What's for Dinner - Two Creeks in Colorado April 5, 2018

What Trout were Eating in Vail and Denver April 5th and What I Offered Them.

4/5/2018  Gore Creek runs through the center of Vail, Colorado and has been nicely preserved as a wild stream in the center of a village. It has been screened from the highway and developments by large pines and open meadows. The freestone stream has been left quite untouched except for short stretch near the center of town. I've caught rainbows, cutthroats, browns, and brook trout in the village. 

Gore Creek Brook Trout took the Trico Dry.

This west slope stream flows to the Eagle River which joins the Colorado River to flow to the Gulf of California and the Pacific or to irrigate the produce patches of California. At an elevation of 8,100 feet a rainbow trout was eating mature mayflies, midges (adult and nymph stage) and mayfly nymphs. You may be able to identify other species.  I found a pool below a riffle that had many trout taking emergers. My three fly rig had an Elk Hair Caddis indicator fly, a Trico dry than was sometimes floating, a tiny blob of sink putty, and a foam back chocolate emerger. I caught a brook trout, brown, and a rainbow from the pool shown below drifting down the center and along both seams. Air temperature was about 40 degrees, water temperature was 39, water was crystal clear. This Gore Creek water is very near its Rocky Mountain source from the snows on Vail Pass.

A pumped rainbow was feasting on this during the "Taste of Vail"

Later in the day on Clear Creek just upstream of Golden Colorado at an elevation of 5725, and air temperature of 65 and a water temperature of about 44, and the water was clear. There was no surface activity but the same three flies caught 10 fish, including this nice brown.  Clear Creek drains to the South Platte which eventually joins the Missouri and enters to Gulf of Mexico or winds up on a crop circle of wheat or soybeans in Colorado. This water is 40 miles from its source and has traveled through one former superfund site, two small towns, and 40 miles of Interstate 70.

A Clear Creek Brown also took the trico.

My first sample of a small brown yielded just this midge and an annelida.

A small Clear Creek brown had just eaten an adult midge and a red annelida.

 My second sample of a 10 inch brown showed almost the same composition as the stomach sample 2,400 feet higher in the West Slope drainage.  The fact that the bug sample is very similar is quite amazing. The fact that the same rig of flies was attractive to fish is also amazing. The fact that there was no surface feeding on Clear Creek is puzzling to me.

A 10 inch brown had eaten these in Clear Creek.

My offerings in both stream. Three fish took the foam back chocolate emerger. Seven took the trico dry which was fished below the surface.

Gore Creek rocks provided the cover, but brookies, rainbows and browns were all hitting emergers in the center of this photo.

Fine Clear Creek habitat. Each seam held fish.

Tenkara Cuts

Heavy to Light - Bamboo to Tenkara - for Cutthroats in Colorado

In 2011, on a stream we like in Colorado not far from Denver,  Fred Miller and I decided on a themed trout outing. We'd do a throwback on our throwback and use bamboo to catch and then release some cutthroat trout.  

Fred's rod, like all his gear, was museum quality and he could actually hold it with one hand. Mine from a garage sale in Canada on the other  hand, took two hands and soon had my left arm exhausted.

Now, 5 years later it was time to visit again.  We believe in resting a stream. Yes, we are that good.
Fred chose his 9 ft 3 weight and I brought my Sato Tenkara rod, extendable to 12' 9".

I fished all dries starting with a Jay Zimmerman Clown Shoe Yellow  Sally.

 
The cutts cooperated. Nice sized and healthy they were.

Fred fished the banks with his 3 weight.


Cutthroats are gorgeous fish but the stream is quite spectacular also.








I convinced Fred to try his hand with the tenkara and he landed a cutthroat on his 3rd drift. We'll see if he adds to his rod collection.


For traveling between stretches in this very bushy area, the tenkara rod telescopes nicely but managing the line is a challenge since, of course there is no reel on a tenkara rod.  TenkaraUSA sells "rod ties"  that look like this. 


I wanted something a little more permanent so I mounted a hook keeper onto the top of the first telescoping section and squeezed a small rubber O-ring between the screw off end cap and the cork handle.



Then when I collapse the rod I loop the extra line around the hook keeper and figure 8 around the rod plug in bottom. 



Where to put the fly is still a problem so I wind an elastic band around the grip and roll it up and down as the  tippet gets longer and shorter to hook in the barbless fly. 





Ready to bush whack.



Much as I dislike removing a fish from the water, Fred insisted we pose this nice cutthroat for a portrait. At least I didn't touch him and he was only out for two breaths. Unfortunately, Fred encountered a proud father and his pre-teen daughter with a string of DEAD cutthroats. It was enough to make you cry. Fortunately for them, Fred was at a loss for words. Want to bet they are now getting freezer burn prior to being trashed in a few months. Why, oh why,  can't we get over this obsession to flaunt a kill. 

Getting into Fly Fishing for under $100

Presented at the Fall Fly Fishing Rendezvous - Denver Colorado - 11/1/2015

Cost and Complexity:

     A primary roadblock in getting  yourself  or a son, daughter, or grandchild into fly fishing.

Presented here is a low cost minimalist way of getting a person started. For less than $100 you will have all you need to start learning the basic skills and catch your first fish.

Expanded info is available in eBook or printed form from Amazon.

http://goo.gl/ygr34P

 

Eagle Eyes on a Colorado Trout Bum

Fishing my favorite Colorado Canyon.

     What I love most about fly fishing is that something always happens. When you are outside near the water something unexpected always happens. 

     I returned to a spot I'd weakly fished a week earlier.  

Water temperature was 42-44 degrees both times. I'd convinced myself that I must have been fishing flies that were too big, so this time I kicked up some gravel and screen out a scud and a stonefly nymph. Both appeared to be size 16-18 just as I'd been fishing. 

Finally on a size 22 foam winged midge emerger I succeeded. 

I left the hole for a couple hours and moved up stream. A mature bald eagle had been cruising up and down the river all day. I'd seen him four times. On my way back I noticed another angler had just hooked up to a nice fish under the eyes of a bald eagle in the hole I had left.

You should be able to see the white dot of his head in a tall pine tree 4 trees in from the left.

Here's a youtube video. My apologies for not having a better camera along. I didn't expect the eagle.