Western River Fishing Trip

Nice 21" Gunnison Bow

I had the chance to spend a few days last week out on the river with some friends from back home.  We left Wednesday morning to head out to the Gunnison Gorge to try and hit the salmon fly hatch.  We hiked down into the Gorge Wednesday afternoon at the Ute Trail access point in time to get an hour or so of fishing before dark.  Between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. the fishing was great!  Between the group we got two fish over 20″ within the first hour on the river.  The hot patterns were Pats Rubber Legs in a #6 with brown or black bodies and Orange Crystal Stimulators in a #12.

We hit the river the next day hoping to get some action on Salmon Fly dries.  There were bugs flying around, clumped up in the bushes, everywhere but on the water where we needed them.  Try as we might, those fish wanted nothing to do with the patterns we were throwing.  We were still able to pick up fish on Pat’s Rubber Legs, Yellow Sallies in #16’s and #18’s, Mecury PMD’s in #16’s and #18’s and Elk Hair Caddis in #16 with dark bodies.

As for the salmon flies they should begin laying eggs any day now.  The weather down in the gorge has been nice and warm which should start the bugs moving back to the water which in-turn should start the fish slamming size 4 dry flies!  The flows on the river should be holding pretty steady over the next few weeks around 2,200 CFS which should also help the fishing.

For the last day of the trip we drove up to the Frying Pan River to get a little change of scenery.  The fishing on the Pan was great!  Fish were keying in on mysis shrimp and red pure midge larva and blood midges close to the dam and caddis and small parachute adams down river.  With the flows being a little high this time of year, the fish were keying in on bigger shrimp and nymphs. If you have some time, I would definitely recommend spending some time on the rivers out west.

Dave Dickensheets

Boxwood Gulch

Boxwood Gulch on the north fork of the South Platte River is fishing great!  The flows are at about 250 CFS and we landed a BEAUTIFUL 8-9 pound rainbow the other day.  Pink worms, rs2, and prince nymphs.  Try fishing a beetle or adams on the surface for some fun dry fly fishing in the afternoon.

Blue Quill Guide Adam Ronscavage

ROARING FORK RARITY

Its not to often one finds the Roaring Fork river this fishable this early in post run off.  Last Thursday, the river had four feet of clarity and was fishing extremely well. Driftboat fishing is the way to cover more of the water while getting out and wade fishing all of the public areas.  With several different bug hatches, big Stone Flies in the am, Caddis in the afternoon and evening, and Green Drakes in the evening (Green Drake nymphs worked well throughout the day). Hook ups were most consistent while nymphing  if  the fly was presented at the right depth, close to the bottom. It also didn’t hurt to take a sip of beer, look away and have a fish magically appear on the end of your line. The Roaring Fork eats driftboats, so use caution when floating this river. The upper stretch below Carbondale has the most educated fish, after all these fish live in the high rent district. Fishing often gets easier as you get down stream, as you get onto the less fortunate fish. These are the ones I like!  Dry fly fishing was best in the evening when the Green Drakes came off. Be safe and tight lines!  Bob Dye

Rocky Mountain River High

After coming off my last stint at Grey reef I am now heading back to the fantastic Colorado River.  The last couple of days on the Colorado, from Parshall to Hot Sulphur, the fish are keying in on PMD’s ,Yellow Sallies, and a few larger stone flies. I am always amazed the fish one can catch in this water. It is high, fast, but the fish find other lies in which to feed in, this is the time to fish! Most anglers wait out the high water for more favorable conditions, but this is the time to find solitude on a great piece of water, work the edges with a dry dropper, or mini rig. Flies to use consist of Pats Rubber Legs, Yellow Sallie nymphs, Barrs PMD emerger, and an multitude of beaded flies. Fish have not left the building, they have just switched lies!    Blue Quill Guide Bob Dye

2009 Teva Mountain Games Costa Del Mar 2 Fly X-Stream Fly Fishing Competition

This past weekend was the 8thannual Teva Mountain Games over in Vail, Colorado which is a gathering of 21 diciplines of mountain events like kayaking, trail running, mountain biking, rock climbing as well as fly fishing.  Steve Parrott, the shop manager of the Blue Quill went over to compete in the Costa Del Mar 2 Fly X-Stream competition which begins with an accuracy round of casting at three targets at varying distances and a distance cast.  The competitors get three attempts at each target for points and then three attempts at a distance cast that has to stay within a 10′ lane.  The competition this year took 75 anglers in round one and narrowed it down to 20 that will go on to round two.  The wind was calm in the morning with forcasted winds of 25 to 30 mph around noon.  Steve drew a late start time so when he stepped up to the line, he was battling steady winds of 20 mph withgust up to 30.  This made it tough to hit the targets but Steve was able to advance on to the second round with a 17th place finish.  According to Steve, “this was one of the worst rounds of casting that I have ever had and I hope to never repeat it again, but in the end I am off to round two with a clean slate”. 

Round two moves the casters to the pedestrian bridge over Gore Creek in Vail casting at various targets on land and in the water.  The casting order is reversed so the 20th caster goes first which meant that Steve was the fourth caster to go.  He managed to score 7 points out of a possible 15 which is a good score but according to Steve, he was not sure that would get him in the top eight to go fishing on Sunday.   As the rest of the casters took their turn, the scores were low and odds were looking pretty good that Steve would make it to the final round.  As the 13th caster left the bridge, Steve still had the highest points total and was in on Sunday.  The winner of round two had a final score of 9 and two other casters had a score of 8.  That left Steve with a 4th place finish in round two and guaranteed him a spot in the second boat down the river.

