spilunkr
04-21-2007, 10:48 AM
Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day here in Colorado, bright sun and 72. After a morning of things to do around the house I grab my gear and head out for some fishing. Pulling out of the driveway and looking west was snow capped Longs Peak, the northernmost “fourteener” in CO. As the crow flies it is about 45 miles away.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b58a8d77f00000016109AZM2bZu2ba
I was getting a fairly late start and needed to be home early as we were going to an evening outdoor event at a local radio station featuring free music, food and best of all beer from a local micro brewery – O’Dells! So I decided to fish the Big Thompson at the mouth of the canyon instead of further up where I normally fish. Here the canyon is very narrow with steep walls several hundred feet high on either side of the river.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b581b56fc00000015109AZM2bZu2ba
Reports on the local fly shop’s web site indicated that blue wing olives were becoming active. Hatch activity was still spotty - good some days absent on others. But the hatch was becoming more consistent. I started fishing about 12:30 and there were already some BWO’s in the air. But, I could not see any rises. So I started with a #6 bead head golden stonefly nymph with a pheasant tail nymph dropper a foot above it.
Working up through the fast water runs and pockets I got 9 or 10 fish over the course of the next two hours. Mostly browns running from 8” to 11” along with one cutbow a bit over 12”. During the first hour all the fish but one was on the stonefly nymph. During the second hour all were on the PT.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b58f7561000000016109AZM2bZu2ba
I finally reached a big back eddy located in a notch of the canyon wall. The river makes an abrupt right turn as it hits the wall. The eddy is about 30’ long by 20’ deep at it’s widest point.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b5810d7c700000016109AZM2bZu2ba
After a couple of untouched drifts with the nymph I noticed a couple of rises along the foam line. Pretty soon there were several fish rising. So I switched to a #20 BWO dry. A couple of casts later a nice brown was fast to my fly. I backed up about five feet out of the current in order to release the fish. As I was drying the fly I turned around and noticed that I was within rod’s length of a lesser Canada Goose sitting on her nest. She was pretty calm about the situation, much more so than dad when he showed up a half hour later. After a quick picture, it was back to fishing.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b581556f200000016109AZM2bZu2ba
Most of the rising fish were taking flies trapped in the foam and there were a lot of flies in the foam. But, while the activity lasted, I managed a half dozen – four browns and two cutbows. At one point I noticed some rises that I thought might be a better fish in a far corner of the eddy. It took a few casts into the corner, but eventually the fish hit my fly. It turned out to be the nicest fish of the day – a cutbow of about 13 ½” to 14”.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b597e973100000026109AZM2bZu2ba
At about 3:45 it was like someone flipped a switch. Over the course of about 5 minutes every fish that had been rising stopped. There were still a lot of adult BWO’s on the water but the fish were not interested. I’m guessing what they had been doing was feeding on emergers that were struggling in the foam/water surface interface. When the hatching stopped, so to did the feeding fish even though there were countless adults sitting on the foam.
But, by then it was time to head home and a free cold one.
Guy
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b58a8d77f00000016109AZM2bZu2ba
I was getting a fairly late start and needed to be home early as we were going to an evening outdoor event at a local radio station featuring free music, food and best of all beer from a local micro brewery – O’Dells! So I decided to fish the Big Thompson at the mouth of the canyon instead of further up where I normally fish. Here the canyon is very narrow with steep walls several hundred feet high on either side of the river.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b581b56fc00000015109AZM2bZu2ba
Reports on the local fly shop’s web site indicated that blue wing olives were becoming active. Hatch activity was still spotty - good some days absent on others. But the hatch was becoming more consistent. I started fishing about 12:30 and there were already some BWO’s in the air. But, I could not see any rises. So I started with a #6 bead head golden stonefly nymph with a pheasant tail nymph dropper a foot above it.
Working up through the fast water runs and pockets I got 9 or 10 fish over the course of the next two hours. Mostly browns running from 8” to 11” along with one cutbow a bit over 12”. During the first hour all the fish but one was on the stonefly nymph. During the second hour all were on the PT.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b58f7561000000016109AZM2bZu2ba
I finally reached a big back eddy located in a notch of the canyon wall. The river makes an abrupt right turn as it hits the wall. The eddy is about 30’ long by 20’ deep at it’s widest point.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b5810d7c700000016109AZM2bZu2ba
After a couple of untouched drifts with the nymph I noticed a couple of rises along the foam line. Pretty soon there were several fish rising. So I switched to a #20 BWO dry. A couple of casts later a nice brown was fast to my fly. I backed up about five feet out of the current in order to release the fish. As I was drying the fly I turned around and noticed that I was within rod’s length of a lesser Canada Goose sitting on her nest. She was pretty calm about the situation, much more so than dad when he showed up a half hour later. After a quick picture, it was back to fishing.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b581556f200000016109AZM2bZu2ba
Most of the rising fish were taking flies trapped in the foam and there were a lot of flies in the foam. But, while the activity lasted, I managed a half dozen – four browns and two cutbows. At one point I noticed some rises that I thought might be a better fish in a far corner of the eddy. It took a few casts into the corner, but eventually the fish hit my fly. It turned out to be the nicest fish of the day – a cutbow of about 13 ½” to 14”.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7da00b3127cce836b597e973100000026109AZM2bZu2ba
At about 3:45 it was like someone flipped a switch. Over the course of about 5 minutes every fish that had been rising stopped. There were still a lot of adult BWO’s on the water but the fish were not interested. I’m guessing what they had been doing was feeding on emergers that were struggling in the foam/water surface interface. When the hatching stopped, so to did the feeding fish even though there were countless adults sitting on the foam.
But, by then it was time to head home and a free cold one.
Guy