8-19-13 Sometimes guides fish too...Big Thompson

Sometimes guides fish too... But for me, I haven't got to very much lately. I have been too busy watching (and teaching) everyone else to fish. Lately, it's been hard to watch people catch fish all day and I don't usually have that problem. I guess all work and no play...

So when finally the situation arose to get out for a change I couldn't wait. I thought I would head up to the same spot where I have been taking clients in the park, The T above the Fern lake Trailhead. Not only is this just a great piece of water, but I know it is fishing great from taking clients up here. And truth be told, I have seen some nice trout coming out of here recently.

As I drove up, I at one point almost stopped and turned around as I realized I had no clients with me. It was actually weird to drive up to the park by myself. But once it dawned on me that I did have the day to fish I think I honestly found serenity for the first time in a while. (No T.V. and no beer make Homer go something, something. Go crazy? Don't mind if I do!)

After a stop at the Donut Haus to pick up a proper fly fisherman meal; a pecan covered cinnamon roll, I was en route. It appeared that it wasn't too busy and it looked like most, if not all, of the vehicles passed the "is that a fly fisherman" test.

I hiked up about 15 minutes and hopped in. I threw on a Amy's Ant and a CDC PMD Emerger just to kind of search. This combo has been pounding these trout lately. First hole, I missed a bite. Second hole, fish on.
It appeared to be a cutthroat while pulling him in. That would be great as that was the ultimate goal today. I pulled in the larger than average trout (for this section) and sure enough, a cutty.



That was (just about) all I needed today. A really nice cutt on a dry, out of the picturesque stream. I sat down, drank my coffee, and smoked. This is what I wanted. But I figured that while I was here, I would continue. I did come to fish and it was only 8:32 a.m. I had only been fishing 15 minutes, but yet somehow managed to receive all the joy out of what normally takes me a full day out on the water.   Mission accomplished.

I moved on and found a great hole. Super deep with an adequate flow coming through the middle. I knew there was a trout lying on the other side so I tossed my offering. After about 6 casts, I got the prize. He was immediately on my reel and suddenly the sound of serenity was all though the forest. I fought him for about 3 minutes and then managed to pull him in.  A real chunky for sure, especially in this area. Day made, times two.

No need to stop now though right. Might as well go for the slam. It started to get pretty buggy and I decided to not key in on one thing and rather, just put something real tasty and easy out there. Answer, Purple Haze. It was the money. I couldn't keep em' off that thing for at least an hour. I managed to start catching a bunch of these things.

Beautiful in color, and they wanted it. Real aggressive takes, sometimes more than one a drift. A lot of fun.

I kept moving on and tried to find my rainbow. I never did find him, but the fishing never tapered. Around 11 or so I threw on a Little Yellow Sally. Same story. Couldn't keep em' off it.

After about an hour or so of that, it started to slow just slightly. I threw on a tan Chubby Chernobyl and while I was catching fish with that, it was what was below that was the real ticket; a black and olive hotwire prince nymph. It was hot. Probably the hottest fly of the day. And the others, especially the Haze and the Sally, were really producing so to say it was the hottest is quite the statement. I fished another hour or so and being about a million times more satisfied than I had set out, I called it a day.

Well worth the wait, indeed.

Made!

Tight Lines

Weekly Report 8/11/13-8/17/13 Boulder Creek, Big Thompson

Boulder Creek 8-11, 8-14, 8-15, & 8-17-13
Once again, I spent most of the week-minus one trip on the Big T and a day at the kids fishing pond, on the creek. The fishing has been really good. If you can only get once this year, do it now. Big bugs, hungry fish, long days. We are definitely starting to see some changes in the river (flows) for two reasons right now; heat and rain. This makes for some good, some bad.

As you would expect, once we get later into the summer the flows start to drop. Fishing picks up and everyone is happy. As long as the flows don't get too low, and the water doesn't get too hot, the fishing stays great. Fortunately, it has been an absolutely ideal fishing season as far as the weather goes. We got good moisture throughout the winter, adding to the water table, and then in the spring we got some great late season moisture. That late season moisture just added to the water table and further extended the point to where we got into prime run off. Therefore, all the water didn't come down the hill until later so we got started off on a great foot. Some good.

The only thing that could make it better is a more mild summer and that is exactly what he have been getting. The last few years, the summer temps have been brutal. This year not so much and because of it, we have gotten a lot more rain. And once again, that is great for the water table and for the fishing; but just not in the immediate. What do we mean by that? It means that while the rain increases the water table, it blows out the stream. Some bad.

