May 11, 2022
The Blue River – Just below Cutthroat Anglers Fly Shop to the Dillon Dam. And Clear Creek – above the Beaver Ponds.
Flows: 123 cfs.
Water Temp: 48F @ 10:30a.
Water clarity: The Blue - Crystal clear. Clear Creek - Chocolate brown and muddy.
Air Temp: Low 50s @ 8:30a – 68F @ 4p.
Hatches: Light midge 8:30a to 12N.
Flies: #18 Guides Choice Hare’s Ear, #22 Mercury Black Beauty, #18 Sawyer’s Style Pheasant Tail, #24 Top Secret Midge, #24 Grey Sparkle Wing RS2, #20 Mercury Pheasant Tail, #22 Chocolate Thunder, #18 Canyon Cripple, #24 BWO Parachute, #24 Matt's Midge.
Top producers: Sawyer’s Style Pheasant Tail.
Looking upstream from the top of the Fill'er Up Hole on the Blue River.
The Colorado Wildlife Commission is responsible to designate waters in Colorado as “Gold Medal”. There are eleven different rivers and three lakes designated as such in the state.
According to Colorado Trout Unlimited and various online resources, the criteria to qualify as a Gold Medal water is “The water must be able to produce a minimum of 12 "quality trout" (14+ inches) per acre. It also must be able to produce 60 pounds of standing stock (the amount of living organisms in the ecosystem- including fish, plant life and micro invertebrates) per acre, and can only be designated Gold Medal if the water is accessible to the public.”
The entire length of the Blue River – all 34 miles of it – from below the Dillon Dam all the way to Kremmling where it empties into the Colorado River, are designated as Gold Medal.
The “Book” on the Blue River is that it is hit or miss. On or off. The last time we fished it – it was on. Nothing crazy – but we landed several rainbows of 20 inches and a few +20”. That’s the other thing the Blue is known for --- big rainbows. They feast on the Mysis shrimp that reside in the Dillon Reservoir and get swept into the river below. They’re very nutritious and the trout get big and fat. The way we like them!
Brian and I decided to give it a try earlier this week. It’s been almost a year since we last fished it and with spring weather now in full force, we’ve been anxious to spread out and fish the many different quality rivers that we are lucky enough to have access to.
The recent report from FlyCast was optimistic. About as optimistic as you can get for the Blue. Low flows, trout spread out, some rising, decent midge hatches, and some baetis in the afternoon.
Getting back to the Gold Medal designation, if you break down the distance that we covered – from the Dam to the Cutthroat Fly Shop – it’s a distance of a little more than a mile as the river flows. Gold Medal water is supposed to hold a minimum of 12 quality fish, 14" or more per acre. An acre is 43,560 square feet. Let’s assume the river is about 43’ wide the entire length that we covered – which is a pretty close approximation. So every 1,000’ would equate to an acre. That’s 12 quality fish per 1,000 feet – or more than 60 fish per mile.
The Blue River on a section near the Dillon Dam.
That really doesn’t seem to be that many fish to me. I’ve definitely seen more in some of the other Gold Medal waters that we’ve fished. But for the Blue, that count may be for when it’s “on”. For Brian and I spotted – at most – 5 fish all day over the little more than a mile of river that we covered.
It seemed like they had vanished. To where? I don’t know. Maybe the low flows moved them farther downstream. There are tributaries feeding the river as it flows downstream through the town of Silverthorne and maybe they added the additional volume of water that the fish like.
We started the day at the furthest point upriver that is accessible in Silverthorne - just below the dam. The flows were low – 56 cfs - and the water was crystal clear. Sight fishing was the name of the game – and we didn’t see any. In these conditions if you don’t see any fish and you don’t get any hits in the fishy spots – it’s time to move on. Keep moving until you find fish.
That’s what we did. And we didn’t see any fish. And we stopped at every “fishy” looking spot and covered them. No hits.
We were finally downstream in the Outlet Mall area under the first pedestrian bridge. Brian got there first and was fishing a seam just upriver from the bridge. When I arrived he said he had one on, but it broke off as he was fighting it. Now that was encouraging. Last time we were here we saw a guy land a few fish in this spot.
