown off the road? Well, I pull them open and someone had stuffed them with weeds, tumble weeds to be exact. The bags weighed about 1 lb each and there were three of them! What a damn waste! So, I unpacked them and stashed them in the truck for later.
Another time a couple drove by me in their Lexus, they had said that they had picked up the area below, but when it got to steep and rocky next to the river that they decided to stop. They drove up further (to where I was) and said that it looked like the whole road had been picked and they were all done - they said they were headed back to the park - they were done. I think they were looking for some kind of agreement from me, or some sign that I thought that was ok for them to do. I looked at my watch (10:30 - basically an hour and a half after we started - and an hour and a half before we were supposed to meet back at the park), so I told them "WHATEVER!". Of course, further up the road there was trash all over - so basically their trip was short.
The third thing that happened was also kind of deflating. Greg (the guy I was teamed with) had been told by a guy that he had worked the opposite side of the road from the river all the way up - so Greg and I grabbed the river side and walked about a quarter mile (we met another group that was working still further up) before turning around due to a 50 mpg wind and driving huge rain drops. We tied off our bags and left them next to the road (as instructed) - then we headed back on the far side of the road. We had left this stretch alone because the guy said it was done. Well, Greg and I started walking past some trash, at first we thought he just missed some - nope, finally I said "hey Greg, I have one more bag, I can't keep walking by this stuff" - Greg said "yeah I know, it's killing me too" - so we started picking - and started picking hard - getting behind the trees and picking up at least 120 beer cans and other stuff. We filled a bag between the two of us in the 1/3 mile stretch we had been told was done. Amazing.
Ok, so I'm a sore volunteer. Two years ago there was young teenagers helping us and they pulled a ton of trash on their own. The kids of today (well two years ago) basically were the work horses - but there weren't any volunteering today. So what does that say for the rest of us oldies (or midlifers)? I guess most are just interested in making an attempt, but their main interest is in the ass kissing and free stuff at the end. Sad.
For the record, I ate 1 brat, drank one water, didn't take a free t-shirt, and didn't stick around for the raffle (you had to be there to win). I wasn't there for the people, I was there for the fish/river/trash. I came, I saw, I picked up, I left.
Ok, I'm off my soap box. I hope others had a better experience than I did.
Not much to report here. Kind of sad about the turn out we got - not a whole lot of people and most were up in age. I'm also disappointed by how much trash we picked up - not the fact that we picked it up, but the fact that there was still a lot there.
We cleaned up the same stretch 2 years prior - yes there was a lot of trash then, but that stretch had never had trout fishermen cleaning it up.
The majority of what we cleaned up was McDonald's trash, beer cans, styrafoam coffee cups and cigarette packs. The beer of choice for the littering folk is Budweiser. The two extremes were either Bud or Milwaukee's best. The cigarette of choice was Marlboro (shocker). Needless to say the people doing the littering are inbred Bud drinking, Marlboro smoking losers - yeah that's right I said it - and you know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves. The McDonald's trash is due to there being a McD's in Idaho Springs and this must have been the main exit point. But there is still no excuse!
Volunteers also bother me. Not because they are usually an older crowd, but mostly because a bunch of them were there more for the free food, for the socialization or the raffle - rather than being there to pick up trash. For example - I was working Stanley Road as I was instructed and came across three orange bags that were blown into the brush by the wind - here I am carrying a bag full of garbage that weighed close to 40 or 50 lbs - I'm thinking, how can these bags get blown off the road? Well, I pull them open and someone had stuffed them with weeds, tumble weeds to be exact. The bags weighed about 1 lb each and there were three of them! What a damn waste! So, I unpacked them and stashed them in the truck for later.
Another time a couple drove by me in their Lexus, they had said that they had picked up the area below, but when it got to steep and rocky next to the river that they decided to stop. They drove up further (to where I was) and said that it looked like the whole road had been picked and they were all done - they said they were headed back to the park - they were done. I think they were looking for some kind of agreement from me, or some sign that I thought that was ok for them to do. I looked at my watch (10:30 - basically an hour and a half after we started - and an hour and a half before we were supposed to meet back at the park), so I told them "WHATEVER!". Of course, further up the road there was trash all over - so basically their trip was short.
The third thing that happened was also kind of deflating. Greg (the guy I was teamed with) had been told by a guy that he had worked the opposite side of the road from the river all the way up - so Greg and I grabbed the river side and walked about a quarter mile (we met another group that was working still further up) before turning around due to a 50 mpg wind and driving huge rain drops. We tied off our bags and left them next to the road (as instructed) - then we headed back on the far side of the road. We had left this stretch alone because the guy said it was done. Well, Greg and I started walking past some trash, at first we thought he just missed some - nope, finally I said "hey Greg, I have one more bag, I can't keep walking by this stuff" - Greg said "yeah I know, it's killing me too" - so we started picking - and started picking hard - getting behind the trees and picking up at least 120 beer cans and other stuff. We filled a bag between the two of us in the 1/3 mile stretch we had been told was done. Amazing.
Ok, so I'm a sore volunteer. Two years ago there was young teenagers helping us and they pulled a ton of trash on their own. The kids of today (well two years ago) basically were the work horses - but there weren't any volunteering today. So what does that say for the rest of us oldies (or midlifers)? I guess most are just interested in making an attempt, but their main interest is in the ass kissing and free stuff at the end. Sad.
For the record, I ate 1 brat, drank one water, didn't take a free t-shirt, and didn't stick around for the raffle (you had to be there to win). I wasn't there for the people, I was there for the fish/river/trash. I came, I saw, I picked up, I left.
Ok, I'm off my soap box. I hope others had a better experience than I did.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Monday, September 4, 2006 South Platte River, Dream Stream/11 Mile Canyon
Monday, September 4, 2006 South Platte River, Dream Stream/11 Mile Canyon
Beautiful day, hot and sunny around 75 degrees and NO wind! Water was slightly off color and flows were 143 cfs or so.
Fished with Chad and Nate (fishboy) - we were dying for some big fish - but none were had. Started at the Dream at 8am. Fished the bridge section just above the bend run and worked my way back to the bridge. I caught one cuttbow (about 14 inches) at the bend run on a microbugger in black. I had a couple of earlier hits by smaller fish. I walked the rest of the way back to towards 11 Mile Res looking for Chad and Nate - I didn't see a single fish the entire way. Nate hadn't much luck either - we both were blindly casting to great looking stretches with no luck.
We decided to head to the 11 Mile Canyon stretch. The canyon was packed on a holiday weekend with cut off jean short and wife beater wearing, cigarette hanging out of their mouth, budweiser bottle in one hand, spinner rod in the other fishermen. Scary the congregation of rednecks.
The canyon is what it is, beautiful water, and tons of small fish. The big ones wouldn't move for anything and wouldn't eat a fly if it was on a platter. I caught a few dinks - but as the afternoon got later, the fishing shut off. It was a long ride home on a holiday weekend.
Beautiful day, hot and sunny around 75 degrees and NO wind! Water was slightly off color and flows were 143 cfs or so.
Fished with Chad and Nate (fishboy) - we were dying for some big fish - but none were had. Started at the Dream at 8am. Fished the bridge section just above the bend run and worked my way back to the bridge. I caught one cuttbow (about 14 inches) at the bend run on a microbugger in black. I had a couple of earlier hits by smaller fish. I walked the rest of the way back to towards 11 Mile Res looking for Chad and Nate - I didn't see a single fish the entire way. Nate hadn't much luck either - we both were blindly casting to great looking stretches with no luck.
We decided to head to the 11 Mile Canyon stretch. The canyon was packed on a holiday weekend with cut off jean short and wife beater wearing, cigarette hanging out of their mouth, budweiser bottle in one hand, spinner rod in the other fishermen. Scary the congregation of rednecks.
The canyon is what it is, beautiful water, and tons of small fish. The big ones wouldn't move for anything and wouldn't eat a fly if it was on a platter. I caught a few dinks - but as the afternoon got later, the fishing shut off. It was a long ride home on a holiday weekend.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006 Blue River, Palmer Gulch
Saturday, August 19, 2006 Blue River, Palmer Gulch
Heavy overcast - rain in the morning, storms in the afternoon around 60 degrees. Water was gin clear and flows were 276 cfs or so.
Fished with Chad, his father in law and my buddy Robert from work. We headed out early and got to Palmer Gulch around 8:30. Jumped down into the hole and started fishing - the morning went really well - hooking lots of small fish on a micro bugger in black. The first three fish I hooked were a brown, rainbow and a brookie. The brookie had grey coloring with orange fins and white on the tips.
I continued fishing and hooking fish, just not large fish. I hooked probably about 15 fish all day and 10 were under 13 inches. The afternoon brought thunder clouds and we decided to get off the lower stretch and head for the dam area. The tailwater was same as it ever is - clear and the fish spooky.
I fished my way to about half way to the dam - didn't catch anything, then we headed home. The ride home was scary - where the rain came down so hard that Rt 70 was a river in some stretches.
It was a nice day - I used Chad's 4 piece Clearwater rod for the first time.
Heavy overcast - rain in the morning, storms in the afternoon around 60 degrees. Water was gin clear and flows were 276 cfs or so.
Fished with Chad, his father in law and my buddy Robert from work. We headed out early and got to Palmer Gulch around 8:30. Jumped down into the hole and started fishing - the morning went really well - hooking lots of small fish on a micro bugger in black. The first three fish I hooked were a brown, rainbow and a brookie. The brookie had grey coloring with orange fins and white on the tips.
I continued fishing and hooking fish, just not large fish. I hooked probably about 15 fish all day and 10 were under 13 inches. The afternoon brought thunder clouds and we decided to get off the lower stretch and head for the dam area. The tailwater was same as it ever is - clear and the fish spooky.
I fished my way to about half way to the dam - didn't catch anything, then we headed home. The ride home was scary - where the rain came down so hard that Rt 70 was a river in some stretches.
