July, 2023

7/11: Made my first stab at fishing one of our local favorites, the Eagle this afternoon. Though flows are still way too high, I needed to get out on the water for a change of pace.  The river is packed with fisher people - rafts, drift boats, and the waders are out en masse.  But there are still spots on this popular stream to still get away from everyone.

Started out down below the town of Eagle and had rigged up with a double nymph set up as it was a hot afternoon so assumed the fish would likely to be on the bottom.  Wrong again.  Spent a few minutes working the first eddy down deep with no success but noticed some quick rises on the surface and changed to a yellow sally.  That pretty much matched the bugs laying eggs on the water and had a bit of success right away.  Missed far more strikes than I should have but recognize that it takes some time to get back in the striking groove.

At the next couple of stops upstream the flows were way too heavy to have any chance at good luck,  Kept going to one last place where a nymphed bead head caddis had modest success.  Just nice to be on the water again.  Tomorrow we're traveling down south to try the headwaters of the Rio Grande and its tributaries for a couple of days.

7/13-14:  Just back from this solo trip and still pooped by the length of the drive (mostly).  It had its ups and downs, but at the end was what I'd call a spectacular couple of hours of fishing.  The stream will not be named as it's not been fished to destruction yet - nor do we hope it will be in the future.  Started the three day outing on the Gunnison above and below the forks down by Pleasure Park.  While it wasn't a complete dud of a fishing session, it sure wasn't what we're used to on that part of the stream.

Did manage to release a few decent browns in the 16 inch range when nymphing.  A couple more on surface stimulator flies, and one strange looking fish that I still haven't identified while I was streamering my way back down to the car.

Made the long, pretty boring drive to Del Norte and South Fork to try parts of the Rio Grande after several years of absence from this part of Colorado.  Our problem up north where we live is that all our local streams are still running too high to be nicely fishable, so it was desperation that took me south this week.

After reading a short write up about Park Creek, I did turn up that road and plied the tiny pools for an hour or so.  It wasn't bad fishing for wild browns that were all about a foot long.  The South Fork of the Rio G was crowded but flowing almost perfectly.  Nice golden stone hatch and a few yellow sallies too.  Where I found an uncrowded stretch to wade, the surface action was decent for some modest sized rainbows and browns.

Next it was to the main stem of the Rio G at Collier SWA.  Nothing doing here.  Too hard to get in the water along the bank for wading as the river is still running too high.  However did enjoy a Flat Tire in the afternoon heat before try another local smaller creek.

This creek was the answer to a maiden's prayer (so to speak).  Though I arrived late in the afternoon and had zero expectations, by the time I got on the water in the morning - with hatches galore at 7:30 AM, heaven had finally arrived. It was outstanding surface fishing. Caddis, sallies, golden stones, midges, and PMDs were all in the air at once.  As the attached video will state, it simply got too easy - which like the alternative - is also no fun.  Species of fat & happy fish - brookies especially were there.  Browns and rainbows followed.  It was stunning.  Could only take a couple of hours of this kind of no brainer stuff.  Even clipping off the hook points and TAG fishing didn't last long.  But..........................

as you can imagine, I will be back here - shortly.

Last Logbook Entry  � for previous day

7/20-22:  Like it says above, "I will be back here - shortly".  And that's what I did, bringing along Sue and the doggies this time.  It just didn't turn out to be the same kind of experience.  If you've happen to look at the video of the trip down below, you'll note a major change in the stream flow.  It was nutty having flows drop from somewhere over 100 cfs to something in the range of 10 cfs.  I've never seen anything like that happen in my life.

Anyway what the flow reduction did was basically eliminate 95% of the hatches that would have occurred in the morning.  A few caddis flitted along the bank and there were some of the ever present midges.  So choosing patterns was a crap shoot.  Stimulators were useless and sneaky kinds of imitations did the bulk of the work today.  Flat water caddis along with tiny comparaduns seemed to work the best.

Yes we did catch plenty of fish to make the trip worthwhile.  It simply wasn't the same as when the stream was bubbling happily along.  Enough good sized browns, some decent rainbow, and a few smaller brookies all were released.  But by noon of the first full day we were there, looking at that ugly water drove us to leave and head back to the Gunnison for the second night of camping.

The poor Gunnison was kind of a waste of time too.  As we drove down the South River Road the air temperature thermometer registered a neat 107 degrees.  Not much fun dealing with that kind of heat.  The dogs spent a lot of time swimming to stay cool.  Sleeping at night was miserable.  Fishing was at best indifferent.  Hooked a couple large browns in the evening on a #20 red midge larva behind a yellow sally dry.  Next morning brought fierce downstream winds and virtually no action, so we packed up and left early for home.

Here's the quickie video:

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