Arkansas River (Pueblo) 1/19/12

BLANKED IN THE NIGHT

Is the theme of this post..... Troy Nicholson and I headed out after work for Pueblo. Planing a fishing trip after work makes for one long day! I had kept my eye on the weather in Pueblo all day and as we got ready to leave around 3:30 it was above 60!

We got there and rigged up 3 poles each. Talk about feeling a little over-prepared. We each had a fly rod for throwing streamers/mice patterns, a fly rod for nymphing, and a spinning rod for tossing Rapalas. Yes I throw gear occasional  (and all of you purists out there remind me when the last time was you threw a steak and egg combo in the water). OK... back to the fishing. I had tied up some morish mice. Mine were a little different and I need to change them because they didn't ride right side up in the water. It does look like a little mouse though.

We walked down to the Valco bridge and as we were approaching it the last fisherman of the day was leaving. We had the whole place to ourselves, the weather was perfect, the sunset was beautiful, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Apparently even the fish had hiked it out to spend the night in town.

After 4 hours of fishing I had only two on and didn't land a thing. The most exciting part of the trip is when I retail snapped two flies on the bottom and on the next cast, with a Rapala, snagged them and got both flies back!

This morning my Wife said, "I wonder if trout rely more on their sense of smell during the night to find food". Brilliant! I think she's on to something. From Valco bridge up  you can fish bait. I wonder if some scented flies would work better. I'm not above launching a power bait crawdad jig on a texas rig out there either. OK - now that I've been officially shunned from the fly fishing community I'll wrap this up.

On to the next!

Arkansas River (Pueblo) 1/14/12

Had THE most frustrating day of fishing I've ever had today (I think) and it was still a good day. Marty, Mike, and I left the Springs around 8 and got down to the river around 9. We parked at the speed limit lot and decided to hike down to Valco Bridge and start there. We passed a lot of nice water to get to the bridge and when we did it was packed. Going to have to leave a little earlier than 8 to get that hole! This is a picture of Mike fishing just above the hole I was going to throw a little tantrum on later on in the day.

We walked back up stream and started fishing a nice hole we had passed on the way in. By the time we got back upstream the nice runs were starting to fill in so we figured we better take what we could get. I hooked a nice rainbow and had him close to the net and the hook pulled out. It was probably about a 18" rainbow. Didn't get another hit out of that hole.

We walked up stream and down but the place was really starting to get packed. We decided to walk back down to the bridge to see if, by some stroke of luck, it had opened up. It hadn't. But there was a little room on the other side of the river so I decided to give it a shot. It was a long deep stretch of water that ran under the bridge. I tied on a size 12 Tungstone and a size 16 red Copper John and pinched on about a pound of Mojo Mud. I adjusted my strike indicator to allow for about 12' of leader to sink into the hole and then started dredging away. I moved down under the bridge and on about my second cast my indicator dove and I set the hook only to feel my rod tip hit the bottom of the bridge (not a good hook set).


As soon as this fish was hooked he ran like a torpedo upstream and came up to the surface and swam along the surface for a good 8 foot run. He was HUGE! I could see Marty walking upstream so I yelled "Marty! I've got a BIG ONE". After the initial surface run the hog I had tied into hug the bottom and didn't do much. I couldn't horse him in because I had light tippet on. I had to be patient and just try to wear him out. Marty made it back down and there was another fisher who offered some net assistance down stream from me. There were about 7 people watching at this point since I had yelled at the top of my lungs to Marty. For about 10 minutes the fish just held in deep water. I eventually was able to move him downstream out from under the bridge into shallower water. He was the biggest brown I had ever hooked. The guy just downstream from me said, "Oh my God, that is huge". I positioned myself along side of the fish just downstream from him and decided to give him a little side pressure to see if I could get him moving to the bank. I wanted him to turn so I could lift straight up on his head and have him come up to the surface for a chance at a net. Never got the chance though because as soon as I turned my rod the hook pulled out and everyone there gasped in unison. I just hung my head and took a deep breath. I had just missed the fish of a lifetime. What can you do? I pulled my fly in and it was demolished! The browns teeth had just shredded it. Even though I missed him it was awesome hooking and fighting him. It would have been unreal to land that fish. I will not forget this fish and I know where he lives now :-)

