10/1: A MIXED BAG ON THE EAGLE: Over the weekend I tied up a couple dozen of the loop winged spinners described in this month's Fly Fisherman magazine. Should have had some of this type with me all summer, especially at Crater Lake, but that's life. Better late than never. Anyway I was excited to try them on those bulging fish we ran into last Sunday, so with a nice day at hand, I raced back down to the Eagle below Wolcott and rigged up for some hopefully, heavy action.
Wading across to the stretch we fished that day, sure enough the trout were rolling again although not quite as actively. Because I still had a #20 Olive OS-1 on the dropper, I left it there more or less out of disinterest. My primary hope was a #18 BWO spinner that went at the far end of the leader. Suffice it to say, what I thought would happen did not and vice versus. Several strikes occurred before landing a nice 15" rainbow - of course to the afterthought nymph.
More strikes followed and all the fish came to the dangling nymph. I may be an idiot, but at least I'm a lucky one! So the emergers were in vogue this day, not the spinners. This pattern remained with me until the wind crept up to what we windsurfers would call "time to rig down to the 3.3". At that point all hope of continued dry fly casting disappeared.
So I changed back to a double nymph rig of a peeking caddis up front and the same olive OS-1 at the end. For the rest of the afternoon fish took both patterns. It turned out to be not a great day, but at least somewhat productive. The trout just wanted a good presentation and something that looked tasty.
10/2: EVERYONE DESERVES A DAY LIKE THIS!: A truly miserable morning of inputting a couple of hundred sales transfers at the Eagle County Clerk's office with their system going down every other half hour definitely did not enhance my personality. But I got through it, grabbed a quick burger lunch, and drove upstream out of town to one of the first sections of the DOW lease water on the Eagle.
Although no rise forms were evident, I was intent on continuing to try the surface/nymph rig of a #18 loop wing BWO trailed by a #18 BWO nymph. It turned out to be the perfect combination today. When some warm up casts in the first run produced nothing, my attitude deteriorated further. But the next gentle riffle brought some terrific action.
In a half hour that stretch produced seven wonderful trout - all but one were fat rainbows and all were over 13 inches in length. Any one of these fish would have made my day a great day. Roughly that many strikes were missed, but it didn't matter. Life was good again! Heading upstream I passed a couple of desirable spots because other fishermen were present. But clambering down at the next flat pool, the rises were again evident. And the action was hot & heavy again. Fish weren't quite as large here, but none were under 10 inches - the best topping out at 15.
Making one last stop further upstream, the hatch had stopped but I continued to cast with the same rig. Straight nymphing would have been more productive, but it was so pleasant and warm outside that I couldn't stop doing what worked so well. Finally in the last eddy before exiting the stream, two nice fish came to the dry and one more to the wet.
A really wonderful two & a half hours of fishing probably resulted in a fish landed every five minutes or so. The loop wing is a great fly for this time of year and the baetis nymph was almost as productive. Fished together, they're a deadly combination. The Roaring Fork is next on Friday.
10/4: THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A GREAT DAY TOO: But it wasn't. The trip to Aspen left me with strained eyes and a short temper after inputting three hundred more sales transfers at Eagle & in Aspen. If the real estate business would slow down seasonally, I'd be a lot happier.
With little time to spare I hopped out of my car in Glenwood and raced downstream to one of my favorite stretches of the Roaring Fork. It was in weird shape. Apparently due to the snowstorm a week ago & subsequent snow melt, the river is high and mildly discolored. But I tried the old standbys anyway. No luck with the prince, ditto the beadhead peeking caddis, and ditto the olive baetis. The other problem is that the river is still clogged with that green moss that attaches itself to the hook of any sunken fly on almost every cast.
So I gave up. Putting on another loop wing dun, I cast my way rapidly up towards the Sunlight bridge and finally hooked and landed two small (10 & 12 inch) rainbows. And that was it for the day. For what it's worth, if you're headed up this way over the weekend, be aware that the fish are moving back to their late runoff spots - and that applies to both the Eagle, Colorado, and Roaring Fork. So you'll have to change tactics if you want more success than I had today.
10/6: SLOW ACTION IN THE "LAND THAT TIME FORGOT": With only three hours to spare out on the water today I headed down to my favorite brown trout section of the Eagle. Although sunny as could be, the day was crisp and I was reminded that it's about time to put the neoprene back on for the winter. Wet wading is a little bit too much right now.
There was no surface action at all. The fish all appeared to be deep & sluggish. I got periodic nudges, but nothing connected for an hour and a half. Finally hooked & landed three indifferent browns between 10-14 inches. They all came to a #18 OS-1. But I had tried everything else in the book prior to that. It was a beautiful day with the aspens & cottonwoods still in their golden fall dress, but frankly the fishing stunk. Tomorrow I go to Glenwood, so perhaps the lower Eagle will be better on my way home.
10/7: THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A GOOD DAY: But it wasn't. At least the sun shone brightly and the ambient temperatures were the best they've been in two weeks. A stop at one of my favorite riffles between Gypsum & Eagle quickly resulted in a gorgeous 18' rainbow hooked and landed on a tiny OS-1. So why wasn't this a good day? Because that was the last fish landed today.
Working the upstream runs produced four more tentative strikes and no hookups. When my friend, Bill, finally showed up, he had one strike and nothing else either. Heading up into the lease water above Eagle, I stopped at a commonly fished pool & saw a few heads bulging through the film. Casting with tiny dries, floating nymphs, mid sinking nymphs, and deep nymphs lured a great big zero to the hook. With one last hope I headed to another upstream pool and watched fish rising more aggressively.
