The Trout Won

March 4, 2020

Flows: 170 cfs

Water Temp: 34 @ 9a – 41 @4:30

Water clarity: ~6’

Air Temp: 34 @ 8:30a – high 50s to low 60s @ 4p.

Hatches: BWOs (dense in some areas- sparse in others) – 11a to 4p.

Well if you compare how many I had hooked (5) up to how many I had in the net (1) – yep, the trout won! Non the less, it was a great day – especially for winter – when Brian and I hit Deckers on Wednesday. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but with the bright sun – it wormed up quickly - with the air still crisp. Another beautiful day in Colorado!

The Cable Hole at Deckers.

We decided to start the day at the Cable Hole – crossing the river downstream of it – and checking the low, slow water on the north side as we approached it. We didn't see any fish holding in this area, so we continued on to the hole. Before starting – we seined the river and found stoneflies, baetis (a lot of them), and a few small midges - a nice combination. The only thing missing where caddis larva!

A stonefly captured just below the Cable Hole.

Baetis and a few small midges captured just below the Cable Hole.

It wasn’t too cold to fish, but with my hand in a cast and no glove to fit over it – I decided to scout for Brian for awhile until it warmed up a bit. We didn’t see any fish in the hole and Brian didn’t get any hits as he covered it. It was warming up by the time he moved downstream to fish the run below – so I rigged up. Since we saw some stone flies when we seined, I tied a #18 Black Copper John as my lead fly, followed by a #22 Stalcup Baetis and a #24 Black Bling Midge. I fished this rig covered the fast water leading into the hole.

After not getting any action – I walked downstream and waded back across the river to meet up with Brian. But before we left the area – I wanted to take a look into the Cable Hole from the south side of the river. The road passes on this side and it sits higher than the water, so you can see into it better. At the head of the hole there was an eddy just below my vantage point, and there were at least 10 trout feeding. Brian went in first to see if he could get a hook up as I watched the action from the road. It was difficult to get a decent drift – and after several tries Brian moved upstream into the fast water – so I moved in to see if I could catch any of the fish feeding in the eddy.

What I quickly found out was once you were able to get a good drift and put the flies where the fish were feeding – the water was very slow. So this gave the fish plenty of time to inspect my offering. And they refused every time! But being stubborn (I think I mentioned this in an earlier post!) – I kept trying things, such as adding weight, reducing weight, adjusting indicator height, changing flies from nymphs to dry/dropper and then to dries. This took about 3 hours – and nothing worked. Hmmm – is that being stubborn or patient? This is a rhetorical question!!

I did witness something pretty amazing though. On my first offering with the dry/dropper – as I casted into the pool - a fish saw my dropper (a large dry fly) coming down to the surface of the water, and he rose to meet it. He met the fly just as it hit the water - but he was quick to pull off, with his body brushing the fly. I’ve never seen this before.

As all this was going on – Brian hooked up a few Brownies in the fast water – and netted 2 of them. They were hitting a #22 Chocolate Thunder. It was nice to see the Brownies active, as their metabolism slows done quite a bit in winter and they don’t feed much. That’s why most of the winter trout taken are Rainbows. Anyway, with the Browns active – indicative of spring approaching – there will now be more fish to catch!!

A 14" Brownie - caught by Brian in the Cable Hole.

After lunch we hit Mark’s Run. We didn’t see any fish in the run and had no hits – so I scouted in the flat water below the run. I was able to spot a few fish and tried to catch them. Then another interesting thing happened. As I was casting to a rainbow feeding in the flow beside a large rock – I accidently foul hooked him. When I set the hook - the whole side of the fish came out of the water, but the fish didn’t even fight. That was weird. Then I broke off the fly and figured that fish was gone. But he came right back to the same spot. That was just as weird – or maybe more weird - I've never seen that before. After a couple of more casts to him, he did spook and was gone.

At that time Brian mentioned that he wanted to go downstream – which I thought was a good idea. So I began to wade down towards the Between the Islands run with intentions of hitting a few pockets along the way. As I was moving down, I glanced back to see Brian heading out of the water toward the parking spot. Couldn’t figure out why he was going that way?? As he would tell me later – he was talking about getting into the car and driving down river to the Bridge Hole!!

Anyway, I stopped on the upper island to redo my rig – and I didn’t see Brian again until a couple hours later. As I moved downriver, there was no action in the pockets and runs that I fished along the way. I usually stop beside a deep pocket that is at the end of the run. This pocket is about 50 yards upstream of a small waterfall that leads into a shoot that drains into the Island Pool. I have had great luck in this pocket water in the past - landing tons of fish - and nice size ones at that. It gets hard to wade at this point because of the many boulders and large rocks in the water on the south side of the river. This is the side that you have to fish this pocket from though. I’ve had many stumbles chasing fish that I hooked up – and might have fallen in a couple of times too! This boulder and rock strewn area goes from the pocket to the end of the run.

I’ve hooked up several fish at the end of my drift from here – so I decided to wade down further to see if I could spot any fish. The boulders create a lot of small pockets and seams – and the water is much slower here. Once I got into the area – I spotted a couple of trout feeding in one of the small pockets. The only problem is that this water was slow – like the eddy at the Cable Hole that I fished in the morning. After several casts and several changes in weight and depth – I decided to change my target flies – I already had a #20 Flashback Pheasant Tail leading, and I followed it with a #22 Black Flashback RS-2 and a #22 Flashback Barr Emerger.

They say success is when preparation meets opportunity. Well on my 2nd cast into the pool with my new setup – I wasn’t totally prepared - as a rainbow in the 18” range took the Barr Emerger. Once I set the hook, the fish streaked for the fast water – and my drag was set way too loose. Ugh. So I clamped my hand on the reel to keep him out of the fast water until I could adjust the drag. (I lost a couple of nice fish here when they went into the fast water – and then over the waterfall leading into the shoot that feeds into the Island Pool below). Just as I clamped on the reel, the fish jumped out of the water – and with the tension on the line – broke off. Man that’s enough to piss you off!!

Anyway, I continued to fish the pockets and seams in this area and ended up with a total of 5 fish on and was able to land one 13” Rainbow. He was a fighter and I had a hard time just getting a hold of him in the net so that I could get the fly out of his mouth and release him. In fact with all his jumping around and squirming – he got the fly out all by himself! Even though I only landed the 1 fish – the action was a lot of fun and a great way to end the day.