It was a nice day - I used Chad's 4 piece Clearwater rod for the first time.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006 Blue River, Silverthorne
Sunday, August 13, 2006 Blue River, Silverthorne
Beautiful morning, nice and sunny maybe 75 degrees. Water was gin clear and flows were 172 cfs.
Fished during the day with Chad while the girls and kids went to the outlets. Gave us 3 hours to fool around. Typical Blue adventure - sunny and slow fishing. Saw tons of fish. Hooked and landed two - one on my second cast, a small rainbow that hammered the new streamers I tied. Green was the color of choice. I moved up to a deeper pool and saw a beautifully colored rainbow that had a neon sign across its side - the coloring was amazing. I hooked a 12 inch brown in that hole on the dorsal fin on a mysis shrimp. The last hour or so was uneventful. I could see them and tried every pattern I had in size 24, but to no avail. It was nice to get out, but 3 hours was way too short.
Beautiful morning, nice and sunny maybe 75 degrees. Water was gin clear and flows were 172 cfs.
Fished during the day with Chad while the girls and kids went to the outlets. Gave us 3 hours to fool around. Typical Blue adventure - sunny and slow fishing. Saw tons of fish. Hooked and landed two - one on my second cast, a small rainbow that hammered the new streamers I tied. Green was the color of choice. I moved up to a deeper pool and saw a beautifully colored rainbow that had a neon sign across its side - the coloring was amazing. I hooked a 12 inch brown in that hole on the dorsal fin on a mysis shrimp. The last hour or so was uneventful. I could see them and tried every pattern I had in size 24, but to no avail. It was nice to get out, but 3 hours was way too short.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Friday, August 4, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Friday, August 4, 2006 South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon
Night fishing - evening was nice and clear around 75 degrees. Water was clear - about 275 cfs.
My buddy Nate and I decided to fish Cheesman at night. He had heard about Chad and I fishing there and wanted to try it. We headed out late (6:30 pm) and didn't get to the parking lot until about 8 pm or so. Luckily it stays light out there. We hiked in and dropped straight into the family pool. The water was clear, but pretty high - higher than I had seen it in a while. The fish were taking off the top, but they were small.
We went right to chucking streamers. The night was uneventful, but we managed to catch 4 fish each. The largest was a skinny assed rainbow that was 18 inches, but skinny as hell.
I caught a nice brown on a smaller streamer that Nate's step-dad had tied. The small streamers seem to be the only thing that was working all night. We left around 11pm and were home by 12:30am. Not a bad night - I just wish we had more success.
Night fishing - evening was nice and clear around 75 degrees. Water was clear - about 275 cfs.
My buddy Nate and I decided to fish Cheesman at night. He had heard about Chad and I fishing there and wanted to try it. We headed out late (6:30 pm) and didn't get to the parking lot until about 8 pm or so. Luckily it stays light out there. We hiked in and dropped straight into the family pool. The water was clear, but pretty high - higher than I had seen it in a while. The fish were taking off the top, but they were small.
We went right to chucking streamers. The night was uneventful, but we managed to catch 4 fish each. The largest was a skinny assed rainbow that was 18 inches, but skinny as hell.
I caught a nice brown on a smaller streamer that Nate's step-dad had tied. The small streamers seem to be the only thing that was working all night. We left around 11pm and were home by 12:30am. Not a bad night - I just wish we had more success.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 Blue River, Silverthorne
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 Blue River, Silverthorne
Night fishing - evening started out rainy, but cleared up - overcast around 65 degrees. Water was off color due to heavy drainage up by the outlets - above outlets it was clear and cfs about 75 cfs of so.
Ok, I'll make this short and sweet since this was over two weeks ago. Chad and I hit the Blue - we were going to try the Palmer Gulch area, but the drive was rainy and we were anxious to get on the river - so we hit a section just south of there (by the pull out that loops behind the hills).
The area looked great, but the water was slightly off color (from all the rain we had just got) - we could see fish taking off the top along the shorelines. We started out fishing a deep pool and then working our ways up and back. I couldn't find anything. I tried everything too - from dries to nymphs. The water looked great with lots of fishable areas. I managed to hook one 4 inch fish before heading down river to see what Chad was doing.
He had just hooked into a huge fish that had run him down some rapids - he hooked him on a huge dry fly that he was flipping under a waterfall. Chad said he caught only 4 fish through this section.
It started getting dark, so we headed up towards the dam - hoping the water would be clearer. It wasn't, it was even more chocolate. I worked from under the bridge to just about half way through the outlets when I realized the cause of the dark water. The small stream that flows between the outlets was dumping about 100 cfs of dirt into the water - I jumped above this mess and found the water was crystal clear. The problem with water this clear is that all the fish can see you. I had no luck the rest of the night. Chad said he hooked 3 pigs down closer to the dam.
We were home by 10:30!
Night fishing - evening started out rainy, but cleared up - overcast around 65 degrees. Water was off color due to heavy drainage up by the outlets - above outlets it was clear and cfs about 75 cfs of so.
Ok, I'll make this short and sweet since this was over two weeks ago. Chad and I hit the Blue - we were going to try the Palmer Gulch area, but the drive was rainy and we were anxious to get on the river - so we hit a section just south of there (by the pull out that loops behind the hills).
The area looked great, but the water was slightly off color (from all the rain we had just got) - we could see fish taking off the top along the shorelines. We started out fishing a deep pool and then working our ways up and back. I couldn't find anything. I tried everything too - from dries to nymphs. The water looked great with lots of fishable areas. I managed to hook one 4 inch fish before heading down river to see what Chad was doing.
He had just hooked into a huge fish that had run him down some rapids - he hooked him on a huge dry fly that he was flipping under a waterfall. Chad said he caught only 4 fish through this section.
It started getting dark, so we headed up towards the dam - hoping the water would be clearer. It wasn't, it was even more chocolate. I worked from under the bridge to just about half way through the outlets when I realized the cause of the dark water. The small stream that flows between the outlets was dumping about 100 cfs of dirt into the water - I jumped above this mess and found the water was crystal clear. The problem with water this clear is that all the fish can see you. I had no luck the rest of the night. Chad said he hooked 3 pigs down closer to the dam.
We were home by 10:30!
Friday, July 07, 2006
Striper Fishing - Narragansett, Rhode Island
Wednesday & Thursday, July 5-6, 2006 - Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
Beautiful weather - clear, about 80 degrees
Wednesday
Wednesday was interesting - we started out by fishing the docks (as the bait shop had suggested) in the morning, but the tide was rolling out and it was the "wrong" tide. I started by chumming the water with huge clam bellies (as the bait shop had suggested). Of course there isn't a whole lot to see - the clams basically drift to the bottom (which you can't see), but I was hoping it was working by drawing the attention of some fish. Soon, the stripers were actually coming within site and taking the clams in fast smacks. I had tried earlier in the week to fly fish for stripers, but there is no "good" places to fish for them unless you have a boat. So, I stuck to bait fishing as it was my best option for catching fish.
We proceeded to tie on some clam necks and drift them down like they were chum. We had several hits and landed a few - none were bigger than 16 inches or so. They were a lot of fun fighting on a big 7 wt fly rod. We decided to head back to the cottage and wait for a higher tide. Later in the day we (my two uncles) returned and we proceeded to catch a few more fish. The largest was about 18 inches - but most were about 14 but very fat.
Thursday
The guys were ready to fish on Thursday and we went to the pier at the perfect time - with an incoming tide. We started chumming again and the fish were present. They seemed to love the structure of the piers that ran right beside the main channel (between a sand bar in the middle and the piers). We had seen a guy anchored on the sand bar fishing the incoming tide and he hooked into and landed a 29.5 inch striper - it was a keeper (28 inches is the limit). To me it looked like a 24 incher, but of course the guy wasn't going to toss that big of a fish back. We went right to work - hooking fish after fish until the tide peeked and started to turn over to slack tide. The fish were fun, all about 16 inches +/- - some smaller like 12 inches but all were fun to land. In all we managed about 2 dozen stripers between 3 people. Not bad for fishing from a pier!
The two weeks were a lot of fun, besides fishing, we went clamming several times, and crabbing a couple of times. We also bought lobsters straight off the dock and cooked them up, had linguine and clam sauce and had an amazing clam/seafood chowder that was the tastiest I have ever had. It was nice to relax for a couple weeks.
Beautiful weather - clear, about 80 degrees
Wednesday
Wednesday was interesting - we started out by fishing the docks (as the bait shop had suggested) in the morning, but the tide was rolling out and it was the "wrong" tide. I started by chumming the water with huge clam bellies (as the bait shop had suggested). Of course there isn't a whole lot to see - the clams basically drift to the bottom (which you can't see), but I was hoping it was working by drawing the attention of some fish. Soon, the stripers were actually coming within site and taking the clams in fast smacks. I had tried earlier in the week to fly fish for stripers, but there is no "good" places to fish for them unless you have a boat. So, I stuck to bait fishing as it was my best option for catching fish.
We proceeded to tie on some clam necks and drift them down like they were chum. We had several hits and landed a few - none were bigger than 16 inches or so. They were a lot of fun fighting on a big 7 wt fly rod. We decided to head back to the cottage and wait for a higher tide. Later in the day we (my two uncles) returned and we proceeded to catch a few more fish. The largest was about 18 inches - but most were about 14 but very fat.
Thursday
The guys were ready to fish on Thursday and we went to the pier at the perfect time - with an incoming tide. We started chumming again and the fish were present. They seemed to love the structure of the piers that ran right beside the main channel (between a sand bar in the middle and the piers). We had seen a guy anchored on the sand bar fishing the incoming tide and he hooked into and landed a 29.5 inch striper - it was a keeper (28 inches is the limit). To me it looked like a 24 incher, but of course the guy wasn't going to toss that big of a fish back. We went right to work - hooking fish after fish until the tide peeked and started to turn over to slack tide. The fish were fun, all about 16 inches +/- - some smaller like 12 inches but all were fun to land. In all we managed about 2 dozen stripers between 3 people. Not bad for fishing from a pier!