So with a swig of Bill's chardonnay to kill the hunger pangs that crossed my tummy, I went once more into the breach. This time there were three strikes, but still no hookups. What a weird day. Things are going to pick up though, as hatches were more active the longer we were on the water. There were lots of midges, a few large fall caddis, and at least four types of mayflies, all of which came on later in the afternoon. For better or worse I leave for Lake Powell and some smallmouth fishing on Wednesday (the 9th), so you'll have to wait for a report on that action until at least the 15th.
10/8: I SMELL A GREAT WEEK AHEAD: Getting ready to leave for Lake Powell tomorrow, the sun was bright as a new penny and temperatures were going up. Couldn't stand the catch-up computer work any longer, so took an hour's break on Gore Creek. Difficult fishing still prevails, but you can just sense that summer's coming back for a short break.
The water's clear, wet wading is tolerable if not completely pleasant, and best of all, hatches are starting again in earnest. Midges were everywhere gliding and ovipositing. Some small green tinged caddis were present, and I even saw a few fall caddis like on the Deschutes. Don't think I'd ever try to fish with an imitation - I suspect the fish dive for cover every time one of those monsters drops down to the water.
Anyway I caught one fish on a loop wing and another half dozen on #20 RS-2's and Serendipities. My tiny nymphs look like giants in the stream compared to most of the naturals around. But fish were coming to the surface, and I'll bet they'll be up in droves as the water temps rise later this week.
10/9-10/15: THE FALL LAKE POWELL TRIP:
10/18: A LITTLE BIT OF FUN ON GORE CREEK: It's been a few days since getting back from the bass trip to Powell - and trying to get caught up on the backed up business stuff. It snowed hard here a couple of days ago. The temperatures are low each morning (in the teens).
This afternoon when I should have been finishing up some code, I couldn't stand looking at the sunshine anymore, so hopped on the bike & headed out to the golf course to try Gore Creek again. Ambient was in the 50's, but water temps were frigid (I'm still wet wading). Lots of midges were coming off when I arrived and one or two of those gargantuan fall caddis..
Nonetheless I rigged up with a double nymph setup of peacock serendipty up front and a #20 OS-1 at the far end. The first couple of spots produced nothing. Then at "Nevermiss Hole", I hooked & landed a 12" rainbow. Thank god for no skunks today. The next few spots further up the golf course (no one's playing any more) produced another four fish - all bows - and none as large as the first.
It didn't matter. I love the small fish as much as the large ones. Seeing the little ones means the whirling disease hasn't conquered our water yet. If it doesn't snow too hard this weekend, we may try the Eagle on Sunday.
10/23: A PLEASANT HOUR ON THE EAGLE: It's been way too long since I made my last cast. But the weather's been cold & snowy and snow is still on the ground all the way to the mouth of the Eagle. A necessary trip to the county offices today supplied a couple of opportunities. First, I'm putting together what may be called "The Definitive Eagle River Access Page." It should consist of a rough map, plus descriptions of public access points all along the river.
While this page may not be popular with local guide services, it should be useful to the casual fisher person visitor who comes up here without a clue where to start. Hopefully a rough draft will appear on the main fishing page within a couple of weeks.
And of course the other opportunity was that of getting a chance to throw the fly in the river. Only had an hour or so to hop on the water. Tried one favorite spot between Gypsum & Eagle for 20 minutes or so without success. So as I raced upstream recording my access intervals, I looked for and found another place to pull off. This was more productive. It's a tough pool to fish, being clear, quite flat, and easily accessible.
Using on of my small #20 semblance flies it took not too many casts to land five decent rainbows (10-14 inches). The fish were wary and it took rather long, carefully mended casts to successfully hook them. They took well, didn't fight as they do in the summer, and I suspect they've pretty much settled into their winter holding patterns. If things go well and it doesn't snow too much, I may try to get back on the river tomorrow.
10/24: THERE'S A MAJOR SNOWSTORM HEADING OUR WAY: And that's going to put the kibosh on fishing for the next several days. So I took an hour off from databasing and drove down to the Squaw Creek parcel on the Eagle. Kept on the little semblence fly from yesterday and started casting the deeper, slower areas of this stretch of water. Wind came up in advance of the storm and it was just damned cold.
Shortly to my amazement I hooked a very fine rainbow which unfortunately fought about as aggressively a wet loaf of bread. This was a really nice fish of probably two pounds. He was as fat as one of our local hibernating bears but had absolutely zero spunk. The take was extremely light. Barely felt it.
The next 20 minutes produced only a couple more delicate takes, but no hookups. Then a nibble became a connection to a nice brown of roughly 13 inches. He actually jumped once. A miracle! So that was more fun. And that was all the fun. Now I'm back at the computer. Probably no more fishing for 5-6 days.
10/27: JUST A TINY BIT OF SUCCESS ON GORE CREEK: The snowstorm came & went, so we went out on the golf course area of Gore Creek for a little casting before the Sunday football game. Water was clear & low, but the action was realllllly slow. In an hour's time I managed to land only one small brown and three slightly larger rainbows (under 12"). All came to a #20 OS-1. My friend Sue tried a contrarian approach by casting a large Mickey Finn in a nymph type drift and miraculously actually had two strikes although no landed fish. And that was it for the day.
10/30: THE BLUE WAS AT AN EXCELLENT LEVEL as I drove back from Denver today. But the fishing wasn't. A morning stopoff promised some excitement on this difficult stream in the heart of Silverthorne. It was not to be. After two casts I was breaking ice off the rod. Couldn't throw line through the frozen guides. Hands froze up. Landed two token fish - one brown, one bow - on a tiny os-1. Headed for the nearest cup of coffee and then drove home.
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