I took up a spot just downriver from the bridge. Neither of us had any more action so we moved further downstream to just before the tubes that lead under a traffic bridge. With no action, we planned to continue moving downstream - walking through the bridge underpass to get there.
Just as I was getting ready to go that way, I had a thought. Why not try that spot where Brian had one hooked up? That seam has been rested for a bit and maybe that trout came back. So I headed there.
The one and only fish we caught on the Blue River.
As I began to work the seam –with no trout in sight, Brian walked up on the pedestrian bridge and peered into the river. He said there was a trout working back and forth in the seam - a good indication of a feeding trout. He gave me a couple of landmarks – between the orange colored boulder and the darker one beyond it.
I kept my distance and still couldn’t see the fish but could see the boulders as my targets. But I wasn’t really happy with the drifts I was getting into the seam, so I moved upstream a bit hoping to get a better drift. Which worked. On about my third drift from that position, Brian was coming down from the bridge and I glanced that way. Just then - out of the corner of my eye - I saw my indicator wobble and I set the hook.
Fish on!
Finally, I had a fish on. As I was fighting it, I was thinking to myself “Don’t lose this one. I don’t think you’ll have many more opportunities on this day”.
Fighting this fish was not an easy task. The Blue River is covered with large, round, slippery, lose rocks. And then there are a smattering of large boulders of various shapes and sizes throughout. This makes wading and fighting a fish very challenging.
With all those hazards at my feet, I was somewhat stationary but was able to guide the fish to my net. A nice 18” rainbow who took my Sawyer’s Style Pheasant Tail. The same one I had tied on last week that fooled a couple of trout.
Another look at the 18" rainbow who took the Sawyer's Style Pheasant Tail. We got this one under the 1st pedestrian bridge in the Outlet Mall area.
Brian got an assist on that one. Teamwork. I like it!
Regarding my rig, I had left the Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ear and the Sawyer’s Style Pheasant Tail tied on from last week, changing only my target fly to a Mercury Black Beauty. It was about 10:30a when I landed the rainbow and there was a slight midge hatch in progress throughout the morning.
After releasing the rainbow, we headed through the underpass and further downstream. I ended up just upstream from the fly shop and Brian was further upstream from me. We were looking for the Fill’er Up Hole. We took some nice big, fat rainbows out of that spot last time.
Brian found the spot first as I worked my way upstream, joining him a bit later. Again, no fish in sight. None the less, I covered the top of the run while Brian covered the middle and bottom of it. I then moved further downstream covering a spot just below a boulder structure that aerated the water as it flowed into some nice pocket water. No fish sightings - no hits, no runs, no errors!
I was thinking about lunch so if found a nice spot in the sun streamside and ate lunch as Brian continued to cover the Fill’er Up Hole. This stretch of the river – in the town of Silverthorne – is beautiful. It has a feel of a mountain stream that flows through a pine forest. And I guess that is exactly what it is! Very relaxing.
The Blue River in the town of Silverthorne.
The few times that I’ve been here, there are always a lot of people out enjoying the Riverwalk, either walking or biking – or just sitting on the benches or platforms that are scattered about the banks of the river. And there were a few other fishermen. Not many - and the ones I talked to were having the same experience as Brian and I. Regardless, it was a beautiful morning and great to be on the river.
We would work our way back upstream. I took a harder route to navigate than Brian did, wanting to hit the various riffles, runs, pools, and pockets along the way. He had his sights on that spot where I landed the rainbow earlier. By the time I caught up with him he said he had another fish on in the same seam we both fished earlier in the day. Was it the same fish? I doubt it – but it certainly could have been.
We then worked our way further upstream. Brian on one side of the river, me on the other. After we crossed under the I-70 bridge my path was higher up on the bank and I watched as Brian fished along the other side of the river. This spot is relatively flat but has some nice pocket water with some troughs that are fairly deep.
