Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Mysterious Dream Stream: Fly Fishing 8/26/2015

The Dream Stream is somewhat mysterious. The fish appear, disappear and reappear. "Cookie Cutter" Cutthroats are numerous. I am not sure if they have been there all along, even in the high Spring floods, or if they moved in from above or from the reservoir below. The Dream Stream has had problems in recent decades of the fish not remaining. Stocking programs seem to largely fail even after all the habitat improvements were in place. But now, after we had record flows that blew out a lot of the habitat improvement structures/logs, a good population of fish are hanging in the lower meanders where habitat improvement structures were never placed.


Regardless, we have been enjoying some good dry fly fishing on the lower section. Fish are mainly taking Tricos during the morning hatch but we have also been doing well on bigger flies. Amy's Ants, hoppers and yellow Sallies have been producing. The conditions are perfect to throw some type of double dry fly rig.

The usual nymphing rigs are also working: San Juan worms, RS2's, Zebra midges are all taking fish.

It will be interesting to see what shapes up, (or moves up and down) this Fall. You might turn around and be staring at a 30 inch Brown that just chased away the 14 inch Cutthroat you just landed.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Eleven Mile Canyon Fly Fishing: A TEN!

Flows and weather have been perfect. Tricos are hatching every morning. Fish are feeding on top as well as below the surface. Eleven Mile Canyon is a perfect "TEN."

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Deckers South Platte River Fly Fishing Report

The high waters that were racing through the South Platte at Deckers have changed some of the natural habitat. Some places seem to be lacking fish while other areas are holding good fish. The same is true of the Dream Stream and 11 Mile Canyon. The South Platte is a changed river but hopefully over all, it should be of a higher quality.

While the river has changed some things never change. For 30 years now, I have been mainly using a Brown San Juan Worm and a size 24 gray RS2. Yesterday, 8 solid fish came to the net mostly on the RS2.