The Blue below the Green for a Brown

November 8, 2012

 It's always a good sign when you encounter a elk herd on the way to a fly fishing adventure. This herd was hiding in plain sight across from the Dino RTD park & ride lot off I-70 near C-470 in Denver.

 Mike Hobbs set the destination to below the dam of the Green River Reservoir in Hainey,CO on the Blue River. Balancing precariously on a thin ledge outside the maintenance building security fence and then squeezing behind the stair railing, you come on the privilege of taking 65 stairs down to the Blue River. Don't try this in the winter.

Mike caught a rainbow on this stretch with an egg pattern. So I immediately switched out my lower miracle midge for a  pegged egg-like setup suggested by Clint. (see Ignore ... blog). About 9:45AM the water temperature was a nice 42 degrees and I had a number of hits, runs, and errors, no rainbows left on from fishy water in a deep cut just below a rapid. Mike claimed we couldn't go down stream because of an impasse and had to hike back up the canyon wall to the parking lot and then come down again. This was not disclosed when we first set out down the stairs. I knew what the slip, I mean trip, back down to the river was like from the parking lot. When you do make it to the 8 floors to the bottom you wonder how in hell can you possibly make it back up at the end of the day. Do not try this in winter.

Once down on the Blue, there is plenty of pocket water to fish both up and down stream.

 I caught the nicest brown of the day below, using the fly below, under the rock below, with a gentle drift from the edge of the current into the rock. You can just see my white yarn indicator.

 There is no other way in, no other way out. Although some how drifters can put in here and float the Jones Property to the Colorado, don't touch the banks or bottom or the sheriff'll getcha.

My favorite bird on Colorado Rivers is the Water Ouzel or American Dipper. When it sits on a rock it bobs, dips, rapidly up and down but the most incredible thing about this bird, not a duck, is that it swims under water. Just when I believe I've heard a monster feeding trout, this ouzel will pop onto a rock.

Whoops. Sorry about the quality of that iPhone video. I'll do better next time.

November 8, 2012