The finals were to be held on the Eagle River but with the high flows from runoff, the Eagle was not floatable so the decision was made to go to the Colorado River and float from Pumphouse to Radium.  The format here is the caster with the highest score out of round two gets first choice of boat position and so on.  The rules of the finals are each angler is allowed 6 flies but one of the patterns has to be different.  You can have 3 of one pattern and 3 of a different kind or 5 of one and 1 different.  Which ever way you choose to go is fine as long as one pattern is different.  Eash fish caught counts as one point and if you catch a decent size fish, you have the ability to tell the guide to measure that fish and you get points for the length as well as one point for the fish.  For example, if you land a 17" fish and tell the guide to measure it, that one fish total is 18 points.   The big part of this is that you only have 6 flies to fish with and when they are gone, the game is over.

Steve ended up in the second boat, back seat.  The boats are sent down the river in 15 minute intervals and have about two hours to fish this section.  Once completed, they take the boat out and drive back to Pumphouse put-in and repeat the same floatswapping boat positions with the other angler. 

In the first float down, Steve managed to net 8 fish and measured a 17″ brown trout for a total of 25 points.  They took the boat out and drove back to the put-in and Steve was in the front this time.  The second float is a little tougher because there have been 8 anglers fishing this water in the competition not to mention the recreational anglers and guided trips that are taking place at the same time.  During the second float, Steve managed to land 6 more fish for a total of 31 points.  According to Steve, ” I had alot of hook-ups that I lost right at the boat trying to get them into the net.  The wind was blowing 25 mph directly upstream which blew the line all over the place and the fish would just pop off”. 

Now the waiting begins as the anglers and guides are not allowed to discuss the totals because there is a weigh-in back in the Vail Village to determine the winner.  With all of the anglers on pins and needles, the promoter Rick Messmer steps up on the stage and begins the ceremony.  The 8thplace angler was called with one fish that was 16″, the 7thplace angler was called with a total of 2 fish, the 6thplace angler was called with 3 fish and a 16.5″ fish measured, the 5th place angler was called with one 19.5 ” fish measured, the 4th place angler had one fish that was 20″.  Steve was in the top three again this year (Steve finished 3rd overall in the 2008 TevaMountain Games).  The 3rd place angler had 7 fish to the net and measured a 15″fish so Steve new he had bettered his 2008 performance by at least one spot.  Now the tension was really thick with only two anglers left, Brian Capsay from Fly Fishing Team USA and Steve.  Rick announced the second place had a 17″ fish measured and 8 fish to the net which meant that Steve had finally pulled it off and won the 2009 Teva Mountain Games Costa Del Mar 2 Fly X-Steam competiton.  

Congratulations to all the angler and to Steve for pulling it off in the fishing portion and making us all proud here at the Blue Quill

Salmon Flies and Pike Fishing

I had the chance this week to get out this week and do a couple days of fishing with fellow Blue Quill employee Cody Scott.  The mission behind the trip was to get up to the Colorado to fish the Salmon Fly hatch.  This was the first time that either Cody or I had fished the hatch and we are now both hooked.  Cody went up Tuesday during the day and hooked a number of fish on big dries.  The Colorado is really ripping this time of year but there were still fish to be found along the banks and behind rocks in the slow moving water.  I met Cody up there Tuesday night and fished all day on Wednesday.  Since it was our first time fishing the hatch we were stubborn and only fished dry flies for most of the day.  The morning started out pretty slow for all of us.  We saw a lot of bugs on the bushes and shucks on the rock and the trees, but not a lot of activity on the water.  I picked up a fish on a Pat’s Rubber Legs in the late morning.  Around 2:00 pm things picked up for us on the dry flies a little bit.  I landed a nice brown on a Parachute Giant Stone shortly there after.  After that Cody and I continued to hook fish for the next hour or so on big dries like Fuzzy Wuzzys or B-1 Bombers.  Overall the fishing was slow but we were still hooking fish.  The key was to really work water and work the banks and the slow water behind rocks.  If you are patient and are willing to work at it, it can be a fun day.

Originally we were planning on spending a second day at the Colorado, but the weather had other plans.  After running from the thunderstorms we made our way up to Williams Fork Reservoir Wednesday night to chase some pike.  We fished up there Wednesday night and Thursday until about noon before getting chased out by weather once again.  We spotted a few fish in the shallows but overall they are still out pretty deep.  Give it another week or so and the fishing should pick up.

BQA Employee Dave Dickensheets

SALMON FLY MADNESS

The other day I had the opportunity to take fellow guide Sarah Barclay and her friend Jay, both who I might add are great anglers. We went down in search of the elusive Salmon Fly hatch and proceeded to find hundreds of flies on bushes, rocks etc. but not a lot on the water.  Sarah caught a lot of fish using a dry dropperrig fishing in close to the bank, while Jay caught fish using the same plus a indicator rig. While both of them fished, I rowed trying to keep the three of us alive in what I considered rough water.  As we went through the eye of the needle, Sarah kept fishing. I don’t think she realized that I was paddling for dear life, just goes to show you what a hard fisherperson she is! Good job Sarah! I enjoyed taking you both down the Colorado. The Salmon fly hatch is a hard one to get a handle on, but with persistence you can find yourself with a bent rod.   Blue Quill guide Bob Dye