The two weeks were a lot of fun, besides fishing, we went clamming several times, and crabbing a couple of times. We also bought lobsters straight off the dock and cooked them up, had linguine and clam sauce and had an amazing clam/seafood chowder that was the tastiest I have ever had. It was nice to relax for a couple weeks.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Friday - June 23, 2006 - Cheesman Canyon
Friday, June 23, 2006 - South Platte River, Cheesman
Beautiful weather - clear, water clear, flows 235 cfs
If you are looking for a good fish story you will be disappointed. But, this was still the best fishing day of my life. Obviously not because of the fish - but because of something else.
Chad and I were out in the Gill Trail parking lot around 5:15 pm - ready to do some night fishing. After a hot hike in, we dropped down to the Family Pool and decided to work our way up the canyon about 1/4 mile and then meet back at the Family Pool at about 8 - 8:30 pm for some streamer fishing. I headed straight to my favorite strecth - with this much flows, the rainbows would be all over the large rock and that stretch. I tried the normal small thread midges, jujubees, black beauties, a pt, a chartuese midge, nothign was working. Chad of course whizzed by catching some nice pigs on a streamer dropper rig.
About 6 pm or so I heard some little peeping noises coming from the bank. I was trying to hook a fish that was right next to the bank and these two little duckings were coming down river hugging the bank and swam right over my fish. They noticed me and made a beeline back up river. I pointed them out to Chad. As I moved out to the middle of the river, the ducklings (not more than a week or two old I would guess) got a little braver and headed back down river past me, peeping all the way. I knew that was odd, since ducklings aren't usually left alone by their mothers. As always, I felt a bit sad to see them float by, thinking they wouldn't last long - especially since night fall was only a couple hours away.
The fishing continued to suck - and Chad kept catching fish ahead of me. I tried everything, even switching to a dry caddis because I saw one fish hit one as it floated by. It was getting closer to 8 pm and almost time to head down to the Family Pool, I started to cross over and decided to hit the long riffle one last time. There is a huge rock at the end of the riffle run that the water was high enough to flow around - well barely. I was starting to head back to the Family Pool and was walking behind the rock when I saw the two ducklings again, this time headed up river against the flow. We surprised each other behind the rock and they jetted around the front of it through the tougher current. I thought it was odd they were still searching for their mother, and now I felt even more like sh!t. I fished the back end of the pool for about 5 minutes and then guilt came over me. Somehow I had to help those ducklings, but how? They were probably 50 yards up by now.
I decided to give chase, I put my rod down and started stepping out into the current to see if I could see them. I couldn't, but I started sloshing ahead as I knew they'd be 3 inches from the bank. I moved up about 40 feet and there they were - tucked into the side of the bank swimming, they hopped up on a rock and went up and over. I jumped out of the water and headed on land after them. Not realizing how fast they could swim, I hopped back in the water and they were still up ahead of me. I started thiking to myself - I haven't seen a bird all day, where the hell would a mother duck be? Just then I looked at the island directly across some of the swiftest parts of the river and there was the mother duck, no kidding, with 4 other ducklings. She had heard the ducklings cries, and was standing alert, but wasn't making a sound. I think she was afraid that I would hear her and then come after her.
The ducklings didn't see or hear their mother and kept swimming ahead. I decided I'd try and scare them across - maybe when they got to the other side they'd see mom. So I jumped out of the water again and ran ahead, this time I was ahead of them and crashed down into the water - they saw me and made a break for the middle, got about 3 feet out and turned back to the bank and started down river. I jumped out of the water again, and ran down river to get behind them. I got behind them and tried again, again they made a break for the middle, but again, the current was too swift and they came back to the edge - this time heading back up stream again. This time I was close to them - maybe 20 feet, so I started charging them. The edge of the river was tough, as it narrowed the water got faster close to the edges and there were a few waterfalls of a few inches that made their swimming tricky. I got right behind them, they made a break to get up a 6 inch slick waterfall but fell back into the pool 5 or 6 times, I grabbed my net (which is the new measurenet that has smaller holes) and scooped one of them up. The other dove into the grassy edge to get away - he played dead as he hung low in the grass. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose one to catch the other, so I hell the net slightly off the ground, but it didn't matter - the duckling in the net was exhausted and was just as happy to sit there still.
I pinned the little guy into the grass, but had to get him out and into the net. I dropped the net down to the grass and tilted it in his direction. I started trying to move and I think he saw his little brother/sister and I nudged him in - not touching him for fear he'd have my scent on him. I had them both in the net, but now I had to get across the fast water. I was thinking the whole time, great you saved the ducks only to drownd trying to get across the river - nice! The second duckling kept trying to get out - he was stepping on his brother's head and trying to climb up the net. I held my hand over the net and shook him back down - he was exhausted too - and wasn't trying too hard. They were all poofy and their feathers were all puffed out - they were a black and light yellow color, mixed with brown and they had feet about one third the size of their bodies (which is huge).
I got into the faster water and it was deep - right up to my waist waders - and I was sure it was going to get deeper - but it didn't. I crossed over to the island and headed down to the lower part to where I had seen the mother. I sloshed down to the end and just as I came around there was the mother about 20 ft away and she was pissed!! I started getting a bit nervous and got about 10 ft closer to a rock that blocked me from her, leaned over it and dropped the two ducklings gently into the water in front of her. They booked it right for her, but made a slight detour to the right and went up on the island and jumped in with the other ducklings ahead of her. The whole time mom was yacking at them - I'm sure she was giving them an ear full for straying too far out into the current.
I crossed back over, hit the shoreline and got up on the hill side and looked for them. Mother and 6 ducklings were swimming together in the slow water and headed for the far shore (which was shallow and very slow). I found my rod and headed back to the Family Pool. Man, did I feel good. I hadn't caught a fish, but it didn't seem to matter.
I sat at the Family Pool for about 10 minutes, Chad came up from lower down the river and met me - I told him the story. We tied on streamers and started chucking. I managed two fish, a large rainbow and a good sized brown. We left at 10:15 or so and I was home by 11:45. I know this story seems a little sappy, but honestly it was one of the greatest feelings in the world.
Beautiful weather - clear, water clear, flows 235 cfs
If you are looking for a good fish story you will be disappointed. But, this was still the best fishing day of my life. Obviously not because of the fish - but because of something else.
Chad and I were out in the Gill Trail parking lot around 5:15 pm - ready to do some night fishing. After a hot hike in, we dropped down to the Family Pool and decided to work our way up the canyon about 1/4 mile and then meet back at the Family Pool at about 8 - 8:30 pm for some streamer fishing. I headed straight to my favorite strecth - with this much flows, the rainbows would be all over the large rock and that stretch. I tried the normal small thread midges, jujubees, black beauties, a pt, a chartuese midge, nothign was working. Chad of course whizzed by catching some nice pigs on a streamer dropper rig.
About 6 pm or so I heard some little peeping noises coming from the bank. I was trying to hook a fish that was right next to the bank and these two little duckings were coming down river hugging the bank and swam right over my fish. They noticed me and made a beeline back up river. I pointed them out to Chad. As I moved out to the middle of the river, the ducklings (not more than a week or two old I would guess) got a little braver and headed back down river past me, peeping all the way. I knew that was odd, since ducklings aren't usually left alone by their mothers. As always, I felt a bit sad to see them float by, thinking they wouldn't last long - especially since night fall was only a couple hours away.
The fishing continued to suck - and Chad kept catching fish ahead of me. I tried everything, even switching to a dry caddis because I saw one fish hit one as it floated by. It was getting closer to 8 pm and almost time to head down to the Family Pool, I started to cross over and decided to hit the long riffle one last time. There is a huge rock at the end of the riffle run that the water was high enough to flow around - well barely. I was starting to head back to the Family Pool and was walking behind the rock when I saw the two ducklings again, this time headed up river against the flow. We surprised each other behind the rock and they jetted around the front of it through the tougher current. I thought it was odd they were still searching for their mother, and now I felt even more like sh!t. I fished the back end of the pool for about 5 minutes and then guilt came over me. Somehow I had to help those ducklings, but how? They were probably 50 yards up by now.
I decided to give chase, I put my rod down and started stepping out into the current to see if I could see them. I couldn't, but I started sloshing ahead as I knew they'd be 3 inches from the bank. I moved up about 40 feet and there they were - tucked into the side of the bank swimming, they hopped up on a rock and went up and over. I jumped out of the water and headed on land after them. Not realizing how fast they could swim, I hopped back in the water and they were still up ahead of me. I started thiking to myself - I haven't seen a bird all day, where the hell would a mother duck be? Just then I looked at the island directly across some of the swiftest parts of the river and there was the mother duck, no kidding, with 4 other ducklings. She had heard the ducklings cries, and was standing alert, but wasn't making a sound. I think she was afraid that I would hear her and then come after her.
The ducklings didn't see or hear their mother and kept swimming ahead. I decided I'd try and scare them across - maybe when they got to the other side they'd see mom. So I jumped out of the water again and ran ahead, this time I was ahead of them and crashed down into the water - they saw me and made a break for the middle, got about 3 feet out and turned back to the bank and started down river. I jumped out of the water again, and ran down river to get behind them. I got behind them and tried again, again they made a break for the middle, but again, the current was too swift and they came back to the edge - this time heading back up stream again. This time I was close to them - maybe 20 feet, so I started charging them. The edge of the river was tough, as it narrowed the water got faster close to the edges and there were a few waterfalls of a few inches that made their swimming tricky. I got right behind them, they made a break to get up a 6 inch slick waterfall but fell back into the pool 5 or 6 times, I grabbed my net (which is the new measurenet that has smaller holes) and scooped one of them up. The other dove into the grassy edge to get away - he played dead as he hung low in the grass. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose one to catch the other, so I hell the net slightly off the ground, but it didn't matter - the duckling in the net was exhausted and was just as happy to sit there still.
