December, 1998
12/2: ONLY THREE FISH TO HAND today on the Eagle, but that's a big improvement from the past weekend. A really gorgeous day - shirtsleeve weather - and the stream is running gin clear. I fished a couple of favorite spots and had another couple of fish on, but as the water's still extremely cold, the strikes are difficult to detect.
The two browns landed (10" & 14") each came to an egg fly imitation, but at least this means the browns are through their post spawn sulking. The nice hen rainbow took a #20 BWO nymph. The flies were rigged as a double and fished deep.
12/3: ARE TWO FISH BETTER THAN THREE? Not likely. The Aspen trip today in beautiful weather again brought an opportunity to fish the Roaring Fork in Glenwood Springs on my way home. The river's in wonderful shape - a nice BWO hatch was in progress - and my success was shall we say poor. I actually called it other names. Threw everything in the book at the trout. Nothing was rising, but I did have plenty of BWO nymphs, emergers, etc.
In no particular order, here are the flies I tried: stone, bead head stone, prince, bead head prince, cased caddis, bead head caddis emerger, dark wing BWO emerger, light wing, etc. ad nauseum. Handed only two fish - rainbows between 14-15 inches. One took a #20 BWO dark wing emerger and the other took a #20 BWO comparadun. Go figure.
12/10: We've had two weeks of brutally cold, dry weather. The fishing can't even be described as marginal. Today when I traveled to Eagle hoping to at least wet a line on the way back, the river was completely frozen over in all my favorite places. But I did pedal out to Gore Creek along the golf course when I got back home and was overjoyed to land one 8" rainbow. Had two other fish on for a second or so, but that was it. It's really a change of pace to simply get excited about any form of life at the end of the line.
Ambient temperatures are in the teens at best right now. We need to have Sue catch a fish soon to keep her record intact of at least one trout per month for the year. It's going to be tough unless the temperatures warm at least a bit.
12/14 & 15: Ah, success at last for Sue. Her attempt to catch at least one trout per month during 1998 in a local stream was culminated today with the landing of a beautiful 13" rainbow in Gore Creek. It took a small red midge and her screams could be heard for miles.
I caught nothing that day, but yesterday was able to land a couple of decent browns on the Eagle near Dowd Junction. They took a bead head black winged prince and a red bead bodied egg fly respectively. There's so little open water now - with the frigid temperatures - that it's really difficult to even find a place to cast, so even a strike by itself is joyful.
12/17: It's really time to quit for the year. The fishing's terribly difficult and unproductive - even though I really need a "fix" from time to time by getting out on a stream. Tried the Eagle above Gypsum today for a half hour with no success at all. The ice extends roughly a third of the way into the river everywhere leaving only a tiny ribbon of open water down the middle. Walking out on the ice in an attempt to make a halfway decent cast is terrifying at best. So this may be the last report of the year. Hopefully we'll eventually get a bit of snow from which some melting will cause the ice to break open once in a while.
Back to Vail OnLine , the Main Fishing Page, the 1998 Diary, or check on stream flows.