Frying Pan River (9/21 and 9/22)

Oh where to begin..... This might be a long one. If this weekend is any indication of what fall fishing is going to be like this year, I may be getting a replica made. 30" brown is the goal. Two bugger barns full of nastiness, new pair of long johns, and first trip with gloves. More on that next post.

Back to the Pan. The toilet bowl has to be one of the most unique fishing spots in the country. I'm not going to make a brown trout joke, but the name just doesn't do this place justice. The Old Man and I have been fishing the Pan for the past 20 years. Dad has been fishing it since the 70's. He's got pictures of Baetis Bridge from way back. He confirms that it was as good as you think it would be.

First 24" Trout / Authentic Bill Dance polarized glasses

We started fishing in the lower sections of the river in the early 90's. Back then we fished hardware primarily. Mepps #2 red and white. Only spinner you really needed in any of our rivers back then. We slowly made our way up river and found out about Baetis Bridge, The Bend Hole, and The Toilet Bowl. By then my buddy Nate and I were deep into learning to fly fish. We would hang out at Colorado Springs Sports with our buddy George who taught both of us the basics of fly fishing. The hook was in deep and Nate and I learned to cast (well it gets the job done) at the park and learned to tie flies mixing burlap nymph recipes from my Dad with the patterns we were learning about in Roger Hill's book. We quickly realized that fly fishing The Pan was something different. I had 40 fish days standing on a rock just above Baetis Bridge. We would have Blue Wing Olive hatches at noon where a size 18 Pheasant Tail is all you needed. No bead, no flash, just a good ol' Pheasant Tail. It was every cast on some afternoons and one of those afternoons lead to my first 24" trout. Lots of memories on this river which just adds to the enjoyment of fishing it.

The Folks and I decided to mix things up a bit and leave on a Saturday morning instead of the usual Friday afternoon departure. We arrived in Basalt around noon and checked into the Green Drake. We were scoping out the river on the way up. Pretty busy! No way the bowl was going to be open.

We pulled up to the dam and there were several cars. The Old Man walked up and struck up a conversation with the guy fishing the bowl. He was an awesome guy and after receiving a few tips from Dad invited us to fish with him. Dad's tips lead to our new buddy John landing a pig of a 24" bow. Now that is how you fish the toilet bowl when it's busy. You don't walk up, demand to cast, and state that, "you live here". Seriously happened this trip. I don't like to be mean but if you are the guy who pulled that crap and you are reading this - You Sir, are a tool. We would have been more than happy to share the run, some tips, and probably some flies if you had just been nice. Anyway....

Back to the good peeps. John was an awesome guy and we fished together for a few hours. He landed a few other really nice trout during that time including the bow in this pic. Thanks again John for sharing the bowl with us! I hope to get to fish with you again.

What can I say about the fishing? It was good. Real good. We all caught 20"+ fish. Several of them. Dad landed a TOAD. Not your typical angle in this picture but I have to show you how thick this thing was!

Dad's 25" Bow

Mom was killing it too. She landed 3 over 20". All together we landed 70+ fish the afternoon of the 21st and the morning of the 22nd. 9 of them were over 20". Nicest fish of the trip were Dad's 25" bow and my 22" brown. We fished the typical Mysis shrimp patterns and some home grown Mysis patterns and all seemed to work. I have a theory on Mysis. I think they swim in schools. My suggestion is that if you are fishing next to someone who hooks a fish on a Mysis, hold on! Usually when one eats a shrimp another is about to. I think
it's because a school of shrimp is getting sucked through the dam.

Most people fish the edges of the heavy current but you can also fish the main channel both on the left side of the opening against "the wall" or to the right side of the opening by "the post". Watch the water coming out of the dam. Most of the time it's all white water but sometimes the water is less turbulent and you'll see areas free of white water. Not sure why this happens but if you time your cast right, you can get a slow drift right up against the wall or slightly to the right of the center of the opening. Cast all the way up to the dam. Try to cast under it if you can. This is where the big boys are. They don't get fished to much. If they do the flies are usually zipping over their heads. If you wait for calm water you can get down to them. Use a LOT of weight and ditch the indicator. Pull up before the current runs your flies into the fly shop that is certainly the rock out cropping that you stand on.

Something new that I tried this trip was to dead drift a streamer right on the bottom. You have to put on a LOT of weight with this technique. Use a heavy streamer, and put on a quarter ounce weight. Cast up under the dam as far as you can. Tight line it and bounce it off the bottom. You will feel either a "tic" or pause, or your rod leaving your hands.

It was an awesome trip and a great way to wrap up an unbelievable summer to which I am still desperately clinging too! Lucky for us Colorado Natives, fall in the high country here is very hard to beat and we have several rivers that become infested with yellow alligators. That is the focus for October. Big spawning browns! More to come :-)