Jamie's Fly Fishing Journal: Frying Pan River 2/18-19/12

22" Fatty

This was a trip of firsts. This was the first time my buddy Marty fished the Frying Pan River, it was the first time my Dad almost backup up over Marty in the Rav 4, and believe it or not it was the first time my Dad ate an Egg Mcmuffin. This is also the first time I’m writing about fishing the Frying Pan River even though I’ve been fishing it for the last 20 years.

Marty and I met my Dad at Tiffany Square at 6 in the morning on Saturday. We were hoping to get up I70 before the ski traffic piled up. We had perfect timing…….. to hit the piled up ski traffic. It held us up around the exits but it could have been a lot worse. All in all we were only held up a half an hour or so.

We decided to get a quick bite to eat in Glenwood Springs and stopped by a McDonalds. I was craving lunch but it was breakfast all the way for another hour at this MDs. We started driving up to Basalt while inhaling our breakfast. My Dad kept saying, “wow this is good”. Turns out that this was the first Egg Mcfuffin he had ever eaten. Crazy! Makes me wonder about a McRib or a Soft Taco Supreme. I need to get my old man out to eat more cheep, processed, artery clogging junk foot more often!

We pulled into the Greene Drake Inn in Basalt around 10:30 or so and we decided to see if we could check in early. The Greene Drake, an awesome mayfly and also very accommodating, gave us our room key. We were able to pull all the gear out of the Rav and get our waders on in the comfort of the heated room.

DAY 1

Layered up and waterproof from the chest down we headed up river to the Rudei Reservoir damn. We were hoping (against hope) to find the Toilet Bowl (the area just below the damn where the water coming out of the damn swirls around in a big hole that must be 25 feet deep in some areas) open but when we walked around the corner we found it loaded up. No such luck today.

Marty showing off

We drove back downstream and noticed a nice run we have fished many times before open. This run is a nice long stretch of water where the main channel cuts along the far bank. There are nice riffles all along the main channel on the near side of the bank. The run will easily fit three guys (depending on what jack-ass is fishing there any given day) so we lined up in a row and started fishing. We each managed to hook a small trout or two but it didn’t’ start out too hot. After about 20 minutes a nice midge hatch started and the fish began rising. I didn’t have any Griffith’s Nats on me so I decided to take my weight off and fish an emerger just under the surface. That was the ticked to 3 or 4 descent trout to include a nicely colored rainbow about of about 12”. I told My Dad and Marty to try fishing just under the surface and that seemed to be the trick because they hooked a few more after that.

After a while the action died down so we decided to move down to Beatis Bridge. There was one guy fishing the tail end of the run but no one was at the head end. We waded out to the beginning of the run and started fishing. We didn’t have much luck at first and my Dad took off upstream. Marty and I hung back and kept fishing. I knew I was in front of fish but nothing was taking. I kept putting on weight and adjusting my indicator until I hooked a fish. They were holding at the very bottom of the hole which was 6-10 feet deep. Marty and I hooked a few trout but nothing huge. We decided to head back up to see if the Toilet Bowl had emptied out (yeah I know).

21" Caught on the far side of the TB

We got back up to the Toilet Bowl and the prime area was still loaded up. The far side of the hole had opened up though. We decided to give it a shot. I waded over and positioned myself in line with the current coming out of the damn. It was a long cast across slack water but it was the best position on this side of the hole. I made a few long casts and patiently waited as my indicator drifted back towards me OH SO SLOWLY…. This was boring fishing. And the wind was blowing directly into my face. I made a nice long cast between gusts directly into the current and waited as my indicator eddied out to the side of the main channel. It had almost come to a complete stop in the slack water when it started moving sideways very slowly. It didn’t seem like a hit but it was something different so I set the hook. Fish on! This was not a tiny fish. It held deep and took a few nice runs. My Dad had made it over to provide net assistance. This was a strong fish and I didn’t see him for the first few minutes. Eventually the fish came up to where I could see it. It was a nice, not huge, rainbow. She took several more runs after seeing the net but eventually came in. My Dad provided a perfect net and we had her in. She turned out to be 21” long and fairly fat. We were on the board! We fished for another hour or so in the Toilet Bowl but didn’t do anything else. The temperature bombed out on us and the wind got stronger and stronger. It was time to head into town for some more greezy, fat packed, fast food.

DAY 2

We got up EARLY. We had seen the guys that had the prime spot on the Toilet Bowl the night before in the hotel parking lot and decided that we MUST beat them out of the parking lot. I think my Dad got up every time he heard a car door shut just to check. It was about 4:30 and Marty checked the parking lot for the suspect cars. All cars were parked and no lights were on. Even if they were up they didn’t have any air in their tires. We were the only ones crazy enough to be up at this hour. Yes! We packed up, grabbed the chocolate Entenmann’s and headed out the door leaving the cold orange juice safely in the fridge in the locked room. Damn…. Dad and Ioaded up while Marty was behind the Rav loading up some equipment. My Dad, with 10lb trout on his brain, threw it in reverse and hit the gas. Whoaaahhh!! Where is Marty? Luckily we didn’t move very far and Marty remained alive. I asked if he was alright and he replied, “that’ll wake you up!”.

We decided to hit 7 Eleven for some coffee. I walked up and dumped half a pot of decaf in my mug before Marty and my Dad asked why the hell I was drinking decaf. I was not on it this morning. I poured the decaf back into the pot and filled it up with regular unleaded. 10lb trout on the brain….

We pulled into the empty parking lot just below the damn. We would have prime real estate this morning. We got out of the Rav and the wind was blowing like crazy! It was too cold to fish. We decided to sit in the Rav for a while until it warmed up. About a half hour later (about an hour too early) we saw headlights coming around the bend. We had to jump out and start fishing. It was still dark and VERY cold but there was no way we were going to let someone in ahead of us.

Marty with an awesome bow on a Rapala

We all started throwing Rapalas. I had a hit but missed the set. Marty started hooking fish almost immediately. He was throwing a really nice brown trout Rapala that he had found on the Arkansas a few weeks before. He wound up catching a nice 20” bow (right) and a few other nice trout. My Dad wound up catching 3 or 4 nice trout. I didn’t catch anything on Rapalas and was itching to start fly fishing.

22" (same fish shown above)

The next 5-6 hours of fishing were excellent! We kept rotating around the run as each of us caught nice fish. I don’t think we hooked anything massive (although we had several hooked that we never saw) but we wound up with 6 board fish (any fish over 20”). It seemed like the fish were holding right up against the damn in the white water. We caught almost all of them on Mysis patterns. The biggest fish of the day was a nice 22” female rainbow that was holding just as the water exited the damn. She hit one of my own Mysis patterns and took a nice long steady run. We got her in within 5 minutes. She was FAT! Probably a 5lb fish.

It was another awesome trip to the Frying Pan. I have loved this river for 20 years and hope to fish it at least another 20!