I pinned the little guy into the grass, but had to get him out and into the net. I dropped the net down to the grass and tilted it in his direction. I started trying to move and I think he saw his little brother/sister and I nudged him in - not touching him for fear he'd have my scent on him. I had them both in the net, but now I had to get across the fast water. I was thinking the whole time, great you saved the ducks only to drownd trying to get across the river - nice! The second duckling kept trying to get out - he was stepping on his brother's head and trying to climb up the net. I held my hand over the net and shook him back down - he was exhausted too - and wasn't trying too hard. They were all poofy and their feathers were all puffed out - they were a black and light yellow color, mixed with brown and they had feet about one third the size of their bodies (which is huge).
I got into the faster water and it was deep - right up to my waist waders - and I was sure it was going to get deeper - but it didn't. I crossed over to the island and headed down to the lower part to where I had seen the mother. I sloshed down to the end and just as I came around there was the mother about 20 ft away and she was pissed!! I started getting a bit nervous and got about 10 ft closer to a rock that blocked me from her, leaned over it and dropped the two ducklings gently into the water in front of her. They booked it right for her, but made a slight detour to the right and went up on the island and jumped in with the other ducklings ahead of her. The whole time mom was yacking at them - I'm sure she was giving them an ear full for straying too far out into the current.
I crossed back over, hit the shoreline and got up on the hill side and looked for them. Mother and 6 ducklings were swimming together in the slow water and headed for the far shore (which was shallow and very slow). I found my rod and headed back to the Family Pool. Man, did I feel good. I hadn't caught a fish, but it didn't seem to matter.
I sat at the Family Pool for about 10 minutes, Chad came up from lower down the river and met me - I told him the story. We tied on streamers and started chucking. I managed two fish, a large rainbow and a good sized brown. We left at 10:15 or so and I was home by 11:45. I know this story seems a little sappy, but honestly it was one of the greatest feelings in the world.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
brandon722 Fryingpan River - Basalt, CO June 9-11
Friday - Sunday, June 9-11, 2006 - Fryingpan River, Basalt
Beautiful weather all days - partly cloudy, water clear, flows 189 cfs
First off, let me say that the Fryingpan experience is only what you make of it. There are three different sections of river that have loads of fish in it, and it is up to you to choose your best experience. If you are chasing fat rainbows and browns and only want to catch a few fish and be amongst 25 other anglers with the same attitude, the first mile or so below the dam is your stretch. If you enjoy faster water with lots of plunge pools and rapids, with fewer people but still anglers within site, the stretch between mile markers 12 and 6 are your best bet. Finally if you like faster water, with fewer long stretchs, harder wading, slightly smaller fish, but easier fish to catch, and no other anglers within site you want miles 6 through 1 of the canyon.
The canyon is a 13+ mile stretch of road with sparse public and private land throughout. Of course some of the prettiest stretches are private, but there is plenty of public acces including the last 2.5 miles or so to the dam. The canyon is beautifully lined with red rocks and shear cliffs with green tree lined deep mountain sides. The only thing prettier than the scenery are the fish. The browns are magically beautiful this time of year, and the rainbows are equally vibrant. The browns are by far more colorful. Of the many that were caught, each wore their personality on their outsides. The browns were all different, but their vibrant red spots, deep golden bellies and red tail fins made them unique. They fought the hardest and offered the greatest rewards.
Chad and I arrived around 9 am on Friday, after driving by the Roraring Fork we made a subconscoius decision to stay away from that water way. We hit the canyon and immediately started fishing about 1 mile into the canyon. The water was fast and the walking was treacherously slippery, but the rewards were awesome. The canyon comes right down to the water, which makes wading along the edges impossible around trees, bushes and huge boulders covered in moss and red dirt/muck. But the deep holes and edge slicks makes for the perfect hiding places for larger than average fish. Chad of course caught his share, hooking some impressive fish with a streamer rig. He quickly found that a size 10 caddis pupa nymph trailing a bugger picked up huge strikes. I managed to land a few also, much smaller than Chad's. I did hook and land a nice rainbow that took me by surprise. We only fish the stretch for about a two hours or so and decided to go set up camp at the campground just on the other side of the dam.
We set up the camper and then decided to hit the river again. We jumped back on the water around noon at just above the 11 mile marker. There is a really deep stretch that rolls into two long straight aways with huge trees laying across the entire river - then it runs into private water. Chad and I split up relatively quickly. I was having problems getting into the fish - I knew they were in there from last year, but the little browns were a lot trickier than expected. I managed to hook and land a few. We only stayed for about an hour and then moved again up to mile marker 12 area. We fished the area quite well and saw tons of fish. I managed to hook and land 4 fish in one particular hole on dry flies - including a nice 19 inch rainbow, a 16 inch rainbow, a small brown and a silvery small rainbow. We found some huge fish that we toyed with for a while with streamers, but with no luck. At around 4:45 we decided to head back to town and get cell service and call Jason who was meeting us there that day. We ate dinner, made contact with Jason and made plans to meet up with him at the dam area around 8 or 8:30. We were back on the water by 7 pm.
We fished the usual areas - the hog pen, the straight away just before the water fall and slightly below there. The fishing was slow and I found myself fishing the hog pen. A sudden down pour came on as I was throwing a mysis at a bunch of feeding fish and one huge hog which had no interest in feeding. The down pour lasted only a few minutes, but right in the middle of it I hooked and landed the hog - he was a huge brown trout - with deep coloration - he was about 25 inches and weighed about 10 or 11 lbs - he was huge. Unfortunately the fish only made a few head thrashs but didn't make any runs - thank God. I had help landing him and getting my picture taking. By the time it was all over, the rain had stopped and the fish stopped feeding. It was an amazing fish - I had the adrenaline pumping for quite a while afterwards. I headed down to show Chad the picture and hang out down there.
I saw some smaller fish taking dries off the top just below the waterfall at the gauging station. I hooked a few, but only landed one - a nice 13 inch brown - I was surprised as I thought they were all dinks. Chad was hooking larger fish on streamers just above the waterfall. Jason showed up at 8:30 and we decided to try some night fishing. Not much to tell here, we were ready to leave.
Next morning we were up at 8 am and on the river soon after. We started out below the dam on the stretches just above the bridge. There weren't as many people as I thought there. The area had tons of fish feeding on the surface and subsurface on emergers (I guess). I only hooked one, and we decided to move on - down to before the 12 mile marker where we worked our way up stream almost a mile. What a great stretch. We spent 7 hours fishing this stretch - the stretch was hopping - all the fish were hitting green nymphs (size 16 ish). I hooked at least 75 fish and landed about 50 of them - only a few of larger than 13 inches. One in particular was a beautiful brown that was in some fatser water that shook its head furiously. I was so nice to just be out on the water relaxing. The water felt cool and even refreshing the one time I did fall in!
We headed back into Basalt for dinner - this time finding a nice bar to sit on the porch next to the river and have dinner and a couple of beers. We headed back to the river around 7:30 - stopping at the 4 mile mark to try our hand. There were tons of fish, but even more mosquitos. Chad and I got eaten alive, Jason managed to not get eaten. We moved back up to the dam section and started fishing again. It got dark quick and we were off the river by 9:30 or so.
The next morning we were on the river at 8 am or so, fishing the 12 mile marker and down on the stretch we had some good luck on the previous day. The fish were still hungry - we all hooked several fish - Chad hooked some pigs for that stretch. At about 11 am we made our way home. The ride home was uneventful. The Eagle and Colorado were blown out beyond fishable. The Blue seemed crazy high (900+ cfs after looking it up), so basically everything was blown out for the entire week. I think we made a good decision by heading out of town to the Pan. Another great trip.
Beautiful weather all days - partly cloudy, water clear, flows 189 cfs
First off, let me say that the Fryingpan experience is only what you make of it. There are three different sections of river that have loads of fish in it, and it is up to you to choose your best experience. If you are chasing fat rainbows and browns and only want to catch a few fish and be amongst 25 other anglers with the same attitude, the first mile or so below the dam is your stretch. If you enjoy faster water with lots of plunge pools and rapids, with fewer people but still anglers within site, the stretch between mile markers 12 and 6 are your best bet. Finally if you like faster water, with fewer long stretchs, harder wading, slightly smaller fish, but easier fish to catch, and no other anglers within site you want miles 6 through 1 of the canyon.
The canyon is a 13+ mile stretch of road with sparse public and private land throughout. Of course some of the prettiest stretches are private, but there is plenty of public acces including the last 2.5 miles or so to the dam. The canyon is beautifully lined with red rocks and shear cliffs with green tree lined deep mountain sides. The only thing prettier than the scenery are the fish. The browns are magically beautiful this time of year, and the rainbows are equally vibrant. The browns are by far more colorful. Of the many that were caught, each wore their personality on their outsides. The browns were all different, but their vibrant red spots, deep golden bellies and red tail fins made them unique. They fought the hardest and offered the greatest rewards.
Chad and I arrived around 9 am on Friday, after driving by the Roraring Fork we made a subconscoius decision to stay away from that water way. We hit the canyon and immediately started fishing about 1 mile into the canyon. The water was fast and the walking was treacherously slippery, but the rewards were awesome. The canyon comes right down to the water, which makes wading along the edges impossible around trees, bushes and huge boulders covered in moss and red dirt/muck. But the deep holes and edge slicks makes for the perfect hiding places for larger than average fish. Chad of course caught his share, hooking some impressive fish with a streamer rig. He quickly found that a size 10 caddis pupa nymph trailing a bugger picked up huge strikes. I managed to land a few also, much smaller than Chad's. I did hook and land a nice rainbow that took me by surprise. We only fish the stretch for about a two hours or so and decided to go set up camp at the campground just on the other side of the dam.