I began to head further upstream and was not looking into the water when Brian called out that he had spotted a fish. From my vantage point I could see into the water better than he could and proceeded to guide him to where the fish was lying. After several attempts, Brian had him hooked up. It was a nice size rainbow – but he had foul hooked him. Got him on the underside of one of his fins.
After releasing the rainbow, we both headed further upstream. It was a bit discouraging that we only found one fish on our journey upstream which covered about ¾ of a mile. Before going too far upstream, I decided to go back to where Brian had hooked up that rainbow. Again thinking that the run had had time to set and maybe that rainbow had come back – or another one had taken his place.
I stood on the bank peering into the river for a quite a bit of time. I was thinking to myself “You going to fish or stand here looking into the water”? Then I saw a nose come up and eat an insect in the film just below the surface. He – or another rainbow - was back.
After several drifts with no interest, I tied on my Canyon Cripple to see if that would entice a hit. On my first two drifts with it on, the fish chased it but didn’t hit. Then I got hung up on the bottom near him and he bolted and was gone.
We found the Beaver Ponds muddy with no fish in sight.
It was getting to be about 2p when we decided to call it a day on the Blue. We wanted some time to fish the Beaver Ponds on Clear Creek.
Clear Creek is a freestone river – meaning it flows freely without any dams. Except for beaver dams that is! Its headwaters are high up in the mountains near Loveland Pass and the ski area. There are many little creeks that feed into the river on its journey into Golden before it feeds into the South Platte River further downriver.
Snow melt is happening a little earlier this year due to the warmer weather we’ve been having. It was quite evident when we got to the ponds. We expected some runoff and the ponds were a murky brown. Even though, we expected to see some fish – Greenback Cutthroats - but they were nowhere in sight. That’s what we were after, Greenback Cutthroat Trout – Colorado’s state fish. They’re not big. A nice one is 8” to 9”, but they’re fun to catch on the light tackle that we brought along and were using.
We ran into a guy who fishes this part of the river regularly and he guided us to a point on the river above the beaver dams. There are a few slower pools where we did spot a couple of greenbacks coming up to the surface. I tried for one of them but after inspecting my offering in the slow moving water – he passed and eventually moved on.
We worked our way further upstream and I ended up switching my dry flies out for a nymph rig. In retrospect, I think the best way to fish the river upstream of the beaver dams is either with dries – if the fish are rising. If not, then a Dry/Dropper setup.
Getting into position to fish along this part of the river is a real challenge. The river flows through a very dense pine forest. There are trees everywhere. Branches everywhere, dead ones too and felled trees on the ground among some kind of thick undergrowth, and it’s marshy too from the various dams the pesky little beavers have built. This is hard work!
I was totally exhausted when we finally called it a day. Along the way to the car I ran into another regular who gave additional advice on places to fish. Brian joined us and we chatted a bit. As he pointed out – it was a bit early to fish this river with snow melt in progress causing higher flows and muddy water. I couldn’t have agreed more.
We worked the river trying to find a spot that was holding trout. Another beautiful setting – but no fish to be found. Another vanishing act!
A lot of times you have work a river repeatedly until you find the spots that produce consistently. Experience – as they say, “there is no substitute for experience”. And if you can glean some good intel from a regular – well, that’s even better! The other thing they say, “a wise man learns from his experiences – a wiser man learns from someone else’s experience”!
Clear Creek running chocolate brown in the dense pine forest above the Beaver Ponds.
As we drove home – we were wondering where the fish had gone on the Blue. There weren’t that many hiding places and we hit many of them. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that they moved downstream into the safety of the higher water where they could feed and hide.
We may have to try further downstream next time.
We also found from our experience – and from the other guys we chatted with – that it’s best to fish the Beaver Ponds after runoff. They are completely different when the water is crystal clear. Then we have found the ponds filled with Greenbacks coming to the surface. They’re hard to fool though in the very slow moving water. But every now and then one will bolt from below and attack your fly. That and the beautiful surroundings is what brings you back to this place.
When the trout vanish out of thin air – or water I should say – only the Trout Gods really know where they went.
But we have a few ideas on where to find them next time.
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