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were tough. It was packed, not a lot hatching, and the fish just didn't seem interested in much. I hooked and landed a nice 18" rainbow (shown above) but didn't get another hit. Around 2 I found a nice hole to fish and decided to fish the tail end of it where the water was deeper and slower. I saw some black midges hatching so I tied on a size 22 Black Beauty. I had an orange Soft Milking Egg for my top fly. I took a few casts and waited as my rig SLOWLY drifted downstream. Not much current in this section of the run. I thought to myself, "this is some seriously boring water to fish", but I knew it was good water. Another few casts later my indicator made a beeline for the far shore and I set the hook. It was a good fish but I didn't know how big. He made some long runs and stayed deep so I knew it was nice. He threw some serious head shakes at me which bent my rod and shook my arm. After about 10 minutes he started coming in and I got a good look at him. He was a really fat, BRICK red, rainbow about 20" long. It surprised me because I didn't think he was that big. He was tiring out quickly and I pulled my net out. As he was moving to the surface a little dinky trout came up and hit my top fly! Since when to trout eggs dance along the surface of the water????!! He got hooked on the top fly and I had two fish on! I knew this was BAD because the chances of landing a big trout with another trout pulling on the line was slim to none. Sure enough they ran away from each other and broke both of my flies off. "YOU LITTLE SH!!!!!!TTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ahhhhhhhhhh....!!!!!!! I wanted to dive in, grab the little fish blocker by the tail, bend him over my knee, and spank his little arse!

Standing there up to my waist in water with no flies on the line with my head ready to explode. This was all the fishing I could handle at this point and decided to call it. It was actually a really fun day. Anytime you hook an 8lb trout it is a good day! Great fishing, great friends, and now the Broncos will beat the Patriots and life is good!

* Editor's Note 1/15/12 - Broncos and the big one that got away are both home, beat up, resting, and wondering what could have been. Only difference is the big one that got away was victorious.

Arkansas River (Pueblo) 12/30/11

What a day for fishing! Wind was calm, temperature was warm (high 30s starting out and high 40s low 50s after noon), midges were hatching, and the trout were eating. Flow was 71 which fished nicely.  Only downside was the massive crowd these conditions drew.

We (Dad, Marty, and I) parked at the Nature Center and jumped out of the car fully dressed and rigged to the dismay of other less prepared anglers in the parking lot half into their waders jumping up and down on one foot. We exchanged pleasantries and started our 75 yard hike to the river. Marty took three steps out of the parking lot and became parallel will the concrete. He stepped on a slick patch and went down hard. I heard the thud as he hit. He shook it off and was back on his feet in a few seconds but I knew it had to hurt.

We started fishing directly behind the Nature Center. Marty and I crossed the river and started fishing the deck hole. Dad waded upstream and caught a few in the first hole up from the deck hole on a tan San Juan Worm. In about 10 minutes of fishing Dad had hooked and landed his second rainbow of the day. Marty looked at me and stated that he was "showing off". I agreed, and decided to head upstream.

After turning the first bend I looked upstream and noticed every descent hole or run had at least one bubba in it. I continued past the next 3-4 bends with the same results. I was beginning to wonder if I should have left the deck hole. I found an open run and starting fishing. Dad joined me a few minutes later. I managed to catch two small rainbows in this run but after 20 minutes of nothing we decided to move on.

More of the same through the next couple of bends. Bubbas everywhere. We eventually made it to Valco bridge and I found a nice hole just downstream from the bridge. I was basically casting up to and slightly under the bridge. I hooked two small rainbows within the first couple of casts on a size 24 Bar Micro Emerger. Dad came up and fished the tail end of the run and started hooking fish too. We wound up fishing that hole the rest of the day. It didn't make sense to move since we were consistently catching fish and since we knew it would be hard to find another run that wasn't already being fished.

Dad wound up with 11 and I wound up with 18. The biggest of the day was an 18" rainbow (pictured above). I also caught this nice 16" bow.

The most productive patterns of the day were small black midge emergers. I saw a few Blue Wing Olives hatching and tied on a size 24 BWO Bar Emerger and caught a few but the Olives just didn't come off in any numbers. A size 14 Tung-Teaser also worked well (as it always does).

The midges that were hatching were TINY. I think the body size of the adults was like a 28. I need to get some samples and bring them back to the fly tying vise next time.

I kept expecting Marty to show up but he never made it upstream to Valco bridge. He moved upstream a few bends only to find the line of fishers that we had to walk past. His ribs were hurting from his fall earlier in the day so he moved back down to the deck hole and wound up catching 9 to include this little fatty. This was the first fish to really test his new Orvis Access 5 weight rod/reel combo. It's a pleasure to cast and Marty fell in love with it after landing this fish.

All in all it was a really great trip and we all had fun. Really starting to learn this river and am sure we'll be back many MANY times.