slow going on the river

Hi everyone, I know I have been slacking with the blog. I have been going out on the rivers as often as I can, but with the hot weather the fishing has slowed down. I have had a couple of good days on Rifle creek north of town. and with the run off finally over I can go and fish the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers, this is good news because I don't have to drive 1.5 hours to get to a good river.  I have also been tying a lot of fly's to use on the rivers around here

here are some of the fly's I have tied

Some of the fish I have been catching

Good times on the river

Hi everyone. I know its been a while since my last post, but the fishing has been very limited this spring due to the high water on the rivers and a bad case of pneumonia that put me in the hospital for a couple of days. I am all recovered now and have gone out fishing on some lakes around here. this last weekend my best friend Jesse drove up from Durango to go fishing for his 30th birthday. I took thursday and friday off of work so we could get lots of good fishing in a few days.

The only river that has low water is the Frying pan River below Reudi reservoir. The river was higher and faster than normal but not as high as some of the other local rivers due to the control of water coming out of the dam. We got to the river around 9am thursday. We found a spot in the flats directly below the dam and started fishing. I caught one within 15 minutes but that was the only one of the day. Jesse over herd some people who had a guide with them saying "I caught it on a candy cane". I had no idea what a candy cane fly looks like. After a while we got lunch and tried to pick up some candy cane fly at the local shop. The guy at the shop had no clue what we were asking for and recommended a mysis shrimp pattern to use. We drove back to the upper river and got back in the same area we fished in the morning we had some bites but caught nothing. We went back home and looked up candy cane fly and tied up a bunch for friday.

                  These are the flys that we tied up and caught a bunch of fish with

                          some of the shrimp from the shop in Basalt. they do catch fish

                                      some of the "candy cane"  flys we tied up

Friday we headed back up to the flats below the dam. We got there around 7:30am and very few people, so we were able to get the spot the guide and his clients were fishing on thursday. We both set up with a shrimp and our own versions of the candy cane and the fishing was great. I started the day by catching 2 brown trout on the first 2 casts. I caught a few more and Jesse still had not caught any. I wanted to help but did not know what to do, he came up here for his birthday and hadn't caught a single fish. He made some adjustments to his rig ,and next thing I hear is "I got one". Jesse was on fire. A fish slayer. He kept catching fish. It was awesome. The two of us with  the flys we tied were catching fish all day long.

                                                                  a nice brownie

                                                                another brownie

                                                                  Jesse on the hunt

      sometimes nice people will help net your fish and ask if you have a extra fly that has been working all day

                                          

On Saturday we returned to the same spot about 7am nobody there. We tied on the same fly patterns we were using on friday. I started the day the same way I finished friday. We had a great day. and caught a bunch of fish.  after a long day of "combat fishing" (jockeying for position on the river for the best spots) we decided to go home and celebrate a great fishing outing with cold beer and local whiskey. 

Day 4&5

The other day after work the weather was nice, I decided to go fishing. I went to Lion's Pond at the rest area here in Rifle. It is a nice spot that is close to home. I walked to the far side of the pond with my dog, I noticed some fish rising to flys on the surface. I casted a caddis pattern out near where I saw the fish rise. I caught a bluegill. Bluegill are a small warm water fish. Not as regal as a trout but a fish none the less. I kept catching these bluegill all afternoon. the only problem is they don't put up a fight like a trout, they kind of play dead until they get released, kind of boring if you ask me. The next time I go to Lions Pond. I will bring my camera and get some pictures.




Today I went back to the "Pan". It was a great day for fishing. The weather was lousy, but the fishing was awesome. Started out slow, I has a couple of fish on the line but I lost them. As the day progressed the fishing became catching. It was a slay fest. While I was setting up in the parking area I met a guy picking up litter around the river. His name is Pete, he told me he is a guide at a shop out of Aspen. We talked about the river for a while, he went to his truck and came back with a fly box. He gave me some of his flys he likes to use on the Pan. What a cool guy. I thanked him for the flys and he left. The upper parts of the river were hit or miss fishing. I moved around alot the first fish of the day was a small brownie. no pic. left the camera in the truck. I caught the brownie on a pattern called a Roy's emerger, named for Roy Palm, a local legend on the Pan. I fished the upper river for a few hours until I got too cold. Jumped in the truck and headed down river.

