March 7, 2024
The Arkansas River – The Tailwater (The Diver Hole to the Tire Hole).
Flows: 85 cfs.
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent (21% illumination).
Water Temp: 47F @ 12:30p.
Water clarity: Very clear.
Air Temp: 45F @ 8:30a – 45F @ 3p.
Hatches: Midge: 8:30a – 4p (Size ~20/24), BWOs – 1:30p to 3p.
Spawning: In progress all over the river with redds and active spawning activity observed.
Flies: #18 Red Midge Larva, #22 Purple Jujubee Midge, #12 Yellow Egg, #16 Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear, #24 Black Flashback RS2, #22 Black Rojo Midge, #18 Hare’s Ear, #20 & 22 Red, Black & Olive Zebra midges, # 20 Grey RS2.
Top producers: Egg, Black RS2, Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear, Red, Black, and Olive Zebra Midges, Grey RS2.
Big Daddy.
(A 17" cutbow that made this day a memorable one.)
Change was in the air.
Stormy weather was approaching Colorado with rain turning to snow forecasted to begin later in the day.
It arrived a bit early in Pueblo and blew us off the river.
The change happened quickly.
It was a beautiful, sunny morning though when we arrived at the Nature Center Parking area to a very temperate forty-five degrees. Our plan was to fish the lower part of the Tailwater from the Diver Hole to the Tire Hole. It was so nice that Brian left his jacket in the car. There would be no need for it – it was only supposed to get warmer and we'd be gone before the weather moved in. I left my gloves there too – and my rain jacket – thinking the same.
An unidentified fly fisherman covering the #2 Plunge Pool.
We headed to the Diver Hole basking in the beautiful late-winter morning weather.
As we walked through the willows near the riverbank we saw a bunch of midges in the air. Definitely a good sign and I had a feeling it would be a good day.
Once we reached the river I stood on the bank and peered into the water to see if I could spot any fish or see any kind of activity. This hole is finicky. Sometimes there are fish all over the place – and feeding. Other times there are no fish in sight. Then there are times when there are fish in sight, but they aren’t feeding.
After moving a bit downstream to avoid the glare of the sun off the water I saw them. They were there – about five of them in the mid-river channel, beyond the boulders right before it dumps into the pool. Oh yeah baby!
Redds - the light, circular patches to the right of the weir and above it.
Before going after them I wanted to make some changes to my flies. Red is the color on this river in the winter, so I wanted something red to lead. My first choice was a Red Copper John but the fish were in relatively shallow water, so I was thinking of something lighter and picked a #16 Red Midge Larva as my lead fly and followed it with a #22 Purple Jujubee Midge and a #12 Yellow Egg.
Not sure why I picked the egg which I normally don’t fish with. I was thinking of a Red Zebra Midge or a Blood Midge but changed my mind at the last second. We fully expected that there would be rainbows spawning and an egg is always something to try when they are, so maybe I was subconsciously thinking of that.
Brian was already in the water above me casting into the middle of the run that flows out of the #2 Plunge Pool and empties into the Diver Pool as I set up to cast on the upstream side of the Diver Pool. To my surprise I didn’t get any interest as my flies drifted past the fish.
Lots of eggs have been dislodged in the river form the spawning activity providing an easy meal for the trout.
Then I began to work a little downstream, letting my flies drift behind the submerged boulders and I had my first hit. It was a strong take and I briefly had on a nice fish, but he quickly broke off. Dang it!
As I worked my way back upstream, I could see a bunch more fish all along the run. “I should be able to pick these guys off” – that was my thought. One advantage of using a big, bright fly is that you can get a visual on it as it drifts to your intended target – and I could see my egg. It was my last fly in my setup and it was drifting over the fish I was targeting.
I needed more weight.
First I added a bit of mud. My egg was still too high and I added a little more. My flies were getting down now, occasionally get hung up on the bottom. I don’t like fishing a heavy rig and would rather have my flies higher up in the column, but the fish weren’t chasing so I had no choice. When you’re hitting bottom it looks a lot like when a fish hits – and after a while it is a natural tendency to get sort of desensitized and not set the hook. Then you find yourself missing fish.