Key? Have beers in the cooler. Sit in the truck. Wait it out. If you don't have the patience, tie on some flash or a san juan.

Otherwise, stick to the usual suspects. Attractors, terrestrials and hatches. Beetles, ants, hoppers, Amy's ants, Fat Franks, Fat Alberts, spinners, princes, RS-2's, Yellow Sally hot wires and T.U.V. midges (recipes to be posted soon).

Great fishing right now though, especially if you enjoy the almost daily afternoon storm.

Big Thompson 8-16-13
I took a client up to my new favorite guide spot today. Pretty much fished the same as last week, I just added in some of that bad ass new T.U.V. midge. They loved it.



This guy in particular loved the new T.U. V. midge. (Look at those colors.)

Tight Lines

Weekly Report 8/4/13-8/10/13 Boulder Creek, Ouzel Creek, Big Thompson

Boulder Creek

I spent all week on Boulder Creek these past few days and it has been great. The normal patterns are producing so well that this time of year I like to start throwing some experimental stuff that I have tied. And...the fishing has been so good that  brand new invention flies are working. Look to the recipes page (soon) for some of these new patterns.

Mornings, we are seeing a lot of PMD and Sallies. One of the new patterns I have been throwing is a RS-2 tied in Hendrickson super fine dubbing to mimic those pre-flight PMD's. Another fun pattern for the A.M. is a rusty spinner, either floating or swimming.

After that cools down, I have been having a lot of success with almost any attractor on top. My favorites have been Amy's Ants and Fat Albert's. On the bottom, look for your normal attractor beadheads as well as some other smaller stuff such as a new creation of mine; the Little Yellow Sally Hot Wire. I will post the recipe soon but just take your normal hotwire prince and change the large wire to yellow, and the fine wire to red. Cool looking fly.

While the fishing can get pretty slow towards the later afternoon, it does stay some what alive. Try your odd ball stuff. They aren't hungry so something out of the blue might be the trick. Finally, as we get into the evening, look for those caddis. I have noticed that the salmon trutta aren't so much tuned into color (I like olive and bright green recently) or size (keep it between a 14 and a 18), but more so on the action. Once you get that skate down, hold on. But don't forget to dead drift for the lazy guys too.


Ouzel Creek 8-9-13

What a day. Just one of those days you don't get very often. So let me explain. We hiked up there, rather easily for having out of towners along for the ride, and then we got to fishing. First, we had to find our way around. Because of all the rain this year, the streamside vegetation up there is out of control. Some parts are past your shoulder. So you really have to navigate through the stream. Well after we get fishing for an hour or so, I start making lunch. Lunch is served, and I swear as if she knew, Mother Nature started just dumping rain right when I put the bread away. And it didn't stop. Ever.

I think it is probably still raining. I have not seen a storm like this for at least 5 years. It's the kind of storm where if it's in your pockets, tucked away, it's still getting wet. My rain jacket was still wet, 24 hours later. My tip money was wet for 3 days. It was that crazy. The hike out was fierce. We had lightning and thunder pushing on our heels the whole way down. Intense. The fishing??

It was good, just short lived. Terrestrials and attractors. A fun trip, even though it wasn't ideal. Both the clients and I had a good time. Sometimes the adventure is more fun than the destination I guess.

Big Thompson 8-10-13

I took some clients up to a spot that I had previously not fished today; the Big T above the Fern Lake TH. It was great. What a beautiful piece of water too. Lots of real long runs, some pocket fishing and a ton of fish. I had one client grand slam and the other fell a rainbow short.

The hot fly? Any one with a good drift pretty much. By the end of the day, I was just tying on whatever to see if it worked. Everything did. A few of the better flies were Amy's Ants, Fat Alberts, Chubby Chernobyls, Caddis, princes (hotwire), and P-tung's.

Unbelieveable fishing though. Get out there.

Tight Lines

Weekly Report 7/27/13-8/3/13 Big Thompson, St. Vrain, Boulder Creek, Roaring River, Glacier Creek

Well fishing has been great this week, especially everywhere. That's right. You read it. The fishing is just great, period. Here is a closer look at some of the spots I covered this week with clients, which were numerous.

