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