Releasing a rainbow.
That’s how my drifts were going, and I was conscious of the fact that I would be hard to tell the difference between a hit and a snag – and I was being aggressive with my sets. Setting on just about everything.
“There is nothing in the river to snag your flies on - so set on anything”. That’s the advice of many a noted fly fisherman.
As we continued to cover the run, Brian mentioned that a guy who was now fishing just upstream of us looked like Dale. Dale had been a regular on this river and was always willing to share his information about the various holes that were productive, flies he used, etc and we hadn’t seen him in quite a while. A couple of years or so and we were thinking something might have happened to him.
The trough I like to fish above the #1 Plunge Pool runs along the bank and under the overhanging branches of the trees.
Brian went up to the guy and it was Dale. He said he had some back issues that kept off the river for some time and he was now just getting back to it. We were happy to see him and briefly chat with him. Later, he, Brian and I would meet up at the parking area – the last three fishermen to leave the river.
I was now about in the middle of the run where Brian had first started as I casted my flies into the middle of the river and began to walk my drift downstream. As I did, I got one of those “bumps” and I lifted my line. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised to find I had a heavy rainbow on the end of it swimming downstream at a high rate of speed.
I finally had one of those bad boys hooked up - and he was a nice one! Finally gaining control of the fish – I guided him to my net. A beautifully colored 18” rainbow – the kind this river is known for. It took the egg and I was now glad that I had decided to use it.
A big rainbow with the Diver Hole in the background.
It wasn’t much longer and I had another fish on. It felt like a bigger one than the last and took me into the huge, submerged boulders at the top of the pool. Behind the boulders the water is very calm and that’s where I wanted to take this fish, but now he was in the middle of them and I was concerned that my line would fray on one of them. Somehow I managed to get him out from the middle of those boulders without issues and net him. Another eighteen incher and he too took the egg which would be the fly of the day for me.
While this was going on, Brian had moved upstream and was now fishing the #2 Plunge Pool. After releasing my second fish it looked like he was ready to pick up and move on. Thinking I now had it all dialed in – I called out to him and signaled for him to come down and join me. There was plenty of room and plenty of fish for the both of us.
We’d slay ‘em.
But we didn’t.
As much as we – as fly fishermen – like to figure all things out, at times fish act in ways that are just unexplainable. Fish do things, act ways, and go places that we just can’t figure out. So I’m not going to try to explain what happened. All I can say is they just stopped taking anything.
Damned fish!
A colorful rainbow in Brian's net.
(It's fish like this that keep us coming back!)
Brian Kenney.
Getting a bit discouraged, we decided to move on. The Flag Hole was the next stop, but first I wanted to try a little trough just above the #1 Plunge Pool. It’s a little gem along the south bank with trees overhanging it that the I like to fish. There is riffled water that runs fast into the trough, and you’d be surprised on the big fish I’ve found in it. When they hit, they just seem to explode out of the water shaking their head. I think that is what draws me to it.
Another attraction on this particular day is that there are usually redds in the riffled water above the trough. And if there was today – there should be some nice brownies sipping eggs below it in the trough. If that was the case, I had the perfect set up.
As I began to cross the river wading toward the trough, I ran into a bunch of redds. So many redds that I was having a hard time wading around them. Then I noticed a few of them had fish actively spawning on them. That’s when I gave up. I didn’t want to stress them when they were doing their business and I carefully retraced my steps to the side of the river where I picked up my stuff and headed toward the Flag Hole.
Releasing a rainbow back into the Tire Hole.
If everything was right in the world, Brian would already be there and have the hole all to himself. Then I would casually walk up and join him. And we’d proceed to slay ‘em.