We set up the camper and then decided to hit the river again. We jumped back on the water around noon at just above the 11 mile marker. There is a really deep stretch that rolls into two long straight aways with huge trees laying across the entire river - then it runs into private water. Chad and I split up relatively quickly. I was having problems getting into the fish - I knew they were in there from last year, but the little browns were a lot trickier than expected. I managed to hook and land a few. We only stayed for about an hour and then moved again up to mile marker 12 area. We fished the area quite well and saw tons of fish. I managed to hook and land 4 fish in one particular hole on dry flies - including a nice 19 inch rainbow, a 16 inch rainbow, a small brown and a silvery small rainbow. We found some huge fish that we toyed with for a while with streamers, but with no luck. At around 4:45 we decided to head back to town and get cell service and call Jason who was meeting us there that day. We ate dinner, made contact with Jason and made plans to meet up with him at the dam area around 8 or 8:30. We were back on the water by 7 pm.
We fished the usual areas - the hog pen, the straight away just before the water fall and slightly below there. The fishing was slow and I found myself fishing the hog pen. A sudden down pour came on as I was throwing a mysis at a bunch of feeding fish and one huge hog which had no interest in feeding. The down pour lasted only a few minutes, but right in the middle of it I hooked and landed the hog - he was a huge brown trout - with deep coloration - he was about 25 inches and weighed about 10 or 11 lbs - he was huge. Unfortunately the fish only made a few head thrashs but didn't make any runs - thank God. I had help landing him and getting my picture taking. By the time it was all over, the rain had stopped and the fish stopped feeding. It was an amazing fish - I had the adrenaline pumping for quite a while afterwards. I headed down to show Chad the picture and hang out down there.
I saw some smaller fish taking dries off the top just below the waterfall at the gauging station. I hooked a few, but only landed one - a nice 13 inch brown - I was surprised as I thought they were all dinks. Chad was hooking larger fish on streamers just above the waterfall. Jason showed up at 8:30 and we decided to try some night fishing. Not much to tell here, we were ready to leave.
Next morning we were up at 8 am and on the river soon after. We started out below the dam on the stretches just above the bridge. There weren't as many people as I thought there. The area had tons of fish feeding on the surface and subsurface on emergers (I guess). I only hooked one, and we decided to move on - down to before the 12 mile marker where we worked our way up stream almost a mile. What a great stretch. We spent 7 hours fishing this stretch - the stretch was hopping - all the fish were hitting green nymphs (size 16 ish). I hooked at least 75 fish and landed about 50 of them - only a few of larger than 13 inches. One in particular was a beautiful brown that was in some fatser water that shook its head furiously. I was so nice to just be out on the water relaxing. The water felt cool and even refreshing the one time I did fall in!
We headed back into Basalt for dinner - this time finding a nice bar to sit on the porch next to the river and have dinner and a couple of beers. We headed back to the river around 7:30 - stopping at the 4 mile mark to try our hand. There were tons of fish, but even more mosquitos. Chad and I got eaten alive, Jason managed to not get eaten. We moved back up to the dam section and started fishing again. It got dark quick and we were off the river by 9:30 or so.
The next morning we were on the river at 8 am or so, fishing the 12 mile marker and down on the stretch we had some good luck on the previous day. The fish were still hungry - we all hooked several fish - Chad hooked some pigs for that stretch. At about 11 am we made our way home. The ride home was uneventful. The Eagle and Colorado were blown out beyond fishable. The Blue seemed crazy high (900+ cfs after looking it up), so basically everything was blown out for the entire week. I think we made a good decision by heading out of town to the Pan. Another great trip.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006 - Blue River, Silverthorne
Friday, May 19, 2006 - Blue River, Silverthorne
Night fishing - 7 pm to 10 pm, 252 cfs
Fished with Chad at the Blue for some night fishing. basically the water was high (higher than the 101 flows that were reported the previous day) and the water off color. This meant that the fish were harder to find. Chad managed two fish (12 & 16 inches) on streamers and I got none. We were home and in bed by 11pm. Not much to report, so I kept it short.
Night fishing - 7 pm to 10 pm, 252 cfs
Fished with Chad at the Blue for some night fishing. basically the water was high (higher than the 101 flows that were reported the previous day) and the water off color. This meant that the fish were harder to find. Chad managed two fish (12 & 16 inches) on streamers and I got none. We were home and in bed by 11pm. Not much to report, so I kept it short.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Saturday May 13, 2006 - Cheesman Canyon
Saturday May 13, 2006 - Cheesman Canyon
Flows about 53 cfs, water was gin clear.
I fished with Chad and Jason (his neighbor) tonight. We decided to do a late evening trip to Cheesman and try our luck. The flows were really low so we knew we'd be headed for a tough night of fishing. We hiked into the canyon around 5:30pm on a very warm day around 70 degrees. We jumped down into our normal holes (the riffles). I hooked a big brown twice, but he popped off very quickly. I had on another smaller trout, but he got off too. I moved down a bit to the log hole and hooked a nice rainbow and he popped off too. Finally I hooked and landed a 16 inch rainbow - very colorful, pink the whole length of his body. I was hooking fish on the size 20 mercury baettis that Paul gave me and a size 22 killer midge with a gold bead head.
I crossed the river and tried the slow pool right next to the big rocks (the river flows between them). I could see multiple fish - most about 20 inches feeding on nymphs, but they weren't taking anything I was throwing. It started getting pretty dark. I finally went to the end of the pool and started throwing up between the rocks a midge combo - I hooked a fish and when he got right up next to me I had a knot failure at my indicator and EVERYTHING popped off and he was gone. I moved down from there to the hufge rock, but by now it was pitch black and a head lamp in the middle of the river does you no good.
I broke down my fly rod - chatted with Jason as he jumped in another hole and headed down to find Chad. I found Chad standing in the straights area (the very beginning of the Canyon where the water is deep but dead slow) - chucking streamers. I sat down next to him and of course he went on to tell me that he had just landed 5 in a row and they were all hogs. To say the least, he wasn't going to get me to rig back up and try. Then, of course, he lands a fish that was breaching the surface no more than 6 feet in front of me. He showed me the fish - easily 20 inches and as thick as a horse - and I started rigging back up. Jason came down to meet us - he was ready to go home too - then I slammed a fat hog and he was hooked! I caught about a 20 inch rainbow (all the fish we caught on streamers were all fat hogs and 20 inches it seemed).
I have never caught a big fish on a streamer - the slam and the fight are addicting. i think I need to do more night time fishing!! We proceded to fish for the next two hours with only streamers - Chad caught about another 5 or 6 fish, I landed 3 total and Jason had on a nice fish but somehow it got off. I had on another two fish on consecutive casts, but they managed to get off. This new strategy was amazing - basically you chucked an olive streamer (olive was the killer color) out and did foot long strips back and let it sink for 2 seconds in between strips. Of course the night time makes it for a totally different experience because you ahve no idea where your streamer is landing in front or behind you. Also, I had a lot of problems because I'd strip so that my leader was up in side my guides, then I'd cast and basically the line would cast but from my second guide - the leader would be trapped in the first guide. To say the least this was trouble - my flies snagged the top guide and broke off, they snagged the rock behind me and broke off - and I assume all this whipping made the leader weaker so when a fish did hit it - it would break off. Jason was having the exact same problem - I lost at least 10 streamers and he probably lost 5.
The hike out sucked and the drive home did too - I got home at around midnight. But man, that was some of the best fishing I've ever had. Chad told me that the Blue, Pan and Taylor all where good fished at night for hogs. I believe him and can't wait to get the chance.
Flows about 53 cfs, water was gin clear.
I fished with Chad and Jason (his neighbor) tonight. We decided to do a late evening trip to Cheesman and try our luck. The flows were really low so we knew we'd be headed for a tough night of fishing. We hiked into the canyon around 5:30pm on a very warm day around 70 degrees. We jumped down into our normal holes (the riffles). I hooked a big brown twice, but he popped off very quickly. I had on another smaller trout, but he got off too. I moved down a bit to the log hole and hooked a nice rainbow and he popped off too. Finally I hooked and landed a 16 inch rainbow - very colorful, pink the whole length of his body. I was hooking fish on the size 20 mercury baettis that Paul gave me and a size 22 killer midge with a gold bead head.
I crossed the river and tried the slow pool right next to the big rocks (the river flows between them). I could see multiple fish - most about 20 inches feeding on nymphs, but they weren't taking anything I was throwing. It started getting pretty dark. I finally went to the end of the pool and started throwing up between the rocks a midge combo - I hooked a fish and when he got right up next to me I had a knot failure at my indicator and EVERYTHING popped off and he was gone. I moved down from there to the hufge rock, but by now it was pitch black and a head lamp in the middle of the river does you no good.
I broke down my fly rod - chatted with Jason as he jumped in another hole and headed down to find Chad. I found Chad standing in the straights area (the very beginning of the Canyon where the water is deep but dead slow) - chucking streamers. I sat down next to him and of course he went on to tell me that he had just landed 5 in a row and they were all hogs. To say the least, he wasn't going to get me to rig back up and try. Then, of course, he lands a fish that was breaching the surface no more than 6 feet in front of me. He showed me the fish - easily 20 inches and as thick as a horse - and I started rigging back up. Jason came down to meet us - he was ready to go home too - then I slammed a fat hog and he was hooked! I caught about a 20 inch rainbow (all the fish we caught on streamers were all fat hogs and 20 inches it seemed).
I have never caught a big fish on a streamer - the slam and the fight are addicting. i think I need to do more night time fishing!! We proceded to fish for the next two hours with only streamers - Chad caught about another 5 or 6 fish, I landed 3 total and Jason had on a nice fish but somehow it got off. I had on another two fish on consecutive casts, but they managed to get off. This new strategy was amazing - basically you chucked an olive streamer (olive was the killer color) out and did foot long strips back and let it sink for 2 seconds in between strips. Of course the night time makes it for a totally different experience because you ahve no idea where your streamer is landing in front or behind you. Also, I had a lot of problems because I'd strip so that my leader was up in side my guides, then I'd cast and basically the line would cast but from my second guide - the leader would be trapped in the first guide. To say the least this was trouble - my flies snagged the top guide and broke off, they snagged the rock behind me and broke off - and I assume all this whipping made the leader weaker so when a fish did hit it - it would break off. Jason was having the exact same problem - I lost at least 10 streamers and he probably lost 5.
