May 18, 2020
Flows: 250 cfs.
Water Temp: 48 @ 9a.
Water clarity: About 1/2’. Stained with debris floating in the water.
Air Temp: low-50s @ 9a – low-80s @ 4p.
Hatches: Light midge in the morning, spotty BWO in the afternoon. Also spotted a few terrestrials in the bushes – not sure what they were.
Brian and I recently purchased some light fly fishing tackle with the plan to fish smaller creeks and rivers for brook, cutthroat, and brown trout. The idea is to get into the more remote areas of the high country and enjoy the natural beauty of Colorado to fish in solitude. And to catch some trout!
Clear Creek Canyon.
Brian has a 2 weight and mine is a 3 weight. For those of you that are not familiar with what the various weight designations are – a 1 weight is the lightest you can get and a 9 weight is getting towards the heaviest. The lighter weight tackle such as what we now have are best for tight spaces and smaller fish that are normally found in the creeks and small rivers in the Rocky Mountain National Park and other places in the high country.
My light fly fishing rig. A Moonshine Drifter 3 weight rod paired with a Lamson Liquid 3 weight reel.
Since we just got the new gear – we decided to give them a try on Clear Creek on Monday. The headwater of Clear Creek is near Chair 9 at the Loveland ski resort. The creek flows along I-70 to it’s junction with Route 6 – then it follows Route 6 into Golden. This whole section of the river – approximately 50 miles - is fishable. Clear Creek eventually spills into the South Platte River about another 20 miles east of Golden near Thornton, Colorado. It’s been reported that Coors Brewery gets it’s “clear mountain spring water” to brew their beer from none other than Clear Creek.
I was planning the trip and wanted to go into the high country near the Loveland Ski resort to a town called Lawson. The river is smaller there with fewer creeks flowing into it, which would help with the water level and clarity due to spring run off. But there are travel restrictions in Clear Creek County. And there is no fishing allowed on Clear Creek from the ski area to just below Idaho Springs where I-70 meets Route 6.
This is also where Clear Creek Canyon begins and leads all the way into Golden. The Jefferson County line is about 1 mile into the canyon and fishing is allowed from there into Golden. The canyon is rugged and provides all sorts of outdoor activity from bike riding, hiking, mountain climbing, and fishing to just relaxing with a book or picnic and panning for gold. It’s not exactly the high country – but we had to take what we could.
A flat run along Clear Creek.
The recent record high temperatures in Colorado sparked the spring run off and it was in full force. This occurred just in the past few days and the river was flowing pretty high and was off color (muddy) – and was therefore pretty tough to fish. You had to be very careful wading and crossing the river was near impossible. So all of the fishing was near shore where you could find small pockets with slower water. That meant a lot of walking – or hiking as it were. Adding to the complexity was the fact that neither Brian nor I have ever fished this creek before. So we were in unfamiliar territory and had to explore to find fishy looking water.
Clear Creek with flows at ~250 cfs provides challenging conditions to get to the fish.
Sight fishing was out of the question. In these conditions, my strategy is to find areas that look like they would hold fish (fishy water). Then cover it. If I was sure that my drifts were good (drag free) and the right depth, and didn’t get any hits, then I would move to the next spot and continue to do this until I ran into fish. And in smaller water, one hole or pocket may only hold one or two fish. So this method requires a lot of moving and working the river.
We began at the first pull-off inside the Jefferson County line. This spot provided about ¾ of a mile or so of “flat water”. Meaning the river was somewhat level which provided a lot of those small pockets of slower water. As it turned out – this was the best section of the river that we fished all day. Compared to the other spots we fished later – it was easy to walk from one spot to the next. And we were able to find and bring fish to net.
The run at Pull Off #1.
We started out with nymphs. My rig was setup with a #16 Hare’s Ear followed by a #18 Disco Midge and a #20 Black Rojo Midge. One thing was constant throughout the day – and that was snags! There were a lot of them – either getting stuck between rocks or snagging branches and twigs that were floating in the river. So it wasn’t long before I lost this entire rig.
This 9" female brownie took a #16 Red Copper John.
Next I tied on a #16 Red Copper John followed by a #20 Black Rojo Midge. (I decided to forgo the 3rd fly). This setup proved effective – bringing a handful of fish to net in the 6” to 9” range. They were all brownies. One aggressively hit the Copper John and the others hit the Rojo. Brian landed a small brownie on a Purple Rain midge.
This little brownie took the #20 Black Rojo Midge.
After lunch we decided to head downstream to see what it had to offer. I was leading and was looking for pull offs near flat water. This proved hard to find. The bank leading to the river became much higher and steeper. So we found ourselves hiking up and down some pretty rough terrain – and getting exhausted!
A challenging hike down - and more challenging back up!
We finally found a spot that offered about ½ mile of fishable water again with various small pockets. This was our last pull off for the day – just east the #2 tunnel. After covering this entire stretch I was able to land a small brownie in the 8” range. I had changed my flies to baetis for the afternoon – and this one hit a #18 Barr Emerger BWO. Nearby, and almost at the same time Brian had a nice fish on but he was able to spit the hook and get free.
Another brownie. This one took the #20 Barr Emerger BWO.
So that was the day. We were able to find what we were looking for - a handful of small brownies taken on light tackle.
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