When I got to the hole, Brian wasn’t there. There was another guy fishing it along the west bank. He said he was finding the fish in the shallow water along it. Later, Brian and I would walk past that spot and see there was a redd with rainbows active on it. Whether he knew it or not, he was most likely fishing to spawning fish – a real NO NO.
Peering into the river below the other guy, I saw some fish about midriver and asked if he would mind if I fished there. He obliged and I casted to them with my Hopper/Dropper set up. I had rigged it up because the water they were in was slow and clear and I didn’t want to spook them.
I rigged it up with a #10 Chubby Chernobyl as my Hopper, and a #18 Hare’s Ear as my Dropper. I followed it with a #24 Black Manhattan Midge as my target fly. I was along the west bank below the other fisherman (and the redd we'd later discover) and after several casts with no interest, I changed over to my nymphing rig.
An interesting shot of one of Brian's rainbows.
Brian Kenney.
With still no interest I decided to cross the river and attack them from the other side where I proceeded to quickly get a wind knot. It was a lazy back cast and I was pretty disgusted with myself. I had to cut all my flies off to untangle the mess and decided to change them up when retying them.
Once I had the mess untangled, I picked a #16 Guide Choice Hare’s Ear as my lead fly and followed it with a #22 Black Rojo Midge and my egg. The egg had worked in the Diver Hole and I didn’t want to give up on it yet which would prove to be a good decision later.
But the fish here weren’t interested in any of it. One of those things I’ve resigned myself to acknowledge I can’t explain. With that, I picked my stuff up and left. Shaking my head a bit as I did.
If all things were right in the world, Brian would now be in the Tire Hole and have it all to himself. And I was happy to find that he did. And he had caught a couple of rainbows while I was down in the Flag Hole. One 18’ and one 12”. He got them on a #22 Red Zebra Midge.
Clouds began to move in about 1p.
(This is the weir that marks the beginning of the Tire Hole.)
We proceeded to cover the run. It was kinda slow although we both landed a few fish over the next hour or so. Some nice ones too in the 17” range and some smaller ones as well – all rainbows. Brian was getting his on a #22 Black and a #22 Olive Zebra Midges. I was getting mine on the egg.
After lunch I decided to head a bit upstream – to the top of the hole where there is a weir that delineates it. There is a small pool of slow water with an eddy swirling back into it on the far bank, river right. For some unexplained reason I wanted to give it a shot even though I’ve never fished it before. It just looked right.
I waded up close to it not wanting to get too close and spook any fish that may be there. And before casting into it, I stood there looking into it to see if I could spot any activity. After a bit of watching I spotted what looked like three fish. Nice size rainbows. They were working the seam of the pool and the middle of it – moving to and fro.
Brian with a rainbow - the Tire Hole in the background.
This is another place where it’s hard to discern a strike. The water is so still in places the indicator hardly moves and a fish can have your fly in his mouth and you can’t really tell. Then in other places the water is swirling back on itself moving the indicator with it making it really hard to distinguish the movement from a strike.
On about my third cast into the small pool I noticed that my indicator was moving slightly against the current and I set the hook.
BANG – BANG! Fish on.
Almost at the exact instance that I set the hook a dark cloud had moved overhead blocking the sun and I could no longer see into the water. I was standing in the current outside of the small pool and was having a hell of a time locating the fish. I finally got a read on him as he swam away from me to the other side of the river where there is another pool of slack water. A perfect place to net him.
This 19" rainbow was surprised to find out that my egg was not the real thing!
As I waded that way my line then went toward the weir where I didn’t want it to go. I was concerned that the fish would get me hung up on the boulders. Then I felt my line being pulled above them. He had somehow swam over the boulders which are not totally submerged. How did he do that?
Now I had to climb over the damn thing. Not easy – especially with a big, bull trout pulling on the line. But I managed and now the big guy was swimming upstream into some fast current. I could now see him and had him in a very good position. He was fighting me and the current and I knew he would soon tire, which he did.
I got his head up and let him drift in the current and into my waiting net. This was a BIG rainbow – measuring 19” – and he was a healthy one too. There must have been a lot of eggs dislodged in the water from all the spawning activity and he had mine in his lip.
