2010 Colorado Stream Reports

[DeeAre]

Instead of dumping river beta into the Northern Rockies thread (as I've been doing), a dedicated Colorado thread makes more sense. So here we go...

******************************************

Got up to the S.Platte, to a spot above Deckers yesterday. Beautiful day! Mostly sunny, 55ish, flows dropped from last week (~180cfs) to ~120 cfs. Def was able to wade to spots I've never been able to access before. Plus, I didn't fall in today, so that was cool.
Big midge hatch starts about noonish, but I couldn't get any takers on a dry despite all the breaches & rising beaks in the slow deep water. (although I did get several takes on a small p.adams followed by successive break-offs).
Rs2 was the hot fly. Scored a half dozen, missed at least twice that many.

Down towards the end of this stretch...


...I was able to fool this fella.


This is the honey hole...


...that yielded this bow...


and this lovely cutbow.



I'm fond of Bridgeport. Mostly, their beer just tastes good. But it has a certain nostalgia factor for me that I won't go into here. When the time came on Friday night to make a selection, I was debating the standard IPA or the Czar imperial IPA. I thought about it, and opted for the bigger beer (duh), but admit that I did consider swapping out a single IPA for a Czar. Didn't do it, but I was thrilled to go for a beer yesterday and discover this IPA. (Glad to know that I'm not the only one who swaps out single beers between sixers, in the event they're not sold by the bottle.)




Approaching the blue balls hole where all the risers were doing their thing. Despite my best effort I couldn't manage to hook up on a dry.


Was primed to slay, and just as the sun was freeing itself from the clouds I managed a bird's nest knot of heroic proportions. After pissing away 15 minutes of the most primo light of the day re-rigging, I eventually scored this guy just in time to snap a quit shot and then dunk my camera in the river (memory card is good! Camera... remains to be seen.)



Fkna awesome day on the water.

[Donkey Punch]

Good call. I had the same idea, but wasn't sure how many Co anglers checked in here. If I can kick this damn sinus infection I'll have a report from the Big thompson this week.

[gretch6364]

Nice fish Derider...we will have to meet up again soon for some slaying action and beers.

[Donkey Punch]

Not much to report. But I did get out on this afternoon, actually fished the Big T here in town, not up the canyon at all. I missed 5 fish right as it was getting dark, lots of surface activity from smaller fish once the midge hatch was really going off. I will definitely be back that way to scout, I know there are some NICE fish in there, I just have to find their holes.

[HikeforTurns]

Unsuccesful on the Blue today, did see a couple though. Didnt notice any surface feeding or flys. The Colorado around Glenwood is hatching pretty good.

[72Twenty]

How is the Poudre? I have never fished it, but think I should one of these days. How is the fishing access from Fort Collins/Front Range?

Also, I might be interested in checking out the Upper North Platte in the Walden area at some point this season (see the latest Fly Fisherman Magazine for a story on this area).

Funny, I live about 20 miles from the Colorado line and don't think about fishing it much because I am usually heading north of here.

[schwerty]

Hey guys. I know this happens in the Northern Rockies thread too but you outta post pics in separate threads. the folks outside of CO prolly won't be looking here much unless we are traveling but I, for one, would love to see some CO TR's, even if they are short.


Nice trout.

Continue.

[Donkey Punch]

How is the Poudre? I have never fished it, but think I should one of these days. How is the fishing access from Fort Collins/Front Range?

Also, I might be interested in checking out the Upper North Platte in the Walden area at some point this season (see the latest Fly Fisherman Magazine for a story on this area).

Funny, I live about 20 miles from the Colorado line and don't think about fishing it much because I am usually heading north of here.

Poudre can fish really well, especially the higher up the canyon you go. Even on the slow days you can still count on hooking a few decent fish. I have head that there is still a lot of ice up there now, by the middle or end of April it should be fishing well till run off.

[DeeAre]

bump.
Who's been out?

[deeppo]

Went out on the valley floor out side of tride(san miguel). Caught a few nice brookies(10-12 inch). First fish of the season and on my new 3 wt.
deeppo

[Donkey Punch]

Fished the Big T here in town this afternoon. Flows are REALLY low right now, super clear water, tough fishing. They are definitely willing to bite though once you figure out the magic fly. Today it was a 22 zebra midge, and I got bored and found one that liked a 14 black Wolly Bugger. Fish where between 8"-12". Saw one real nice fish. We need to get some water moving to clean out the bottom, lots of sticks, leaves, and muck.

