everything in my life - including sleep. But a four hour loan of the
dog to some close friends allowed time for a trip to the town of Eagle to gather property
transfer data and allowed an hour of casting on the river of that same name.September, 1998
9/1: Too much rain and murky water conditions led to a bland couple of hours of fishing on the middle Eagle. We nymphed. some normally excellent rainbow water just above Gypsum and then again just above the town of Eagle with very limited success. My few fish ranged between 12-16 inches and all took a #20 cdc winged rs-2 modification fished deep behind a small black stone. My partner had a bit better luck on the stone, but water that would usually yield a couple dozen fish allowed us less than a third of that number.
9/3: Astonishingly good fishing on the ROARING FORK. A really long day of doing data input left me with only limited energy to hop out of the car at the Sunshine Bridge in Glenwood with the hopes of maybe hooking a fish or two in the hour I had left to spend on the water. But wow, what a surprise that hour turned out to be. The combo rig of a #14 dark stone trailed by a #18 cdc emerger - both fished deep was devastating to the fish today.
The first run produced three nice rainbows, one 12" brown, and four whitefish - all over two pounds. With little time to spare I left the run only partially fished. Upstream the same results occurred over and over again. At the end of my hour (and a quarter) I'd probably landed 20 fish, lost half that many again, and missed a similar number of strikes. The best fish of the day was a chunky 19" brown that may have weighed almost three pounds. All the critters were fat as butterballs and healthy as could be. Just wonder about a couple of lunkers played and lost.
9/4-9/6: A few hours of casting on Gore Creek and a hike to Crater Lake brought lackluster results. The lake was most disappointing as it can be terrific fishing when a decent hatch of any sort is in progress. We had no success at all on surface flies and only a few strikes on wooly buggers fished along the bottom. But the hike was fun, and we did encounter a family of mountain goats on the way up the mountain. Shortly we will head out on the annual fall trip to Oregon and this year plan on fishing the Donner & Blitzen River near the Steens - as well as the Umpqua, McKenzie, and Deschutes.
9/7: These days alternate ups and downs much like the stock market. The EAGLE fished wonderfully well this afternoon for a couple of hours. As the water was quite clear in the Red Canyon section, we opted for the currently popular double nymph rig of a #14 dark stone up front and a #20 CDC OS-2 emerger fished deeply behind it. Seven fish or so came to alternatively each fly in the first section, a riffle produced three or four hookups and the next fast water above a flat brought several rainbows & browns to hand on a surface rig of comparadun & emerger. Great fishing on a scorchingly hot day - no clouds at all. So it's off to Oregon tomorrow.
9/10-9/19: Here's a report on the fall OREGON TRIP.
9/24: Babysitting a nine week old Australian Shepherd puppy has
put a crimp on virtually everything in my life - including sleep. But a four hour loan of the
dog to some close friends allowed time for a trip to the town of Eagle to gather property
transfer data and allowed an hour of casting on the river of that same name.
Water temperatures are cooling, the stream is low and clear, and the trout were fussy. The standard nymph rig of small black stone and trailing os-1 took one fat 18" brown right off the bat, but then nothing for the next half hour. But when a tiny blue winged olive landed on my left hand and refused to leave, changing to emergers of that type proved productive. Neither browns nor rainbows would touch a comparadun, but the emergers in sizes 20 and 22 brought strikes in almost every holding area. So for the rest of my hour of happiness, I had on probably 12 fish of both species ranging in sizes from 12 - 18 inches. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to head over to the Roaring Fork valley for some fishing on that river and on the Crystal.
9/26-27: A couple of trips on the Eagle were productive this weekend. The browns are active in preparation for spawning, and the rainbows are also feeding heavily to lay on some fat before winter. Although a strong red quill hatch was in evidence fish really weren't coming to the surface. The best flies turned out to be a double emerger rig of a #18 tannish colored emerger up front trailed by a #20 or #22 BWO emerger. A #1 split shot provided plenty of weight to get this down to the feeding fish in the slower flows that now prevail on the river.
Back to Vail OnLine , the Main Fishing Page, the 1998 Diary, or check on stream flows.