Sometimes it's your day.
Fly fishing can be a fickle sport. Sometimes there are days when the plan is spot on, but things just don't work out. Today was not one of those days.
Winter has faded in Elevenmile Canyon. Today the birds were out and there were folks picnicking, hiking, climbing, and most importantly, fishing. It was a great day to be alive. As I drove up river I saw the sun give way to the clouds, which is what the forecast had predicted. The flow was 80cfs, which was ok, but when the flows are above 100cfs more fish come out and eat dry flies. Luckily for me, it really didn't matter. There were olives and midges hatching when I showed up and they were still hatching when I left.
In Colorado the sun can turn your awesome 10 fish afternoon into a 2 fish fiasco or God forbid, a skunk. Clouds give these tailwater fish a chance to relax and enjoy their daily buffet. The clouds were not out the entire day, but they did their job long enough for me to have a killer day!
After I geared up I saw a few fishing chasing back to eat bwo emergers. I don't fish a small dry/dropper rig enough, but for my first catch of the day, the fish told me what to do. I put on a bwo dry trailed by an RS2 of my own design. The dropper was the ticket. An awesome rainbow chased back and nailed it.
After landing my quarry, I didn't see much else going on so I headed downstream and found a big mouthed brown chilling underneath a boulder sneaking out and taking olives. He took a little coaxing, but eventually ended up in my net. I love the fish that require a perfect cast to eat.
I was already happy landing a beautiful rainbow and a nice buttery brown, but my day was far from over. The olives started to come out in force and there were literally fish rising all around me. I took several more fish before I decided to take a walk upstream.
I (and probably a few others) have come up with the phrase "Elevenmile Grand Slam." There are no brook trout (that I know of) that call Elevenmile home, so my version of the 11MileSlam is a brown, rainbow, cuttbow, and cutthroat. I have gotten them before and I was lucky enough to get another one today. After I walked upstream and picked off another rainbow rising in a riffle, I waded up to a big pool I like. There was one fish taking olives in a back eddy and it just so happened to be a cutthroat. Their fins are very pronounced, so in a tailwater not only can trout be spotted, but the species of trout as well.
It took on the my second cast and put up a pretty good scrap, but alas, it also ended up gracing me with its presence in my net. When I dry fly fish my goal it to at least hook the smartest fish I can find, but landing them is the cherry on top.
I had a Clif Bar snack while walking back downstream and found fewer olives on the water, but the ones that were floating by were still being eaten. There were also midges buzzing around. When you see a fish rising, but you can't necessarily see the bug on the surface, chances are it's a midge.
I caught a brown with some shoulders on a mole fly and then another awesome rainbow on a tiny midge. Then I saw Horace. Horace is a cuttbow painted by God that I caught several weeks ago. I had lost him a few times before that and even tied special "olive" midges just for him. The day I finally got him in the net I was pretty flippin' ecstatic. He was in the exact same spot in front of the exact same rock so I figured...why not. Let's end my perfect day by catching Horace again. Watching him feed was fun. He'd cruise into his pool eating emerging nymphs and then coast back over to safety and sip midges on the surface. They were SUPER small, because I was not very far away from him, but I couldn't see the flies on the surface. I watched him look at (and refuse) a small mole fly, and then a cool little black midge emerger I tie. He looked right at them both, and then didn't eat.
He left his hole and moved up under a rock, started facing downstream, and began eating again. This time he took my "olive" midge on my first good cast. The beauty of catch and release areas is you always have the chance to hook up and land a great fish again and again. Luckily I was up to the challenge and Horace rounded out my perfect day.
He's a beautiful cuttbow and I hope to see him again in "his spot."
I always remember days like this and I can't remember having one in which I landed every fish I hooked. There's nothing quite like batting 1,000, but you'll never know if you don't get out there.
Until next time, tight lines my friends!
Winter has faded in Elevenmile Canyon. Today the birds were out and there were folks picnicking, hiking, climbing, and most importantly, fishing. It was a great day to be alive. As I drove up river I saw the sun give way to the clouds, which is what the forecast had predicted. The flow was 80cfs, which was ok, but when the flows are above 100cfs more fish come out and eat dry flies. Luckily for me, it really didn't matter. There were olives and midges hatching when I showed up and they were still hatching when I left.
In Colorado the sun can turn your awesome 10 fish afternoon into a 2 fish fiasco or God forbid, a skunk. Clouds give these tailwater fish a chance to relax and enjoy their daily buffet. The clouds were not out the entire day, but they did their job long enough for me to have a killer day!
After I geared up I saw a few fishing chasing back to eat bwo emergers. I don't fish a small dry/dropper rig enough, but for my first catch of the day, the fish told me what to do. I put on a bwo dry trailed by an RS2 of my own design. The dropper was the ticket. An awesome rainbow chased back and nailed it.
I was already happy landing a beautiful rainbow and a nice buttery brown, but my day was far from over. The olives started to come out in force and there were literally fish rising all around me. I took several more fish before I decided to take a walk upstream.
I (and probably a few others) have come up with the phrase "Elevenmile Grand Slam." There are no brook trout (that I know of) that call Elevenmile home, so my version of the 11MileSlam is a brown, rainbow, cuttbow, and cutthroat. I have gotten them before and I was lucky enough to get another one today. After I walked upstream and picked off another rainbow rising in a riffle, I waded up to a big pool I like. There was one fish taking olives in a back eddy and it just so happened to be a cutthroat. Their fins are very pronounced, so in a tailwater not only can trout be spotted, but the species of trout as well.
It took on the my second cast and put up a pretty good scrap, but alas, it also ended up gracing me with its presence in my net. When I dry fly fish my goal it to at least hook the smartest fish I can find, but landing them is the cherry on top.
I had a Clif Bar snack while walking back downstream and found fewer olives on the water, but the ones that were floating by were still being eaten. There were also midges buzzing around. When you see a fish rising, but you can't necessarily see the bug on the surface, chances are it's a midge.
I caught a brown with some shoulders on a mole fly and then another awesome rainbow on a tiny midge. Then I saw Horace. Horace is a cuttbow painted by God that I caught several weeks ago. I had lost him a few times before that and even tied special "olive" midges just for him. The day I finally got him in the net I was pretty flippin' ecstatic. He was in the exact same spot in front of the exact same rock so I figured...why not. Let's end my perfect day by catching Horace again. Watching him feed was fun. He'd cruise into his pool eating emerging nymphs and then coast back over to safety and sip midges on the surface. They were SUPER small, because I was not very far away from him, but I couldn't see the flies on the surface. I watched him look at (and refuse) a small mole fly, and then a cool little black midge emerger I tie. He looked right at them both, and then didn't eat.
He left his hole and moved up under a rock, started facing downstream, and began eating again. This time he took my "olive" midge on my first good cast. The beauty of catch and release areas is you always have the chance to hook up and land a great fish again and again. Luckily I was up to the challenge and Horace rounded out my perfect day.
He's a beautiful cuttbow and I hope to see him again in "his spot."
I always remember days like this and I can't remember having one in which I landed every fish I hooked. There's nothing quite like batting 1,000, but you'll never know if you don't get out there.
Until next time, tight lines my friends!
Comments
Post a Comment