I sent this little guy back into the Tire Hole with instructions to go get Big Daddy.
While I was on the side of the river in the small pool where I hooked this bad boy up I noticed a bunch of redds along the bank on that side, downstream of the pool. Below the redds the water is fast and riffled. It then floats into a slight depression – then a deeper one as it runs into the boulders that make up the main Tire Hole.
My thought was that maybe there were some eggs dislodged from the redds and if so, there may be some nice trout in the depression eating them. My plan was to cast into the fast, riffled water and walk my flies down into the depression. As I did my indicator abruptly paused and I set the hook.
Nothing.
Then I felt a very strong pull on my line. It was a weird hook up, but I now had a big fish pulling line out. All of a sudden this fish goes flying into the air. It looked like a missile shot out of the water and looked like it was in the twenty-inch range.
Then nothing.
Brian fighting Big Daddy.
He was gone. Brian was just downstream of where the fish had exploded out of the water and asked if I had him hooked up. I said I did and with the weird hook up I commented that my set wasn’t right. Then I brought my flies in to inspect them and noticed that my egg was gone. That bad boy had taken it and broke my tippet off. My line must have been stressed from me fighting that big, bad nineteen incher! Ugh.
By now the clouds had moved in and it was spitting rain. And just like that the BWOs started to come off. We could see them on the water and just like that the fish turned on. Yeah baby!
There was a window where we started to hook them up pretty regularly. Brian was getting them on a #20 and #22 Red, Olive, and Black Zebra Midges – and a #2o Grey RS2. I was getting all of mine on the egg except for one who hit my #24 Black Flashback RS2 and one who hit my #16 Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear. We had several in the 17” to 18” range and some in the 10” to 12” range. Brian was still below me as I was still casting into the little depression, and as I released one of the smaller rainbows I said “go get your Big Daddy”.
The storm had moved as we walked past the Flag Hole.
A short bit later – after catching a few more rainbows, some nice ones – I hear Brian call out “I think I got your Big Daddy”. I looked down and his rod was bent at almost a 45-degree angle – he definitely had a big one on. I retrieved my flies and waded down to see what he had.
Brian had the guy tired out, but on his first attempt to net him – he missed. Then on his second attempt – he missed again. I was thinking “uh oh” – he better get him the next time. And he did. As he did, Brian called out that he foul hooked him. I was thinking maybe so, but after missing him a couple of times it is very conceivable that the fish had taken the first fly and Brian got him on the mouth, but the fish was able spit it out on one of the missed attempts with the net, then got caught up in one of the trailing flies. Who knows?
Anyway, as Brian was working to release his flies, he calls out “this bad boy has your egg in his mouth”. What the heck - it was indeed Big Daddy after all! What’s the likelihood of that happening? Very unlikely, but this is the second time Brian has done just that.
A beauty caught earlier in the day in the Diver Hole.
Even though it was a couple of years ago, I vividly remember the other time. We were on the North Platte River in the Fremont Canyon in Wyoming fishing the 21” Hole. We were both working the hole – hooking up and netting nice rainbows. Almost all of them 21 inches – that how the hole got its name. A rainbow – which happened to be a 21 incher - took my Chubby Chernobyl and as I fought him he was able to break it off. Later Brian would catch him and I was able to get my Chubby back!
It turned out that the Big Daddy wasn’t a twenty incher – but a beauty of a 17” cutbow. The water trailing behind him as he shot out of the water must have made him seem bigger. I had to get a picture of this bad boy – and I did, but not before I got my egg back!
Not long after releasing Big Daddy, the wind began to howl. I mean it was really howling with a little rain and sleet mixed in for good measure. It was stinging cold and was playing havoc on our casts and drifts. There was no one within sight on the river and we decided to call it a day.
He needs no introduction.
It was a fun day and even though Big Daddy wasn’t the biggest fish of the day – he will be the main reason we will remember it!
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