Dec 29, 2020
Flows: Between 96 & 109 cfs
Water Temp: 42F @ 11a.
Water clarity: 3’ to 4’
Air Temp: 30 @ 8:30a, 49 @ 4p
Hatches: Midges – sporadic early to mid-afternoon. Beatis – early to mid-afternoon.
Moon Phase: Full
Flies: #16 Red Copper John, #20 Mercury Black Beauty, #20 Blood Red Midge, #18 Guides Choice Hare’s Ear, #24 Mercury Beatis, #22 Chocolate Thunder, #18 Black Beadhead Zebra Midge, #18 Red Beadhead Zebra Midge, #20 & #24 Top Secret Midge, #22 Grey Sparkle Wing RS2, #22 Miracle Midge, #22 Green Caddis Larva.
Top producers: Mercury Black Beauty, Top Secret Midge, Black & Red Zebra Midges. (These caught most fish, but we caught at least one fish on all flies used).
A beautiful start to the day! Looking upstream from Tom's Run.
It was another sketchy winter week, weather wise in Colorado. Tuesday and Thursday were the only days that looked promising with highs predicted to be near 50F in Pueblo. All the mountain locations were out of the question. The flows were pretty steady in Pueblo – which made our decision pretty straightforward.
The forecast was for the small storm to end on Tuesday morning and the weather was to clear up afterwards. And it held true. So the ride down I25 to Pueblo was both a beautiful winter morning and some tense driving. Especially through Colorado Springs which seemed to get more snow and was covered in a blanket of dense fog as I drove through.
Views of the park with the morning snow. (The hatchery is in the foreground).
Brian and I arranged to meet in one of the parking lots in the Pueblo Lake State Park. There was a light snow covering the ground when I arrived at 8:30a with bright sun and blue skies. Even though there was still a bite in the air – it was another beautiful day to be out of doors in Colorado.
Sandstone cliffs on one side of the park.
I met Brian at Tom’s Run. So named after a guy from Denver whom I fished with off and on one day a couple of years ago and who found this spot. It’s a pretty consistent place to locate feeding fish and a spot we usually hit when were fishing the upper part of the tailwater. Larger fish usually hang out in the seams created by the large submerged boulders in the middle of the river and in it’s tailout.
We also find smaller fish feeding along the bank and in the riffles between the middle and north side of the river. There are a lot 6” fish in this spot – but also some 15” to 17” ones too. Brian was fishing along one of the seams near the middle of the river and had caught a handful of the 6” variety by the time I arrived. There’s enough room for both of us to fish this spot and I rigged up with midge patterns to join in.
Brian working the along the bank at Tom's Run.
On about my third cast I got into a nice 15” or so trout. It was on the far seam toward the north side of the river. I had him on for a bit and everything felt good. But after coming to the surface and giving a head shake he was off. I didn’t realize at the time – but that would be my only chance to land a decent size fish on this day.
So after Brian and I caught a bucket full of small fish – all in the 6” range – we decided to move downstream. There are a lot of great spots from there down to the Bridge Hole and we hit all of them along the way. It took us most of the morning and we had one more little fish to show for our efforts. Brian landed him just above the Lone Tree Run.
A sample of what we caught - all day.
While we were fishing in the Bridge Hole I called out to Brian in disgust “Jeez, is there something going on with the sun, the moon, the stars or what”? Brian replied "there is a full moon". I didn’t think too much of it at the time
As we worked our way back upstream – we stopped at Tom’s Run and continued to catch the 6” variety. We had intended to stop there for a bit on our way to lunch, but after working the river all the way down to the Bridge Hole and back with only one fish – it was fun to get some action. So we stayed there for awhile and landed a bunch more little guys.
As we were leaving the run to head to lunch – Brian mentioned that he was planning to use his 2 weight setup in the afternoon. His thinking was it would be more fun and challenging catching the little guys on that rig. As we were eating I suggested that we try upstream, but Brian had already got his 2 weight out and together. So we decided to keep things simple and head back to Tom’s Run.
As we were leaving we ran into two guys who had fished upstream in the morning. Brian chatted with them and they said all they caught were little guys! I felt good that we made the right decision and saved ourselves a good walk only to catch the same as what we caught earlier. And it made me start thinking about the full moon.
Does the moon have an effect on the fishing? I remembered that on one of Brian’s solo trips to the Tailwater he ran into a guy who fishes it regularly. It turned out to be an off day, and the guy – Dale – told Brian it was because of the Big Moon. I looked back in my posts and it was on January 9, 2020. And we now have a full moon. It has many names – but one of them is the Cold Moon. Named so for obvious reasons. Is there a connection? I’m not sure, but I can’t figure out why we only caught little fish in places where we usually catch fish in the 17” range.
In my experience and all the research I’ve done, the fish are mostly effected by the water conditions – its flows and temperature - and bug activity. The air temperature, cloudy skies, and the amount sunlight have an effect on bug activity - which in turn have an effect on fish activity. One of the stream reports that I regularly read mentions the air pressure having an effect. Up until now, I’ve discounted that as frivolous! On this day, the water flow was a pretty consistent 96 cfs until about 3p when they were bumped to 109 cfs. And there was a decent midge and beatis hatch in the early afternoon. But even the hatch didn’t bring the big guys out.
A midge caught on the stream at around 1:30p.
A Trico - yes it's late in the season for Tricos - but we've found them hatching over the past few weeks. I've tried to talk myself into believing that we misidentified them and they were actually BWOs. But Max Pavel - a professional fly tier and fly fishing guide - confirmed they are Tricos. This one was caught during the hatch from about 1:30p to 3p.
The afternoon was a carbon copy of the morning - all we caught were the little guys. And we caught a lot of them. Probably 40 to 50 fish all told between Brian and me. At points we were catching fish on every cast or every second cast. For a time they would key on the Top Secret Midge other times it was a Zebra Midge, Black or Red. Or they would randomly hit one of our other flies.
Back to the moon – I’ve not done a lot of research into it’s effect on fishing. But have heard many times in the past that it has one. So after our experience during the Cold Moon I’m planning on tracking it’s phases to see if we can identify a pattern.
Cold Moon - December 29, 2020. (Last full moon of the year).
Photo by Getty Images/stock photo.
The Big Moon, Cold Moon, or whatever moon. Seems mystical – almost too mystical. But what else explains all the little fish and lack of the big ones?
We will see.
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