The hike out sucked and the drive home did too - I got home at around midnight. But man, that was some of the best fishing I've ever had. Chad told me that the Blue, Pan and Taylor all where good fished at night for hogs. I believe him and can't wait to get the chance.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Friday & Saturday, May 5th & 6th, 2006 - Arkansas
Friday & Saturday, May 5th & 6th, 2006 - Arkansas River – Salida to Howard
600+ cfs, water was off color. Friday was cool and windy in the afternoon/evening. Saturday was sunny in the upper 60’s.
I was lucky enough to get invited down to float the Ark on Saturday by Brian (Hyde Drifter). I got down there early on Friday night and fished my secret spot (just south of Big Bend) from 4pm to 8pm. The water was high and off color so I stuck to the big pool. On my third cast I caught a 13-inch brown on a chartreuse midge with a red bead head. I continued working the pool and hooked a big brown on a streamer, but he broke me completely off. Most of the other areas were too off color to see or catch anything. I did manage to hook one more a little lower down – he was a nice 14-inch brown.
I headed over to eat dinner in Salida and then headed to meet Brian at his camper and introduced myself. We decided to meet at 6:30 am the next day to get breakfast and then jump on the river. I just assumed that we'd both get in some rowing and fishing, but Brian's raft was only a two-seater and he just wanted to row and watch - which I'm not sure I could do with fish showing everywhere.
We dropped in just below Salida and planned to float all the way to Howard. Brian is a hell of a guy - the guy can row that raft "in a phone booth" (inside joke) - basically I didn't spill my tea the entire trip! Even Brian enjoyed the satisfaction of rowing one of his best days - with flows around 600 cfs.
Although I felt a little awkward taking advantage of Brian's rowing skills it turned out that he just loves being on the river - he loves talking fish, talking flies, teaching casting, trying new patterns, and showing new techniques. He's also amazing at spotting fish areas - but then again when all the GUIDES on the river know you by first name, that usually means you have floated the river a few hundred times. He hooked me up with some killer PMX's and some soft hackle nymphs and chartreuse pheasant tails - and the caddis patterns where spot on and caught lots of fish.
The river was high (600 cfs) and slightly off color - the banks are where the fish were at. The morning was slow, but as the water warmed the caddis started popping and the fishing picked up. I caught fish on one of his newest patterns, had some killer dry fly action in the early afternoon, and had a bunch I couldn't land on a dry fly during the last 2 miles or so. It was a beautiful day, great weather, hardly a breeze, smooth water and good company. I saw the Ark from a new angle and I respect it more for some of the amazing private water it has stashed away. The entire Arkansas Valley is just amazing. And the fish are healthy and large (for that river) - they feed fiestily too on size 16 nymphs - which is a change for us South Platte size 24 midge guys.
I'd like to thank Brian and Mary for their hospitality and kindness and I owe them big time! Although Brian doesn't want the publicity, he's a hell of a fly tyer - he donated over 40 dozen flies to TU this year for their auctions - and for that (and everything else he does) he should be commended. This is just another story of how this board brings us all closer together.
Brian was nice enough to donated almost 2 dozen flies to me, of which I donated directly to the fish Gods. Did I mention he's a hell of a fisherman too? He grabbed my rod in a great hole and made some beautiful casts to some nice fish - he only "landed" one - but it was one memorable fish!
600+ cfs, water was off color. Friday was cool and windy in the afternoon/evening. Saturday was sunny in the upper 60’s.
I was lucky enough to get invited down to float the Ark on Saturday by Brian (Hyde Drifter). I got down there early on Friday night and fished my secret spot (just south of Big Bend) from 4pm to 8pm. The water was high and off color so I stuck to the big pool. On my third cast I caught a 13-inch brown on a chartreuse midge with a red bead head. I continued working the pool and hooked a big brown on a streamer, but he broke me completely off. Most of the other areas were too off color to see or catch anything. I did manage to hook one more a little lower down – he was a nice 14-inch brown.
I headed over to eat dinner in Salida and then headed to meet Brian at his camper and introduced myself. We decided to meet at 6:30 am the next day to get breakfast and then jump on the river. I just assumed that we'd both get in some rowing and fishing, but Brian's raft was only a two-seater and he just wanted to row and watch - which I'm not sure I could do with fish showing everywhere.
We dropped in just below Salida and planned to float all the way to Howard. Brian is a hell of a guy - the guy can row that raft "in a phone booth" (inside joke) - basically I didn't spill my tea the entire trip! Even Brian enjoyed the satisfaction of rowing one of his best days - with flows around 600 cfs.
Although I felt a little awkward taking advantage of Brian's rowing skills it turned out that he just loves being on the river - he loves talking fish, talking flies, teaching casting, trying new patterns, and showing new techniques. He's also amazing at spotting fish areas - but then again when all the GUIDES on the river know you by first name, that usually means you have floated the river a few hundred times. He hooked me up with some killer PMX's and some soft hackle nymphs and chartreuse pheasant tails - and the caddis patterns where spot on and caught lots of fish.
The river was high (600 cfs) and slightly off color - the banks are where the fish were at. The morning was slow, but as the water warmed the caddis started popping and the fishing picked up. I caught fish on one of his newest patterns, had some killer dry fly action in the early afternoon, and had a bunch I couldn't land on a dry fly during the last 2 miles or so. It was a beautiful day, great weather, hardly a breeze, smooth water and good company. I saw the Ark from a new angle and I respect it more for some of the amazing private water it has stashed away. The entire Arkansas Valley is just amazing. And the fish are healthy and large (for that river) - they feed fiestily too on size 16 nymphs - which is a change for us South Platte size 24 midge guys.
I'd like to thank Brian and Mary for their hospitality and kindness and I owe them big time! Although Brian doesn't want the publicity, he's a hell of a fly tyer - he donated over 40 dozen flies to TU this year for their auctions - and for that (and everything else he does) he should be commended. This is just another story of how this board brings us all closer together.
Brian was nice enough to donated almost 2 dozen flies to me, of which I donated directly to the fish Gods. Did I mention he's a hell of a fisherman too? He grabbed my rod in a great hole and made some beautiful casts to some nice fish - he only "landed" one - but it was one memorable fish!
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006 - South Platte River – Dr
Saturday, April 22, 2006 - South Platte River – Dream Stream
56 cfs, water was clear. Sunny in the 60’s – a little wind late.
Fished with Chad and his dad – we started right at the bridge between Spinney and 11-Mile. Got off to a good start, hooked and landed a huge 22” rainbow that was as big as a 2”X6” board. Unfortunately I realized after landing him that he was spawning and I should have left him alone.
Chad’s dad hooked a large rainbow that I tried to land for him, but he’s not used to landing big fish, so he couldn’t guide the fish to me and eventually he got off. He did hook and land a huge fish a few minutes later – the same exact fish I caught. I netted it for him and he was excited. He’d end up hooking and landing two more large fish.
We moved up to the dam section - after a 300-yard walk we finally got to the river. The water looked man-made – with boulders and tree stumps in the middle to break up the current. Problem was, there was no current today. 56 cfs is stupid. I hooked and landed a nice fighting 14-inch cuttbow with a nice orange gash under his chin. I moved up to the hog pen and we could see enormous fish, but neither Chad nor I could land one – even after trying everything including eggs.
We left and headed back, but stopped at the Tomahawk access on the way back. It was a nice little river, but typical low water on one of the forks of the South Platte. I caught a 6-inch brown – but that was it. We left soon after.
56 cfs, water was clear. Sunny in the 60’s – a little wind late.
Fished with Chad and his dad – we started right at the bridge between Spinney and 11-Mile. Got off to a good start, hooked and landed a huge 22” rainbow that was as big as a 2”X6” board. Unfortunately I realized after landing him that he was spawning and I should have left him alone.
Chad’s dad hooked a large rainbow that I tried to land for him, but he’s not used to landing big fish, so he couldn’t guide the fish to me and eventually he got off. He did hook and land a huge fish a few minutes later – the same exact fish I caught. I netted it for him and he was excited. He’d end up hooking and landing two more large fish.
We moved up to the dam section - after a 300-yard walk we finally got to the river. The water looked man-made – with boulders and tree stumps in the middle to break up the current. Problem was, there was no current today. 56 cfs is stupid. I hooked and landed a nice fighting 14-inch cuttbow with a nice orange gash under his chin. I moved up to the hog pen and we could see enormous fish, but neither Chad nor I could land one – even after trying everything including eggs.
We left and headed back, but stopped at the Tomahawk access on the way back. It was a nice little river, but typical low water on one of the forks of the South Platte. I caught a 6-inch brown – but that was it. We left soon after.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Bighorn River, Montana - April 6-9, 2006
Thursday through Saturday, April 6-8, 2006 – Bighorn River, Montana
Thursday
Cold afternoon about 40 degrees, cloudy and later with driving rains. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 2pm to 7:30pm.
I left the house around 3:30 am to be at Chad’s around 4 am. I was right on time and Chad was waiting. We piled the stuff in and off we went – hitting the gas station right before jumping on rt 70. It was still pitch black and we made conversation for about 30 minutes and I told Chad to take a nap while it was still dark. I was doing ok driving – but around Cheyenne I started getting tired. I struggled a bit, but kept going until about Casper (3 hours+ in) and we swapped out. The day was dry, but we could see the storm clouds rolling in from the NW. As we got closer and closer to the MT border it was obvious that there was some rain/snow close by, but we had juts missed it. We arrived in Ft. Smith at around 11am – we checked into the Cottonwood Camp, got our cabin, got our licenses, a parking pass for the day, bought a few white streamers and decided to dress and hit the 3 Mile access. The cabin was really nice – not huge, but well set up. Two bunk beds, a small bathroom with shower, a small kitchen and a nice sitting area with rap around seating around a small table – perfect for 3 guys.
