March 24, 2020
Flows: 187 cfs
Water Temp: 40 @ 10a
Water clarity: Crystal clear
Air Temp: 326 @ 8:30a – high 50s @ 4p.
Hatches: Midges from 10a till 4p. BWOs in the afternoon.
As in other areas of the US, Colorado is tightening the restrictions and rules regarding social interaction. This is coming from the governor down to city and county leaders, and mayors. All of them though say that getting outside for exercise is OK – just as long as you keep your distance.
You’d think that a fishing outing is tailor made to abide by the rules. Well maybe….
Arriving in the Deckers area in the morning. Looks promising from the crowd perspective.
Brian and I chatted about going out this week – and Brian thought that Tuesday would be a good day to avoid the crowds. Not sure how he came to this conclusion, but it sounded OK to me. So we met at the Deckers Resort yesterday morning – to the largest crowd of fishermen I’ve ever seen since the crowds that came out annually for the 1st day of trout season back in Pennsylvania. At one point, there were literally fishermen every 20 feet at and near the Bridge Hole.
When I got there – at about 8:30a – the actual Bridge Hole was open, and Brian was nowhere in sight. So I grabbed the hole as the pickings for decent fishable water were slim - and there were several feeding fish within sight!
My plan was to catch 2 or 3 of them – then move upstream to see if I could hook up with Brian. As the fishing pressure got heavier though – I adjusted my plan to hold my ground and catch as many as I could.
As it was, my revised plan worked out – and I was able to land 4 fish before lunch. One was a 15’ Brownie, and the others were Rainbows 14”, 15", and 17” respectively. I caught a couple of them in the slower water about 20 feet upstream of the large submerged boulders. The others were caught right in front of the boulders.
This 15" Brownie hit the Disco Midge.
I started out fishing midge nymphs with a #20 Red Disco Midge leading, followed by a #24 Flashback Black Beauty and a #24 Olive Zebra Midge. But after several drifts with no takers – and adjusting weight and depth - I decided to change my bottom fly to a #24 Top Secret Midge. I left the weight at one each #6 and one #4 split shots and my depth at about 7’. Then I quickly landed the Brownie and one of the 15” Rainbows – both hitting the Top Secret. The other 15” Rainbow and the 17” Rainbow both hit the Disco Midge.
When I set the hook on the 17” Rainbow – it took off like a lightning bolt. It was an athlete and the way it was fighting – it felt like at least a 20 incher. After an arm tiring – what felt like a ten minute fight - I had it in the net. And it was a beauty.
This 17" female was an athlete and fought like she was 20"+.
It was now about 12N and it was getting more crowded – allowing me to fish maybe ½ of the hole. So I decided to break for lunch. On the way to the car I stopped on the bridge to see if I could see any fish feeding at the confluence of Horse Creek. I spotted a couple of them pretty much in the same place as last week and made a mental note to check it again after lunch.
On my way back from lunch the fish were still there feeding at the confluence. So I circled back to the south side of the river intending to cross over Horse Creek where I could get a good drift to the feeding fish. As l climbed down the bank to get to the river, I spotted a nice size fish feeding just downstream of the large submerged boulders. The fish caught in the morning were feeding on the upstream side of these same submerged boulders. This fish was feeding in a seam in the middle of the river and slightly upstream from where Horse Creek feeds in. I wasn’t sure if it was one of the fish I saw from the bridge but I decided to try and catch him 1st – then cross Horse Creek to see if there were more fish feeding at the confluence.
Horse Creek just before it feeds into the South Platte River.
The fish was moving back and forth in the seam – a sure sign that he was feeding - at what looked like 3’ to 5' below the surface. I could see his mouth opening as he swung. My rig was still set with the #6 & #4 split shots – which I thought was perfect. I adjusted my indicator to get a little more depth and after about 4 casts I hooked him up. Or should a say her! She ended up being another 17” Rainbow and put up a good fight – as I had to cross Horse Creek in order to land her.
17" female taken in front of the Horse Creek confluence.
After releasing the fish – I got one of those dreaded granny knots – that come out of nowhere. So I had to sit on the bank and get the knot out – which took me maybe 10 minutes. As I was working this, I was thinking that at least I could give this spot a rest and maybe some of the feeding fish would come back. But when I was finally done, there was some kid standing on the bank fishing where I landed the 17”er. For some reason he did about 4 false casts for everyone of his casts. It’s not surprising that with all this movement from this guy standing high on the bank – that there were no longer any fish to be found in the hole.
I was pissed – but didn’t say anything. Just collected my stuff and headed upstream. This is the point in time where there were literally fishermen lined up at about every 20” from the head of the Bridge Hole, all the way through it. I was going to take a picture – but decided that I really didn’t want to capture that sight!!
So I went upstream to Ray’s Run where I finally ran into Brian. He was fishing just upstream from where I usually fish this run. He did well in this spot – hooking up 3 large Rainbows - one of them was in the 20”+ range. They were hitting his #20 Black Sparkle Wing RSII.
At the top of Ray's Run.
As I was looking around, I notice a couple of Rainbows feeding on the surface near the river edge. There were multiple hatches taking place and I couldn’t identify what they were. So my thought was to tie on a small #24 Parachute Adams but wasn’t sure what to tie on after it. As I was tying the Parachute on – an adult midge landed on my hand. No joke!! So I tied on a #24 Matt’s Midge. After several casts into the shallow streamside water – my Matt’s Midge started to fall apart. (Jeez - I need to do a better job tying!). So I replaced it with a #24 Griffith’s Gnat.
This small adult midge landed on my hand at just the right moment!
As I was casting to one of the feeding fish – which looked to be a 15” to 17” Rainbow – another fish streaked in from out of nowhere. It startled me how quickly it hit my gnat that my hook set was way too early and way too hard! Dang it – I was really working hard on this – and to miss that one was a disappointment!
About that time, I spotted a nice size fish feeding in a seam about a quarter of the way from the north side bank. He would occasionally come to the surface – but was mainly feeding about 2’ below the surface. I tried my dry flies – but he wasn’t interested. So I switched to my nymph rig that was set up with the #20 Disco Midge followed by a #24 Flashback Miracle Midge and a #22 Black Rojo Midge.
After several casts the fish hit. It took the Disco Midge and was a nice size – 16”s – but must have been caught a ton of times in the past. His snout and mouth were scared pretty badly. In fact that’s what made him stand out in the water. And it was one of those times where I saw his head swing and I new my flies were close – so I set the hook without any indicator movement. And he was there – hooked perfectly in the upper lip! Still amazes me….
Calling it a day – I headed back to the car. As I was walking along the road there was a small herd of deer – about 6 of them. Two were on the river side of the road about 20 feet from me - the rest on the other side. So I stopped to take their pictures and doing so must have spooked them. They came up the bank and were clearly going to cross the road – just as a car was approaching. I waved the car down and he was able to stop just in front of the deer. Wow that was a close one! And the driver thanked me.
She's just getting ready to bolt across the road!
Despite the crowds – it was another beautiful Colorado day – with wildlife going about their daily business as usual. And some nice fish in the net!!
On the way home. I never get tired of this sight!
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