December 15, 2023
Arkansas River - The Tailwater (Tom’s Run to the Blue Heron Run.)
Flows: 90 cfs.
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent (8% illumination).
Water Temp: 46F @ 9a.
Water clarity: Clear to about 3’.
Air Temp: 36F @ 8:50a – 50F @ 3:30p.
Hatches: Midge: 9:30a – 3p. Small size 24 and olive size 20. BWO: Sparse, 11a - 3p. Size 24/22.
Spawning: No activity or redds observed.
Flies: #16 Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear, #16 Red Midge Larva, #22 Flashback Black Beauty, #22 Parachute Adams, #22 Cripple, #18 Pheasant Tail, #22 Barr Emerger, #24 Olive Jujubee Midge, #24 Grey Sparkle Wing RS2, #20 Mercury Pheasant Tail.
Top producers: Flashback Black Beauty, Pheasant Tail, Mercury Pheasant Tail, Jujubee Midge, Parachute Adams, Cripple.
Beautiful, late-fall day on the Tailwater
When we go fishing the primary goal is to catch fish. Normally.
This trip was different.
For me it was. I was given a task.
It was a big day for Brian. It was his birthday - a milestone birthday and I don’t think he’d mind me saying - it was his seventieth!
Linnea had plans for the big day. For those who don’t know – Linnea is Brian’s wife and a longtime friend of ours. She was planning a surprise party and family members were coming in from far and wide to help celebrate.
Part of that plan included me. She called and asked if I could take Brian fishing for the day so she could get things organized and to make sure the place was clear for the guests to arrive. Her only instructions were to just do things as normal.
I took that as leaving and returning at about the same time as usual which is an early departure and a return at about 5p. The return time being most crucial to the plan.
No sweat, right?
Well as they say, “even the best laid plans of mice and men”.
Brian standing in Tom's Run making an adjustment.
Brian arrived to pick me up – at my request - a little later than normal. For various reasons I haven’t been out fishing for six weeks. The past two weeks have been spent recuperating from a procedure and that’s why I wanted to leave a little later than normal. I wouldn’t have to get up as early. Also, in the back of my mind I was thinking this would help with the plan – the return time.
The first thing Brian says to me when I got into the car was “let’s plan to come back at 2 or so. Make it a short day.” He wanted to get home early because his kids and grandkids would be there, and he had plans. He reasoned that it would be better for me to take it easy too.
Hmmm.
It’s about a 1 ½ drive from the Tailwater to my place and it would take Brian about 20 minutes to drive home from there. That would put him home a little before 4p.
When we arrived at the parking spot and began to gear up I text’d Linnea to confirm the time she expected Brian back.
5p was her response.
Hmmm. No sweat right?
The Double Tree Hole with the huge fallen Cottonwood tree trunk in it.
(The glassy water just the right of it is where I caught several on dries.)
My first thought was to move as far away from the car as we fished so that it would take some time to walk back. That would help.
So off we went. It was a short hike from the car to our first spot.
We had to cross the river to get into position and notice a few small midges in the air as we did.
Brian started in the Double Tree Hole with me just upstream in Tom’s Run. A storm had just blown through the Front Range of Colorado, and we were thinking the fish would be down deep in slow pools. With that in mind, Brian was in position A, my position a little less desirable as Tom’s is not that deep.
When we left the parking lot it was 36F with bright sun. I was happy – not too cold - and it made getting my line set up much easier! I decided to start with a #16 Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear as my lead fly and followed it with a #16 Red Midge Larva and a #22 Flashback Black Beauty.
Red is a hot color in this river in the winter and I was expecting action on the midge larva. I mixed in the Black Beauty because black midge imitations work here too, especially in small sizes.
I had no added weight on as I approached the semi-deep pool in the middle of Tom’s Run. There are three huge boulders that are almost totally submerged in front of the pool and soft water behind them. After casting a few times into the pool, I didn’t like the drift I was getting so I added a .12g weight to my rig. I wanted my flies deeper in the pool – along the bottom would be ideal.
My 1st fish of the day - a 16" rainbow - taken out of Tom's Run.
After covering it – still with no action - I moved to the front of the boulders. I’ve found some nice rainbows there in the past. It was empty too and I made my way to the far bank.