We hit 3 Mile access right away – with about 2 hours to spare before Paul arrived. I shot up the left side of the island and made my way to the upper reaches – the water swings around the edge and runs shallow. A slight drop off closer to shore on the left is where I hooked my first two fish. A pair of nice 18 inch browns that were very colorful.
I dropped down to around the boat ramp – right where the water swiftens. Chad was already working this stretch and I waded over next to him to fish a shallow shelf that dropped into a huge pool next to some dead trees that were hung up in the middle. I immediately hooked a huge fish. I called Chad over to help me land the pig. The fish measured out at about 26 inches and about 10.5 lbs – what a fish. Chad didn’t have his camera – he left the batteries in the cabin to charge. I hooked another huge fish in the same spot – a 21 inch rainbow – not quite as impressive.
Paul showed up moments later and we were pulled off the water and ready to be escorted to the Afterbay section to launch our first day of floating.
We dropped the boat in the water around 1 pm and off we went. Paul rowed (as he did the remainder of the weekend) and kept us near the banks to try our hand at fishing the shore. We didn’t have much luck – although we could see quite a few fleeing under the boat. The weather was starting to turn – you could feel the moisture in the air and then it started raining. We hit Meat Hole right off – all the other boats had already hit it and we had the river somewhat to ourselves. Meat Hole was good to us – just as we remembered. I think we all caught 3 fish in the hole. Chad caught the largest on streamers and black mercury midges.
We moved down once again, hitting various holes as the wind blew rain sideways and into our faces. Although I had my new wading jacket on and was protected from the wetness, I was severely underdressed underneath and started getting cold about half way through. I stopped fishing with about a mile to go on the 3 mile leg – content to shiver instead of cast.
Chad caught quite a few, and Paul and I caught a few that day – it was a good day and time to call it a day. We pulled the drift out around 7pm, packed her up and headed back to the cabin. We decided to hit Paulie’s restaurant and have a nice dinner – chicken fried steak hit the spot. The conversation was great and we got a lot of the business stuff out of the way – the rest of the weekend was free to verbally abuse each other. Of course I got the worst beating. We got back to the cabin, tied up some flies that had worked that day and hit the hay.
Friday
Cold in the morning 40 degrees, cloudy all day, afternoon warmed up to about 52 degrees. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 9am to 5:30pm.
Seven AM came and the guys were stirring. I wasn’t thinking that Paul and Chad were ready, but I guess they were. I was still tired, but was ready to go. There wasn’t much sense of urgency so I hung out in bed. After getting some abuse I realized the guys were waiting on me. Hell, last year we didn’t hit the river until 8:30 or so – and these guys wanted to be half way down to Meat Hole by 8 AM! I dressed quick, threw on extra clothes and we were off. We dropped into the river amongst a slightly larger crowd than the previous day. We might have been the 4th boat out or so. The weather was cloudy, but it was obvious there wouldn’t be any rain in the next few hours. We were thinking about hitting the 3 Mile stretch twice today. We had met up with another board member that morning named George. He had his own pontoon boat and was rearing to go. We were going to leap frog each other down the river and give him a ride back to Afterbay at the half way point of the day. This ended up being our best day of fishing – although Paul nor I would even come close to the day Chad was about to have.
Chad covers a lot of water on foot, making an average of 6 casts a minute – rarely two in the same spot. He hooks and lands fish very quickly, and moves on. The first stretch of river produced a couple of fish – nothing huge. We stopped on the right side of the river to fish a popular stretch, but nothing came out of it. I hooked and landed a small 11 inch whitefish which won me the prestigious whitefish award for the weekend. Meat Hole was booked so we kept on rowing. We jumped down to Suck Hole and fished it. I fished the lower section while Paul and Chad fished the upper sections. My favorite spot that produced 100 fish the year before was hitting, but not nearly as well. I landed 4 nice fish – 2 bows and 2 browns. The browns were feisty while the rainbows were logs without much fight. The rainbows were big and fat – measuring probably 18 or 19 inches. This was easily 2 or 3 inches larger than the previous year. The browns were good sized too – 18 inches each – that too was about 3 or 4 inches larger than last years average. Chad and Paul also had some luck in the upper Suck Hole.
We moved down a bunch of times, we all hooked fish. Chad especially, hooking huge fish after huge fish. One stretch that looked very whitefishie we jumped out in. We fished this for a while and did very well. I hooked two enormous browns in the 20 inch range. Chad worked his way down river and every time I looked over he had rod bent or a net full of fish. He too was catching very large browns. Every hole that day produced fish. One hole that was new for Paul and us was a stretch where a long island ran on the left hand side and there was a great fast run that cut the island in half. This run had a shelf that ran to the left and it dropped off to about 3 feet of water. Paul was hooking fish at the bottom of the island left and right and couldn’t be stopped. Chad fished the whole 300 yard stretch – with a cast here and a cast there. I worked the fast riffle. On my second cast I hooked a pig – he was definitely longer than 26 inches. Unfortunately he got off. I lost a lot of fish on this trip – maybe about 50% - they seemed to fight harder this year but with a lot less run in them than last year.
The day seemed to be flying by – what we thought would be a two trip day was looking like a one trip day. We stretched the day out at the end – staying in some holes a little longer and shooting the crap with each other. I took some video and some photos, but not nearly enough. The weather held up nicely, overcast yet warm with minimal wind. We pulled in around 6 pm again and saw George – he basically blew down the river and fished that stretch by the boat ramp for 5 hours (sorry George). We moved cars and I met Chad back at 3 Mile Access to continue fishing. No such luck though as the extra traffic and lowering sun seemed to put down the fish. Chad as usual caught a bunch.
That night I threw a bunch of food on the grill for everyone and we just chatted for the night. We tried to tie some flies, but no one seemed overly interested. George stayed at the cabin that night.
Saturday
Cool morning about 40 degrees, sunny inn the morning, some clouds later in the afternoon, warmed up to about 65 degrees. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 9am to 3:30pm.
Our last day on the Horn was going to be beautiful weather, which meant bad things for the fish! We had decided to do the 3 Mile stretch again and maybe head out around 2 or 3 pm for home. Being home all of Sunday would definitely score bonus points with the wives. We were on the river before 8 am again. This time it was pretty heavy traffic though. Boats were all pulled over between Afterbay and Meat Hole, so we kept going. We moved down to Suck Hole and were the first ones to pull over. I was working my way down to my favorite section when a boat swung in maybe 25 yards from me and anchored on shore – 4 guys jumped out and proceeded to fish very close to me. This pissed me off – especially since they didn’t even look like they cared. A guide and his compadres were hooking large fish across the way with regularity. I hooked a fish on my first cast, but didn’t land it. It was a slow start for all of us.
We moved down again and started getting into some fish – well, at least Paul and I were. We hit the island stretch again and Paul went right back to catching his browns. He hooked and landed 10 fish or so. I worked my way back to the drop off next to the riffle and worked down further into the deeper water. I hooked a huge snaky looking rainbow that was so skinny it was scary. Next I hooked a huge rainbow, he was 24 inches long, but as I got him closer I could see that his lower mouth was all deformed and a mess. I played him and tried to get the hook out of his mouth without touching him – luckily it popped out. I worked the deeper sections and hooked and landed 5 or so nice fish – Paul also continued his magic. Chad however was still being shut out. We moved directly across the river to the other bank in an area that looked nice, but we were never able to reach before – this time we made it – a beautiful bank that held about a foot of water – it had some redds and a huge tree that had fallen over and touched the water. Chad was working a streamer in the shallows and hooked an enormous rainbow – big red bellied and about 26 inches easy. The fish was a pig and we had to land this “skunk-off” fish for Chad. I grabbed the net and just as I was ready to get into position the fish popped off. To say the least Chad was disappointed.
We moved down to a stretch not far that ran off a shelf and around a corner, as we floated over we could see some huge fish. I worked the stretch and hooked and landed two nice huge browns in the 18 inch range. Chad finally hooked and landed a nice 19 inch brown – he was finally skunk off.
The next stretch we moved to was the whitefish looking area, and again we all did well – I hooked and landed another two huge browns and lost a couple. Chad worked his way down and around. We decided it was time to head out and we worked the rest of the river from the boat. We were off the water by 2:30 pm. We grabbed our gear, unloaded, packed, stopped to get gas and we were on our way home. Chad was back by 10:30pm and I was home by 11pm. It was a very good trip. It was great meeting Paul and fishing with him.
The entire trip fish were consistently hitting on small black midges and pink midges. Most were black beauties or mercury midges. Scuds would produce fish, but not nearly as many. We didn't see any dry fly action, and only Chad had luck with streamers - although I think he caught about half on the streamer and half on the midge on his two fly setup.
Thursday
Cold afternoon about 40 degrees, cloudy and later with driving rains. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 2pm to 7:30pm.
I left the house around 3:30 am to be at Chad’s around 4 am. I was right on time and Chad was waiting. We piled the stuff in and off we went – hitting the gas station right before jumping on rt 70. It was still pitch black and we made conversation for about 30 minutes and I told Chad to take a nap while it was still dark. I was doing ok driving – but around Cheyenne I started getting tired. I struggled a bit, but kept going until about Casper (3 hours+ in) and we swapped out. The day was dry, but we could see the storm clouds rolling in from the NW. As we got closer and closer to the MT border it was obvious that there was some rain/snow close by, but we had juts missed it. We arrived in Ft. Smith at around 11am – we checked into the Cottonwood Camp, got our cabin, got our licenses, a parking pass for the day, bought a few white streamers and decided to dress and hit the 3 Mile access. The cabin was really nice – not huge, but well set up. Two bunk beds, a small bathroom with shower, a small kitchen and a nice sitting area with rap around seating around a small table – perfect for 3 guys.
