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9/1: THE FIRST DAY OF FALL: In many parts of the country the beginning of fall marks the ending of the fishing season. Here it's not that situation and we feel blessed to be able to enjoy our favorite sport all year round.
Today my friend & I traveled early down to the lower Eagle in an effort to get into some really biiigggg ones. It didn't work out that way (the big ones), but we still had fun. A quick breakfast in the town of Eagle was followed by a short turnaround trip to Gypsum and back up the freeway to a stop just past the Gypsum Creek Ponds where we'd had wonderful success the previous week.
Something was different this day. The water was cloudy and given the early morning hour, we had to turn to nymphs rather than the comparaduns that had worked so well previously. Still the fishing was not all bad. We had several strikes and landed a few fish, the best of which was a robust 15 inch bow. Fish preferred a #14 standard prince nymph and rejected all other offerings.
Heading up past the town of Eagle, we ran into kabillions of out-of-area license plates and fishermen clogging almost every hole. After all, it is Labor Day, so what did we have the right to expect? We hiked to an out of the way run, fished it hard, and came up with a couple of modest rainbows and some equally modest browns. Here the water had cleared slightly and we were able to use the #20 OS-1's that proved so popular the week before.
As we were running short on time (Broncos game was starting), we quickly fished one more spot, landed a couple of more rainbows and then headed back home. Decent fishing, but not great. It'll get better now that hordes of people will no longer be heading up this way.
NOTE THAT THIS WILL BE THE LAST ENTRY UNTIL ROUGHLY SEPTEMBER 22. Headed out to Oregon for a couple of weeks and lots of fishing on the Deschutes, Mckenzie, and the Umpquas. Plan to take my laptop & keep up with the fishing log, so please check back after that date.
9/3: OK - SO I LIED JUST A LITTLE BIT: This was an unplanned entry, but I couldn't resist. As I'm trying to leave for Oregon tomorrow and just jamming - flying around between Eagle and Aspen picking up my month end data; then having to convert it to online files, etc. I thought there was no chance of fishing today.
But on the way back to Vail after quick stops in both the above named towns, as I was heading up I-70 past Gypsum, I slammed on the brakes and scrambled down the hill to a run that we fished last weekend. Leaving on the #20 OS-1 and casting into the first riffle, after six quick casts I got into a beautiful 17" rainbow that took me 100 yards downstream before I could land & release him/her.
Things remained productive for the next 30 minutes as I landed another five fish, lost an 18 incher, and had that many again strikes. One brown was among the pack. That's the first of that ilk I've ever seen in this water. A nice ending to a long day and a great start for the Oregon trip. Come back around September 20, for a full report on the Umpquas, Deschutes, & McKenzie.
9/5 - 9/20: THE OREGON REPORT
9/22: IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME: Fishing the Deschutes was a treat, but in all honesty I'll take my home Colorado waters any day. After watching the Chiefs slip past the Broncos this afternoon I got my first fishing in on Gore Creek since getting back to Vail a couple of days ago. Biking out to the golf course area I set up with a tiny comparadun and similar sized caddis as searching flies.
Trout were rising sporadically although I didn't see much in the air. The first good stretch was frustrating as it produced absolutely nothing. Changing to a #20 OS-1 and "S" fly of the same size I re-fished this normally great water and again drew a blank. Moved up to the next hole, increased the split shot weight, and good things finally started to happen. A couple of fish hooked - one of easily 15 inches, and then the next pool produced four fish - one of which was 14.
After that success each good looking pool or run came through with either strikes or landed fish. All in all, probably touched a dozen fish in a couple of hours of having at it. One strike was extraordinary as the trout wrenched the line out of both my hands and broke off instantly. Suspect he had to be in the 16-18 inch range.
9/24: TWO FISH DO NOT A GREAT DAY MAKE: But they're a whole lot better than none. My semi-monthly trip to the county offices promised to be a wash out for fishing due to last night's wild thunderstorms. But lo & behold when I exited the Clerk's place at 11:30, the river was only mildly murky.
So I drove up past the worst influx of mud at Alkali Creek and walked across the railroad bridge fishing upstream with a soft hackle prince nymph. Shortly I landed a listless, albeit 14" long, rainbow. The rest of the hike produced only a couple more strikes, but finally one other 14" bow with more of an attitude. He almost got into my backing. So not great fishing, but better by far than none at all.
9/28: TWO BROWNS DO NOT A GREAT DAY MAKE: My friend from Denver, Sue & I took a short break from watching college football this Saturday & raced down to the I-70 bridge area by Eagle-Vail and tried our luck with the generally cooperative browns in this pocket water.
You already know the results. I don't know what caused the lack of success. We cast dries, wets, and whatever else with little success over the couple of hours we struggled here. The only fish caught came to the surface. The fish were there. The water was cold. I remain clueless.
9/28: MORE FUN ON THE LOWER EAGLE: It was a nice sunny Sunday and we looked forward to greater success given warmer temperatures, etc. Heading to Gypsum, we did the turnaround there and parked at a favorite spot above the Gypsum Ponds. It has consistently produced wonderful rainbows during the late summer.
So did it today? Not! We tried the ever popular RS-2's, OS-1's and everything else we had under the surface without success. OK - the river is up about six-eight inches from normal and it is ccccooooollllldddd. A snowstorm two days ago has produced melt, not only raising river levels, but coloring the water as well. At least that's my excuse.
Packing up after a frustrating hour with only a strike apiece, we reloaded our digestive systems with a Whopper at the Eagle Burger King and drove up through the lease water above the town. Action came more quickly in this stretch. The warmer air and water temps produced a BWO hatch of modest proportions and the fish sipped our comparaduns lightly, yet with gusto. Several nice rainbows, browns, and one beautiful cutthroat came to hand. All fell to one or another of the comparaduns.
After spending a half hour locating the dog that had accompanied us on this venture, we headed further upstream to another favorite stretch. My god, was this one fun! We crossed the stream - she headed down to a good riffle & I stayed at the big pool. Immediately fish heads started popping leisurely from the surface as every trout in the river came up for some tiny duns that had settled on the water. I caught a 16 inch rainbow immediately and raced downstream to get my partner up to this nirvana. She returned and proceeded to outfish me for the next hour. Her dun looked better than mine, I guess. Or maybe she looked better than me. Or was it that she just did things better. Who knows. Anyway it was really fun to see all those heads poking up through the film and being able to sight cast to trout rising, something we don't often do here.
So that was that. One more upstream stop and another 16 inch lethargic, but attractive rainbow and we were done for the day. It was a good one.
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