Along the far bank – river left – there is a nice trough of water with trees overhanging the bank and a partially submerged log at the top of the trough providing nice cover for the trout. And making for difficult casting for the fisherman! It’s worth the effort though. I’ve caught 20”+ rainbows in it on several occasions.
I casted into the top of the trough next to the partially submerged log and let my flies drift in the seam between me and the trough. As I did, I noticed that my flies were hitting bottom. Not a bad thing but at times they were getting hung up on the rocks – then breaking lose and continuing their drift.
On one of my casts it seemed that my flies were hung up on one of those rocks and I lifted my line to release them. I found that they weren’t hung up, but a fish had taken them. But I really didn’t set the hook and he quickly squirmed free. Ugh! I chocked that one up to being rusty.
I then began to work deeper into the trough where my flies seemed to have a better drift. On one of my drifts, they abruptly stopped and I set the hook. BANG - fish on! And it was a nice one.
He worked me downstream - then back upstream – then into the pool behind the boulders. I could see him. A nice rainbow in the 18” range and I was happy to be hooked up and tight lined after being away from the river for so long.
I got his head up and tried to keep it from going back under and as I did, he broke off. I think I said some unprintable things before collected myself and getting ready to do it again.
Another look at my 16" rainbow.
I went back to the top of the trough and started over. My flies were still getting caught on the rocks and I decided to take my split shot off and use the Guide’s Choice as my only weight. Still at the top of the run I was casting just along the log. I wanted to get as close to it as I could without getting hung up.
Second drift – BANG! Another nice rainbow hooked up and tight lined. A nice rainbow – brightly colored. What I came here for. Same type of fight. Downstream – upstream – into the pool. I had his head out of the water and he was shaking – violently shaking – it. That had me worried as I was bringing him to my waiting net.
He had taken my last fly – the Flashback Black Beauty – and just as I put my net under him and began to lift it, he finally spit my fly and dropped into my net! Yeah baby. The rainbows here are distinctly colored – the mature ones. Bright reds and oranges on their gills and mouths with white stripes mixed in along their lips. This was one of them. A nice 16’/17” rainbow.
After releasing him, I went back. Why not. There may be another one in there.
And there was. I got this one further downstream in the trough – about midway down. He hit the same fly – my Flashback Black Beauty. This one wasn’t brightly colored like the last one and smaller, about 15”. Still fun though and I was happy that I found some fish and was able to hook them up.
A 15" rainbow taken out of Tom's Run.
After that it dried up and I moved down into Lower Tom’s Run. In this part of the run there is another pool – a larger one with a boulder weir at the top of it and aerated, swirling water dumping into the deep pool below. Another spot that I’ve taken some nice fish from in the past.
As I was casting into the pool I was thinking there had to be some fish in it. Before going in though, I had to add back some weight. The water is faster coming over the weir and I wanted them deep.
It’s a little tricky drifting through this part of the pool. There are a lot of little eddies – or swirls of water spinning in a circular motion. As your indicator moves through it gets caught in the swirls which causes a pause, then it releases and continues to drift until it hits the next one. The tricky part is that when the indicator gets caught up in a swirl, it looks like a hit. If you set on every one it’s hard to get a good drift through the pool.
Brian fishing the tailout of the Double Tree Hole.
On one of my drifts my indicator paused – and the pause was a little too long for it to be hung up in swirl, but instead of a hard set I just lift my line. And yeah – there was a fish on. But just briefly. Very briefly. Cussing at myself, I reset and continued to cover the pool.
But that was it. One chance and I missed him.
Now I moved further downstream and to the far side – river left. The is a small gravel island with water going left and right around it. The river left leg is smaller – like a very small stream feeding into a small, deep pool. I call this the Small-pool and have found a fish in it on occasion. Usually only one.
As I waded across the river, Brian moved into to Tom’s Run.
One this day I didn’t find one in the Small-pool and moved further downstream to where the water feeds back into the main river below the island. Here there is deep, still water along the bank and very fast water of the main river flowing into the Double Tree Hole, with a seam where they meet. The fast water then swirls toward the bank forming a big eddie that flows back upstream where there is a huge tree trunk laying in the water.