We hit 3 Mile access right away – with about 2 hours to spare before Paul arrived. I shot up the left side of the island and made my way to the upper reaches – the water swings around the edge and runs shallow. A slight drop off closer to shore on the left is where I hooked my first two fish. A pair of nice 18 inch browns that were very colorful.
I dropped down to around the boat ramp – right where the water swiftens. Chad was already working this stretch and I waded over next to him to fish a shallow shelf that dropped into a huge pool next to some dead trees that were hung up in the middle. I immediately hooked a huge fish. I called Chad over to help me land the pig. The fish measured out at about 26 inches and about 10.5 lbs – what a fish. Chad didn’t have his camera – he left the batteries in the cabin to charge. I hooked another huge fish in the same spot – a 21 inch rainbow – not quite as impressive.
Paul showed up moments later and we were pulled off the water and ready to be escorted to the Afterbay section to launch our first day of floating.
We dropped the boat in the water around 1 pm and off we went. Paul rowed (as he did the remainder of the weekend) and kept us near the banks to try our hand at fishing the shore. We didn’t have much luck – although we could see quite a few fleeing under the boat. The weather was starting to turn – you could feel the moisture in the air and then it started raining. We hit Meat Hole right off – all the other boats had already hit it and we had the river somewhat to ourselves. Meat Hole was good to us – just as we remembered. I think we all caught 3 fish in the hole. Chad caught the largest on streamers and black mercury midges.
We moved down once again, hitting various holes as the wind blew rain sideways and into our faces. Although I had my new wading jacket on and was protected from the wetness, I was severely underdressed underneath and started getting cold about half way through. I stopped fishing with about a mile to go on the 3 mile leg – content to shiver instead of cast.
Chad caught quite a few, and Paul and I caught a few that day – it was a good day and time to call it a day. We pulled the drift out around 7pm, packed her up and headed back to the cabin. We decided to hit Paulie’s restaurant and have a nice dinner – chicken fried steak hit the spot. The conversation was great and we got a lot of the business stuff out of the way – the rest of the weekend was free to verbally abuse each other. Of course I got the worst beating. We got back to the cabin, tied up some flies that had worked that day and hit the hay.
Friday
Cold in the morning 40 degrees, cloudy all day, afternoon warmed up to about 52 degrees. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 9am to 5:30pm.
Seven AM came and the guys were stirring. I wasn’t thinking that Paul and Chad were ready, but I guess they were. I was still tired, but was ready to go. There wasn’t much sense of urgency so I hung out in bed. After getting some abuse I realized the guys were waiting on me. Hell, last year we didn’t hit the river until 8:30 or so – and these guys wanted to be half way down to Meat Hole by 8 AM! I dressed quick, threw on extra clothes and we were off. We dropped into the river amongst a slightly larger crowd than the previous day. We might have been the 4th boat out or so. The weather was cloudy, but it was obvious there wouldn’t be any rain in the next few hours. We were thinking about hitting the 3 Mile stretch twice today. We had met up with another board member that morning named George. He had his own pontoon boat and was rearing to go. We were going to leap frog each other down the river and give him a ride back to Afterbay at the half way point of the day. This ended up being our best day of fishing – although Paul nor I would even come close to the day Chad was about to have.
Chad covers a lot of water on foot, making an average of 6 casts a minute – rarely two in the same spot. He hooks and lands fish very quickly, and moves on. The first stretch of river produced a couple of fish – nothing huge. We stopped on the right side of the river to fish a popular stretch, but nothing came out of it. I hooked and landed a small 11 inch whitefish which won me the prestigious whitefish award for the weekend. Meat Hole was booked so we kept on rowing. We jumped down to Suck Hole and fished it. I fished the lower section while Paul and Chad fished the upper sections. My favorite spot that produced 100 fish the year before was hitting, but not nearly as well. I landed 4 nice fish – 2 bows and 2 browns. The browns were feisty while the rainbows were logs without much fight. The rainbows were big and fat – measuring probably 18 or 19 inches. This was easily 2 or 3 inches larger than the previous year. The browns were good sized too – 18 inches each – that too was about 3 or 4 inches larger than last years average. Chad and Paul also had some luck in the upper Suck Hole.
We moved down a bunch of times, we all hooked fish. Chad especially, hooking huge fish after huge fish. One stretch that looked very whitefishie we jumped out in. We fished this for a while and did very well. I hooked two enormous browns in the 20 inch range. Chad worked his way down river and every time I looked over he had rod bent or a net full of fish. He too was catching very large browns. Every hole that day produced fish. One hole that was new for Paul and us was a stretch where a long island ran on the left hand side and there was a great fast run that cut the island in half. This run had a shelf that ran to the left and it dropped off to about 3 feet of water. Paul was hooking fish at the bottom of the island left and right and couldn’t be stopped. Chad fished the whole 300 yard stretch – with a cast here and a cast there. I worked the fast riffle. On my second cast I hooked a pig – he was definitely longer than 26 inches. Unfortunately he got off. I lost a lot of fish on this trip – maybe about 50% - they seemed to fight harder this year but with a lot less run in them than last year.
The day seemed to be flying by – what we thought would be a two trip day was looking like a one trip day. We stretched the day out at the end – staying in some holes a little longer and shooting the crap with each other. I took some video and some photos, but not nearly enough. The weather held up nicely, overcast yet warm with minimal wind. We pulled in around 6 pm again and saw George – he basically blew down the river and fished that stretch by the boat ramp for 5 hours (sorry George). We moved cars and I met Chad back at 3 Mile Access to continue fishing. No such luck though as the extra traffic and lowering sun seemed to put down the fish. Chad as usual caught a bunch.
That night I threw a bunch of food on the grill for everyone and we just chatted for the night. We tried to tie some flies, but no one seemed overly interested. George stayed at the cabin that night.
Saturday
Cool morning about 40 degrees, sunny inn the morning, some clouds later in the afternoon, warmed up to about 65 degrees. Water was clear, flows about 2,500 cfs. Floated Afterbay to 3-Mile Access from 9am to 3:30pm.
Our last day on the Horn was going to be beautiful weather, which meant bad things for the fish! We had decided to do the 3 Mile stretch again and maybe head out around 2 or 3 pm for home. Being home all of Sunday would definitely score bonus points with the wives. We were on the river before 8 am again. This time it was pretty heavy traffic though. Boats were all pulled over between Afterbay and Meat Hole, so we kept going. We moved down to Suck Hole and were the first ones to pull over. I was working my way down to my favorite section when a boat swung in maybe 25 yards from me and anchored on shore – 4 guys jumped out and proceeded to fish very close to me. This pissed me off – especially since they didn’t even look like they cared. A guide and his compadres were hooking large fish across the way with regularity. I hooked a fish on my first cast, but didn’t land it. It was a slow start for all of us.
We moved down again and started getting into some fish – well, at least Paul and I were. We hit the island stretch again and Paul went right back to catching his browns. He hooked and landed 10 fish or so. I worked my way back to the drop off next to the riffle and worked down further into the deeper water. I hooked a huge snaky looking rainbow that was so skinny it was scary. Next I hooked a huge rainbow, he was 24 inches long, but as I got him closer I could see that his lower mouth was all deformed and a mess. I played him and tried to get the hook out of his mouth without touching him – luckily it popped out. I worked the deeper sections and hooked and landed 5 or so nice fish – Paul also continued his magic. Chad however was still being shut out. We moved directly across the river to the other bank in an area that looked nice, but we were never able to reach before – this time we made it – a beautiful bank that held about a foot of water – it had some redds and a huge tree that had fallen over and touched the water. Chad was working a streamer in the shallows and hooked an enormous rainbow – big red bellied and about 26 inches easy. The fish was a pig and we had to land this “skunk-off” fish for Chad. I grabbed the net and just as I was ready to get into position the fish popped off. To say the least Chad was disappointed.
We moved down to a stretch not far that ran off a shelf and around a corner, as we floated over we could see some huge fish. I worked the stretch and hooked and landed two nice huge browns in the 18 inch range. Chad finally hooked and landed a nice 19 inch brown – he was finally skunk off.
The next stretch we moved to was the whitefish looking area, and again we all did well – I hooked and landed another two huge browns and lost a couple. Chad worked his way down and around. We decided it was time to head out and we worked the rest of the river from the boat. We were off the water by 2:30 pm. We grabbed our gear, unloaded, packed, stopped to get gas and we were on our way home. Chad was back by 10:30pm and I was home by 11pm. It was a very good trip. It was great meeting Paul and fishing with him.
The entire trip fish were consistently hitting on small black midges and pink midges. Most were black beauties or mercury midges. Scuds would produce fish, but not nearly as many. We didn't see any dry fly action, and only Chad had luck with streamers - although I think he caught about half on the streamer and half on the midge on his two fly setup.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Sunday, April 2, 2006 - South Platte River – Decke
Sunday, April 2, 2006 - South Platte River – Deckers
156 cfs, water was clear. Sunny in the lower 60’s.
Fished with Cabo today – not much to tell. The water was higher than normal. Harder to find the fish – especially with nymphs and midges. I lost a bunch of flies – including 2 streamers. Spooked the fish at the bend log, I got a few bites on some of those black beauties, but they all got off. I fished all the usual spots with no luck. Managed to get one small rainbow just on the other side of the 2nd bridge – his fin was messed up – it actually looked like he had bones sticking out and the cartilage was hanging limp. Cabo had a good time afterwards as I through the ball for her for about 15 minutes in the deep water.
156 cfs, water was clear. Sunny in the lower 60’s.
Fished with Cabo today – not much to tell. The water was higher than normal. Harder to find the fish – especially with nymphs and midges. I lost a bunch of flies – including 2 streamers. Spooked the fish at the bend log, I got a few bites on some of those black beauties, but they all got off. I fished all the usual spots with no luck. Managed to get one small rainbow just on the other side of the 2nd bridge – his fin was messed up – it actually looked like he had bones sticking out and the cartilage was hanging limp. Cabo had a good time afterwards as I through the ball for her for about 15 minutes in the deep water.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)