I found a spot on the lower river, nobody was there so I scouted it out. The fish were rising everywhere I looked. I kept the Roy's emerger tied on and added a jujube midge to trail behind the dry fly. I had a fish on the first cast. It was a small rainbow trout. about 10'' long

I kept fishing this spot for a couple of hours and caught some more fish. most of them shook loose before I could land them (I blame barbless hooks) but I got a few of them to the net. The fishing finally slowed down around 4:00. I was cold and the dog was too, so I called it a day and headed back home. Maybe the Roaring Fork River tomorrow.

I'm not a writer or a fishing expert.

I wanted to apologise to everyone for my poor use of punctuation  marks,./; I have a idea where they go and how to use them, but as a electrician I don't do much writing. I also want to apologise for lack of detail in the storys, and using fishing terms only a fisherman would understand. maybe by the end of this I might learn something about writing.

Day 3. Happy Easter

Today was a cold day on the river.It was too cold and rainy to take alot of pictures. I only took this one of the first fish of the day (notice the ice on the river bank).   I went back to the Upper Frying Pan River. I got up there by 7:30, still too late to get the "toilet bowl". the toilet bowl is what they call the spot here on the "Pan", where the water is released from the reservoir. The trout hang out there and eat the mysis shrimp that come out from the bottom of the lake. the trout in the toilet bowl are some of the biggest trout in the state, up to 22 lbs caught in there. So I fished a spot about 100 yards down from the dam using a nymph rig (copper john, and mysis shrimp) and had a good run for about a hour. I caught a few, and got them to the net. I had a bunch on the line but they shook loose. then the action died off. I moved down river and tried  a new spot and had no luck. I tied on a slump buster and started fishing the deep pools, moving down river. I caught a BIG ONE! And it broke my line! I don't know how big it was, but by the way the rod shook. I knew it was a good size fish. I lost my only slump buster, so I tied on a woolly bugger and I worked down river catching  some nice Brownies, all were 12''or larger. Casting to the deep pools and behind big rocks. I caught another big one that broke my line. I got to see this one make it to the surface about 10 ft in front of me. It was a nice rainbow that wanted nothing to do with my net. I lost all my streamers today either getting snagged on the bottom or broken off by big fish. I tried the same nymph rig I used in the morning, working back up river, not one bite. Back up by the dam was much more crowded than earlier. I decided to call it a day and go home.

Days 1&2

Yesterday I went to Wolcott to try the Eagle. The weather was cold and windy and after 2 hours I called it quits and went for a drive up to State bridge to see how the Colorado River looked. the water was high and fast and very muddy. Not so good for fishing. I decided to follow the river downstream through Bond, McCoy, Burns, and Dotsero. It was a nice drive. I found some good spots to try later in the summer when the runoff ends, some good campsites too.

Today I drove up to Basalt and up to Ruedi Reservoir. This is a pic of  Bud-E and I at the Frying Pan River below the dam. Today was a cold day up there. it was also very crowded and the fishing was slow.

I moved down river from the crowds and tryed a variety of bugs with no success. I tied on a Woolly Bugger and on the first cast I felt a strike, but I missed it. I casted back to the same spot, another strike. Again I casted to the same spot, BAM, FISH ON!!!.  After a short fight I reeled in a beautiful Brown Trout

I caught 2 more in the same area. all were around 10-12 inches long. After a Couple of hours I decided to move down river to the middle section of the river.
The middle section of the Frying Pan was also crowded so I decided to go get lunch and go home

hi everbody

I love to fish. I set a goal for myself to get 100 days of fishing in this year. I am living in Rifle Colorado, a town in western Colorado along the I-70 corridor. I was convinced by my sisters to start a blog about my 100 days of fishing  this year. I have been fishing about 25 times this year. Most of those days it was all fishing and no catching. I had a couple of good days so far this spring on the Colorado River near the town of Silt, Co. I fished the Frying pan river near the town of Basalt, I did not catch anything that day. The Roaring Fork River is a frustrating river to fish, I have not had much success there either. I am not counting those days towards my 100 days. We can call it spring training. So today I am going to Gypsum/Wolcott area of the Eagle River. The weather should be nice, I hope the fishing is too.