Got this 12" rainbow on a Cripple next to the fallen cottonwood in the Double Tree Hole.
I casted near the huge tree trunk into the still water just to see if maybe a big brown was laying there – but I had no takers. As I watched the water, I noticed a brownie coming to the surface and eating insects flowing in the foam line of the eddie just before it flows back into the Double Tree Hole.
I still had my nymphing rod and casted my flies into the foam line hoping that a fish would hit before they sunk too low. And it worked. I hooked one up – he hit my top fly, the Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear. As I was fighting him one of my bottom flies got stuck on the tree trunk.
This was interesting. I had a fish on and was hung up on that huge tree trunk.
Trying in vain to get my flies loose with no avail – I had to break them off. As I pulled my line back I was hoping that it would break at the fly that was stuck in the tree trunk rather than further up above my Guide’s Choice. Luckily it did and I was able to bring the 12” rainbow to net.
Another rainbow taken by the fallen Cottonwood tree. Got this one on the Guide's Choice Hare's Ear.
Not wanting to get hung up on the tree trunk again, I waded back across the river to get my dry fly rig. While I was off the river for the past six weeks I tied a lot of flies. I went back to basics on some of them, one being the Cripple. It imitates an emerging insect the is stuck in its shuck. I was pretty sure that both midges and BWOs were hatching, and I wanted to try that fly. I tied a lot of them in size 24 – which is very small, and it imitates both a midge and BWO – which I suspected was hatching.
At the time, Brian was in Lower Tom’s Run and was near where I crossed the river to get my rod. I asked him if he could tell what was hatching and he said midges for sure and he didn’t see any BWOs. So I tied on a #22 Parachute Adams and the Cripple. I’ve found both of these flies effective during a midge hatch, and if there were BWOs mixed in – they work well for them too.
After wading back across the river, I set up at the bottom of the island and casted into the foam line. This was effective and I had many takers. Not big ones – they were between 8” and 12”. All rainbows and they were taking the Cripple and the Adams.
A smallish 10" rainbow - this one took the Parachute Adams.
One of the rainbows came up to eat my Cripple and I timed my set perfectly. I thought I did. He was a game fighter and when I finally got him in the net, I noticed he had broken off someone else’s line. It was a thick line – looked like maybe from a spin-casting setup and he had a really big fly stuck deep in his throat. There was a loop in the line sticking out of his mouth and my fly was imbedded in it. So I’m not sure if my set was perfectly timed or not.
I felt bad for the rainbow as I worked to remove the fly. But it was firmly embedded in his throat, and I began to worry that I would kill him if I continued to try to remove it. I was thinking he had a lot of energy as he fought to get free so he must be healthy. Instead of removing the fly, I just cut the line that was hanging out of him mouth and released him. Not ideal but I think he will survive and is better off now than when I caught him.
It was getting to about lunch time and the rising was dying down. A good time for a lunch break!
The Small-pool (top left) with the left leg of the river feeding back into the Double Tree Hole at the bottom of the island.
I waded back across the river to get some water and my sandwich. Brain was back in the Double Tree Hole fishing the tailout and I watched him as I ate. As I was watching, I noticed some fish rising further downstream of him and a few along the far bank.
Brian got a new 5-weight rod for his birthday - a Scott Centric. I have the same model in a 6-weight – got it about two years ago and it quickly became my favorite.
I asked him how he has been making out and he said he had about four on, but they all were able to break off. He was thinking that his new rod was jinxing him!
It was then that I suggested that we move downstream - implemented my plan get as far from the car as possible. So far so good.
We fished different holes and runs as we moved downstream. All along the river we saw small fish rising. I got a few more and they were in the 6” range. Oh boy - some days that’s the way it goes.
We ran into a guy who said he was getting a lot of fish on a #20 Olive Midge. His were small ones too. I wasn’t able to catch any of the flies but at one point as I was in the process of tying on a fly and an adult midge landed on my finger. It was olive in color and about a size 20.
A rainbow in the net.
That was good timing and confirmed that some of the flies I was seeing were olive-colored midges. With that, I tied on a #22 Olive Jujubee Midge as a dropper on my dry fly setup and later used it as one of my target flies on my nymph rig. It worked on both fooling a couple of the little guys with it.