Glacier Creek 7-27-13

Today was probably the slowest day of the week, and I think we may have had the weather to blame. With a storm showing up later in the afternoon, it just seemed slower than the rest of the week. With that being said, the clients spent a lot of time just watching each other fish and hanging out. Nothing wrong with that. Also, I caught a fish. What does that mean? It means that even with my limited number of casts just showing people (instructions) what to do, I still managed to catch one. So I think the fishing was better that let on.

Bugs that were working were Amy's Ants, Rainbow Warriors (RW's),and Poison Tungs (P-Tung's).

Take a look at this cool pic of Longs Peak at the end of the day.

Boulder Creek 7-28-13



Another stormy day in store for a couple of clients today. In fact, it cut the fishing day slightly short. But we managed to pull a couple in before it got to raining too bad. Amy's Ants were the ticket today.  



Getting super foggy before the rain.



Big Thompson (Moraine Park) 7-29-13

The Thompson is getting into great shape up high. We were up there earlier this week when it was about 54 degrees and just downright wet and cold. But the fishing was solid throughout the day. We actually fished up in the edge of the woods on the west side of the valley and then on the east side of the Cub Creek TH in the afternoon. We used a bunch of different bugs. Fat Alberts were killing it early and Royal Coachmans were pulling them in later. We discovered an off shoot to the Thompson in the Cub Creek area that had tons of brookies stacked up. Fun fishing for a beginner.

Other flies that were successful included P-Tungs, Black Hi-Viz ants, and black Pheasant Tails.

Look for the Moraine to keep heating up, especially in the woods from Fern Lake TH up. This becomes the time of year where as long as you find the trout, they will eat just about any type of good drift.

Storm Coming...



Storm landed

Big Thompson (Sylvan Dale)7-30-13

I guided a trip to Sylvan Dale today and for the most part the fishing was pretty good. The client fished from about 8:00 to 4:30 and while it was never completely lights out, we managed to keep hooking up through out the day by cycling through patterns when it got slow, and some good old common sense.

The client wanted to work on his dry fly casting, so we decided we would, with the thought that the fishing may be a little slower on the dries during the middle of the day with the overhead sun. Couldn't have been more opposite. Considering the conditions; the water has been coming up for the last week and finally peaked with the rainfall the day before we arrived, and it was sunny as could be until 4:00 or so; I think the client was doing alright.

As far as the fishing, we started out with a Sparkle Wing PMD followed by a Callibaetis RS-2. Within 2 minutes the client had his first fish on. A smaller rainbow, but what a way to start a day; a fish on within the first 5 casts.  

We continued to work that rig for a while, managing one more on the RS-2 and a couple vicious strikes on the PMD, with no luck. We moved on, covering the canyon in the lower section of the ranch, and switched up to a foam caddis, followed by a rainbow warrior and a pheasant tail. This was probably the slowest set up of the day.

  With the sun coming overhead pretty strong and a surface temp of 64 degrees, I recommended we moved on to find some better water. We came upon a huge hole right at the mouth of the canyon and I threw on a girdle bug, super deep, hoping to get one of those trout at the bottom of that deep hole hole at the bend. It worked. First cast, fish on. I would have to say that was definitely the largest fish of the day, and I was sad to see it go. Switched up to a fat albert and returned to the RS-2 again. The RS-2 seemed to be the most consistent fly out there today.



The mouth of the canyon at Sylvan Dale



North St. Vrain

I took a couple of clients up to Wild Basin, the first half of a double header for me the other day. This is an area that I don't fish much admittedly, but I think that will change soon. This is a really nice river and as we discovered the other day, one that can be real fishy and real buggy.

We started fishing from the first bridge up. A lot of pocket fishing, not as many runs or riffles per say. Real fun though. As we arrived there were more bugs than you could shake a fly rod at. Just super buggy. PMD's, caddis, spinners, sallies, stones, and midge everywhere. Pick one and hold on. We started with some PMD patterns and some Amy's Ants. They were both catching fish. As we got later into the day, we switched up to some more buggy stuff like Caddis and Drakes. All effective. Great fishing. Get there.

Roaring River

Well unlike earlier in the season, when we came up a bit too early, this place was on fire. Tie on pretty much any terrestrial or attractor and get catching. Real fun for beginners and loaded with nothing but Greenbacks. Real short presentations, real hungry fish.

Boulder Creek 7-31 & 8-3-13
Real simple report. Find river. Throw terrestrial and attractor beadhead. Catch Fish.


Tight Lines