[gretch6364]

Also, I might be interested in checking out the Upper North Platte in the Walden area at some point this season (see the latest Fly Fisherman Magazine for a story on this area).

Fuck, fuck and fuck...I guess I won't be doing any fishing this year in one of my favorite spots. Screw you Fly Fisherman Magazine

[Donkey Punch]

Water is flowing, and starting to clean out the muck, and shit on the bottom of the Big T. The water is on the murky side, but just clear enough to sight fish. I could never find the magic emerger that they where feeding on, but I landed a nice Brown on a size 20 adams. The best part of the day was when my wife Ashley finally landed her first fish on her rod. I gave it go her for her birthday back in October and she has lost more than a few fish, but finally she got everything right and brought a 10" Rainbow to hand yesterday!

[ColMan]

Hit some private water on the Tarryall below the res yesterday. Water was a bit off color. After a slow morning (got down to 14 in the Tarryall Valley last night) we landed about 13 fish, mostly bows with a few browns. Most were 16-19".

Was very surprised at just how dry it already is in Park County. There little to no snow left at the top of Kenosha Pass. E side of the divide could be looking at a short runoff this year.

[DeeAre]

Looks like it'll be socked in for the next several days... please tell me someone is out crushing trout. Baetis should be moving steadily.

[gretch6364]

No fishing this weekend....it is time for some POWDER!

[gretch6364]

Does anyone have any suggestions for Front Range fishing this weekend (5/1 & 5/2)?

The weather looks like a high of 55/54 and a chance of rain/snow for Denver....so the fishing should be pretty good.

What about the Ark down in Pueblo? Or in Salida? Maybe get an afternoon BWO hatch?

Any suggestions would be appreciate....kind of hard to tell what the flows will be like...suppose to be 60 today in the high country and then chill down the rest of the week.

Thanks

[Chowda]

Spent the day yesterday on the the Williams Fork and Colorado (above Parshall).

I'd heard a few good WF reports last week and expected some good action. We were really disappointed. Only a few BWOs and midges popping despite mostly cloudy skies and the fish were staying down. The flows were still fairly low and water was clear. I noticed this morning they bumped up flows out of the res so maybe the temp change slowed things down. Productivity wise it seemed everyone on the river got into one fish, which was true for our group as well. We produced on streamers and RS2s.

After lunch we went up stream on the Colorado. A quick seine at the foot of a riffle was full of bugs. Large dark stones sz 8-10, small 18 golden stones, mayflies sz 16-22, bright green caddis larva, and midge larva in all sizes. I had good success with a pat's rubberleggs and a red tinsle midge nymph rig fished right at the top of the shallow runs coming out of the riffles. Landed 14 12"-18" browns and rainbows in about 2.5 hours, and lost/missed about 8 more. The fish were all over the stones, with an occasional take on the midge. The water was slightly off color but quite low for the colorado.

[DeeAre]

Fished clear creek yesterday for a couple of hours. Hooked up with a little cuttie on an rs2, missed some others. clarity was meh, bunches of caddis, but zero splashes or noses. i know there are fish in there, just don't know how many.

Bottom line, Clear Creek is ghetto & gross.

[gretch6364]

Derider...next time you want to fish there, just let me know and I will show you some good spots. There are lots of fish in there and the fishing can actually be really good as long as you don't mind the sound of the highway.

[RonMexico]

anybody make it out on the eagle for the mother's day caddis hatch?

[Frank]

Clear Lake above Gtown today, Good fishing after 1 with an egg pattern

[gretch6364]

Anyone have any good ideas for decent wade fishing this weekend? It has been pretty warm this week so flows are going to be HIGH!

[72Twenty]

Heads up to you Colorado guys... My friend who is also a guide is moving to the Fort Collins area this summer and will be guiding in NorCo. I don't know exactly which shop yet (I will ask him) but he is a TOP NOTCH guide. He was our guide on the Platte in my recent TR. His name is Stuart Birdsong and if you are looking for a guide to take you out in NorCO or southern Wyoming (like on the Upper North Platte) I HIGHLY recommend him.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Anyone have any good ideas for decent wade fishing this weekend? It has been pretty warm this week so flows are going to be HIGH!

How far do you want to drive? With the low snow levels in the Fryingpan Valley the flows out of the damn have been kept pretty low and some big fish have been pulled out recently. Although the crowds will probably be out in force this weekend since the Fork is way up and it's a holiday.