We were now at the Lone Tree Run. This is a long stretch of water with a riffles feeding into a few braids of deep troughs and pools along the way. Brian was fishing the middle of the top deep trough, and I took a position at the top of the run where the riffles feed down into the trough Brian was in.
I had my nymphing rig and as I approached the riffles I noticed a few of the small guys taking adults off the surface.
Brian had loaned me a book a couple of weeks ago by Rodger Hill - Fly Fishing the South Platte River, An Anglers Guide. In it he talks about the importance of being stealthy and not spooking the fish. Brian and I both agreed that he goes a little overboard on this but for me, it reinforced how important a stealthy approach is.
Caught a bunch of guys like this in the afternoon.
Keeping this in mind I cautiously approached the riffles, and along with the little guys, I noticed one or two nice size rainbows in a slow pocket near the top of the run – their bright red stripe giving them away.
I casted to them but I had too much weight on and my flies kept getting caught up. Off came my split shot, but it wasn’t enough – they were still getting caught up. I waded back to the edge of the river so that I could make a change to my flies without spooking the big rainbows. I changed out my Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear – which is a weighted fly - for a #16 Pheasant Tail and then I changed one of my target flies to a #24 Olive Jujubee Midge.
Now with a very light rig, I cautiously approached the spot where I saw the big rainbow.
On my second cast my indicator floated into the still pocket water where the rainbow was. My indicator was barely moving and then all of a sudden it took off into the fast water. I brought my rod up to insure the hook was set and I had that bad boy on – saying to myself as I waded downstream with him – “I got you buddy”!
It was beautiful. Planned out and executed. Big fish on – I was psyched. I had him firmly hooked up and tight lined. But it didn’t last. I had my rod up as I was moving downstream – all seemed good, then my line went slack. Holy Moly – are you kidding me. I was now torqued!
After retrieving my flies – I noticed they were gone. What the heck happened? On inspection either my surgeons knot let loose or my line broke. I don’t think I’ve ever had a surgeon’s knot let loose before and I’m not sure if you get the squiggly loops in the line like when a clinch knot does – but I didn’t have any. I’m not sure what happened – other than the fact that something did and it caused me to lose a nice fish.
We continued to move downstream and were now at the bottom of the Lone Tree Run. It was then that Brian said it was about 2p and suggested that we start toward the car.
Ah oh!
Best laid plans of mice and men.
I was searching for something to say. Normally I would have anticipated this and thought about some different responses prior – but I was consumed by fishing. That’s one of the things about fly fishing – you get totally absorbed by it.
Anyway, I was trying to quickly come up with something to delay this. Stalling for time to think, I said “you want to leave already”? He says, “yeah my kids are probably already there, and we have some stuff to do”.
So I said, “you know I’ve caught some nice fish down in the Blue Heron Run – mind if I go down and see if I can find one”? Brian says, “Sure – that’s fine”.
I don’t know too many guys who would have been so accommodating in that circumstance. My response was clumsy, and it didn’t feel good as I began to make my way downstream toward the Blue Heron Run. I found some solice though knowing that it was for a good cause, and he would later understand. I was being a bit of a jerk for a good reason.
When I got to the Blue Heron Run I set my stuff down and sent a text to Linnea alerting her that Brian wanted to leave now – which I was thinking was too early. She responded that that would be OK – most of the people were already there for the surprise.
Now at the run though – I was thinking I had to at least go in one time or else it wouldn’t look right. Before going in, I had to replace a fly that got hung up on my backpack. This took some time - and finally done, I waded into the run. First cast – immediately after my flies hit the water – fish on! It wasn’t the big one I was “looking for” but a game 12” brownie – fighting like all get out.
This guy was standing along the bank close to Brian as he fished the Lone Tree Hole.
After releasing him, I noticed Brian was working upstream so I gathered my stuff and began to walk that way. When I met up with him, he said he had landed a rainbow. It was a little guy - 6”. But he got one and he got it using his new rod which is now officially broke in!
We left the parking spot at 3p with an ETA to my place of 4:50p. A little late, but just about perfect timing if it wasn’t for the traffic we encountered along the way. Net – net, Brian didn’t get home till about 5:30p.
Well, I thought it was better to be late in this instance than early.
Let the party begin!
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