spilunkr
07-14-2007, 09:36 AM
Thursday's forecast was pretty nasty calling for a front accompanied by thunderstorms and rain to move through northern Colorado. But by mid-morning the sun was out and it looked like the front had gone through as looking towards the mountains the sky appeared to be clearing. So at noon I grabbed my waders, vest and rod and headed up the Poudre River canyon. But the further up the canyon I went, the darker the sky got. By the time I got to where I wanted it was 1:30 and the rain started to fall as I turned off the ignition. Although it was totally overcast the showers were sporadic, there was qutie a bit of thunder but no lightning. So I got rigged up while waiting for the rain to stop.
I was about 30 miles up the canyon at a place called Indian Meadow. It is about 2 miles into the first of two catch and release areas on the Poudre. Unfortunately at this point I found that the batteries on my camera needed to be replaced and my back up batteries were also spent. So ther would be no pictures.
The Cache La Poudre River is still high from snow melt flowing at about 550 cfs at the mouth of the canyon. Where I was it was probably still about 400 cfs, more than enough to make wading tricky. So I basically just worked the shoreline pockets and near shore slicks. I started with a #12 Stimulator dry fly but with no action after 20 minutes I went to nymphing. I rigged up a #8 golden stonefly nymph with a #14 olive hare's ear dropper above it.
The first cast with the nymph rig and I hooked up with an 11" brown. In the first hour I landed 5 browns from 9" to 11" all on the olive hare's ear. In the next hour, without changing flies, I landed 7 browns from 9" to 13" and oddly enough all but one was on the golden stone nymph. At that point I was fishing an eddy against a cliff that came down to the water on the side of the river I was fishing. The last two fish I got on nymphs were the two nicest at 12" and 13". At that point I had to climb around the short rock face as it was to deep to wade. When I got back to the water on the other side of the cliff face, I hooked a nice fish on my next cast but it went down deep and out into the heavy current and the hook pulled out.
While I was checking my leader to see if my fly was still there, I happened to see a rise in a slick area behind a rock just upstream from where I was standing. Looking closely, I started to notice the blue wing olives that had finally begun hatching. Pretty soon there were a couple more rises so I switched over to a dry # 16 blue wing olive and that's when the fun really began. Over the next hour and a quarter I hooked 10 fish landing 8, all browns. The other two got out into the heavy current where the hook pulled out. But the really nice thing was the size of the fish really increased. Every fish that hit the dry was at least 12" and a couple went 15" with most of them around 14". Definitely nicer fish than I been catching in recent weeks.
But, by then it was 5:00 and the sky had gotten really dark and a harder rain started to fall with lots of thunder. So I started back to the car. But the rain was short lived and when I got to my car ten minutes later the sun was starting to peak through. However, it was time to head home. The Poudre River has 65 miles of trout water upstream from the mouth of the canyon and so far I've only made it half way up the canyon. While I was rigging up when I'd first arrived, someone from the Division of Wildlife stopped to give me a Poudre fishing survey card to fill out. We talked a bit and he said in his opinion, the best fishing was still another 10 miles up the canyon in the second C&R section. But, that will be another trip.
Guy
I was about 30 miles up the canyon at a place called Indian Meadow. It is about 2 miles into the first of two catch and release areas on the Poudre. Unfortunately at this point I found that the batteries on my camera needed to be replaced and my back up batteries were also spent. So ther would be no pictures.
The Cache La Poudre River is still high from snow melt flowing at about 550 cfs at the mouth of the canyon. Where I was it was probably still about 400 cfs, more than enough to make wading tricky. So I basically just worked the shoreline pockets and near shore slicks. I started with a #12 Stimulator dry fly but with no action after 20 minutes I went to nymphing. I rigged up a #8 golden stonefly nymph with a #14 olive hare's ear dropper above it.
The first cast with the nymph rig and I hooked up with an 11" brown. In the first hour I landed 5 browns from 9" to 11" all on the olive hare's ear. In the next hour, without changing flies, I landed 7 browns from 9" to 13" and oddly enough all but one was on the golden stone nymph. At that point I was fishing an eddy against a cliff that came down to the water on the side of the river I was fishing. The last two fish I got on nymphs were the two nicest at 12" and 13". At that point I had to climb around the short rock face as it was to deep to wade. When I got back to the water on the other side of the cliff face, I hooked a nice fish on my next cast but it went down deep and out into the heavy current and the hook pulled out.
While I was checking my leader to see if my fly was still there, I happened to see a rise in a slick area behind a rock just upstream from where I was standing. Looking closely, I started to notice the blue wing olives that had finally begun hatching. Pretty soon there were a couple more rises so I switched over to a dry # 16 blue wing olive and that's when the fun really began. Over the next hour and a quarter I hooked 10 fish landing 8, all browns. The other two got out into the heavy current where the hook pulled out. But the really nice thing was the size of the fish really increased. Every fish that hit the dry was at least 12" and a couple went 15" with most of them around 14". Definitely nicer fish than I been catching in recent weeks.
But, by then it was 5:00 and the sky had gotten really dark and a harder rain started to fall with lots of thunder. So I started back to the car. But the rain was short lived and when I got to my car ten minutes later the sun was starting to peak through. However, it was time to head home. The Poudre River has 65 miles of trout water upstream from the mouth of the canyon and so far I've only made it half way up the canyon. While I was rigging up when I'd first arrived, someone from the Division of Wildlife stopped to give me a Poudre fishing survey card to fill out. We talked a bit and he said in his opinion, the best fishing was still another 10 miles up the canyon in the second C&R section. But, that will be another trip.
Guy