Colorado on the Fly: April 2008

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Buchanan Ponds in Evergreen - April 19th

Fished the trout ponds this morning and afternoon. Caught quite a few rainbows ranging from 14-18 inches. Pretty fun place to fish. Here's a shot of one of the more colorful guys.

Monday, April 7, 2008

South Platte and Deckers - April 5th

We started the day fishing the S. Platte from the South Platte Hotel down to Strontia Springs Res. It was pretty slow. Only a few hits and only a couple fish landed. There were 6 of us and we hit every good looking hole. I guess that section still has a lot of recovering to do from the fires in the area.

After lunch we went do to Deckers to try to make it a good day and land some nice fish. It was packed but we found some open water and we were able to land a few nice fish.

Dawson casting into a nice hole

TC with a nice bow

Nice colored rainbow

Same fish just another shot

Friday, April 4, 2008

Fly Box

Well finally rounding up another week, that means fishing tomorrow. We are planning to head down to the Deckers area on the South Fork of the South Platte. There could be a few big rainbows roaming the waters as it is now spawning season. Report to come.

On another note here's a look at my stocked up fly box for the next few weeks. I try tying a few flies every night or so.

Frontside - Midges and more midges, various emergers, and a few dries (that I didn't tie)

Backside - San juan worms, variety of eggs, and some indicators

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Frying Pan & Roaring Fork - March 18th

I'm a little late getting this post up, busy times. Jake, TC, and I hit up the Pan and Fork a few weeks ago and had some great fishing. We started on the Pan looking for the big guys that were gorging themselves on mysis shrimp. Finally started connecting around 11am and killed them. Early on Jake lost a real nice one in the toilet bowl. Then I hooked into one of the biggest, if not the biggest trout I have ever hooked on the fly rod. I don't have a picture, sorry, but he broke off as we were trying to get him in the net. Sometimes that's how it goes. TC estimated that is was probably around 25-30 inches, that's a BIG fish. Next time.

The Toilet Bowl

Jake with a nice mysis fed Pan rainbow

Nice fat brown

Jake with another bow

Nice double-Jake makes mine look like a minnow

Partners in crime

Charlies Mysis

The Fork fished well also. Completely different fishing than the Pan. We caught quite a few 14 to 16 inch beautiful rainbows.

The Fork

Little Smiling Rainbow from the Fork

Fishing Report

2009
Clear Creek - April 25
All I have to say is Blue Wing Olives! Fishing is great right now on CC if you can catch the BWO hatch. Best patterns would be Barrs Emergers (#16-20) (11am-12:30) right before the bugs start flying and then (12:30am-2:30) BWO dries (#16-#20). Smaller the better I think. Fish were rising very consistantly for about 2 hours.

2008
Bear Creek - Sept 14
Fished BC through town and fishing was pretty good. The browns are getting there spawning colors and are starting to be aggressive. Move a few fish on a black streamer. SJ worms, eggs, and any attractor patterns are the go to now. Find a hole with some browns and you can bet there will be some fish holding below them munching on eggs.

Upper Bear Creek - June 28th
Mt Evans SWA brookies are out and about. Fishing was pretty good as long as you don't spook the holes. Dry dropper rigs are the ticket. Tie on a bead head prince and hang on, ha.

Upper Clear Creek - June 27th
Fished up above Bakerville in the afternoon. Took some fish on an elk hair caddis. There are some nice cutts in this stretch so catch them, admire them, and let them go. I need to have some pics looked at because some of them could be greenbacks but who knows they may be hybrids.

South Platte - June 23th
Spent around 3 hours in the Trumbull area and caught some fat caddis fed trout. Caught all trout on elk hair caddis. Flows were low and clear but they are coming up now.

Bear Creek - May 26th
Fishing was pretty good. Run off has been delayed due to the cool weather we had over the holiday weekend. BC will probably continue to fish pretty well until the run off really starts. There's a lot of snow on Evans so when it starts it's going to be blown out for quite a few days. San juan worms and Jujubaetis are the go to flies right now.

South Platte (Cheesman/Deckers) - May 23rd
The river was at perfect flows and clear. Fish were stacked in feeding lanes and eating a lot. Had one fish move 24 inches for a Jujubaetis which was pretty crazy. Anyway fishing with worms, scuds, and some baetis nymphs will do well.

Dream Stream - May 3rd
Hard fishing at the DS this weekend. Flows were around 200 which wasn't that bad but there were not many fish to be found. Walked around 3-4 miles of river and saw probably 5 fish, they were 5 pounders or better though. Four hook ups between me and a buddy. Eggs with a buckskin got us the hook ups. Probably when the flows stabilize things will get a little better.

Bear Creek - April 30th
BC was barely off color this afternoon. Landed a few fish in the downtown Evergreen stretch. Creek should stay pretty clear until saturday when the snow from thursday starts melting up towards Mount Evans. San juan worm with a copper john is still the ticket. I did see a few caddis but not enough to get the fish looking up yet. It's going to be dry dropper time soon on the home creek.

Bear Creek - April 24th
Creek is still a little off color but should stay that way the next few days. Temps at night in Evergreen are still only going to be in upper 20's and 30's the next few days so things will not be melting up high. I wouldn't expect runoff to be in full swing until the first few weeks of May. BC fished well using a variety of flies; san juan worms (pink everyones favorite color), copper johns, small streamers and caddis pupa.

Clear Creek - April 24th
Creek is running just a little off color. Looks like the next week runoff will get started. Did pretty good on my lunch break down at the Hidden Valley Exit. Browns are starting to look up as a few caddis are hatching. Elk hair caddis with a chartreuse copper john dropper was the go to pattern.

Buchanan Ponds - April 19th
Fished both ponds and did pretty good. Caught some nice ones in the lower pond as usual. Go to patterns were tan scuds #14 - #18, #14 flash tail eggs, and #14 chartreuse copper johns.

Bear Creek - April 20th
Creek is becoming off color due to run off but that doesn't mean you can't catch them. Caught around 10 with one being a nice 16" rainbow, right below the Evergreen Lake dam. Go to patterns were a san juan worm with a copper john dropped off of that. Use quite a bit of weight to get the flies down to the fish.

Colorado on the Fly