South Platte (Charlie Meyers SWA)

Quick evening trip to the Dream Stream with Marty. Wanted to see if there were any stragglers left in the river. Flow was super low at 40. Really too low to fish this river in my opinion. There were still nice runs between boulders and on the bends but not like I'm used to on this stretch. I knew there was some deeper water downstream from where we were fishing so we huffed it and it paid off. I landed this nice 18" bow. This guy has been around the block a few times as you can see from the scars on his mouth. Other than than just a small rainbow and sucker. Looks like things are winding down on the Dream Stream for the winter. Next up THE FRYING PAN!!! Oh yes! Hopefully some nice pics on the way for next week.

Arkansas River (Pueblo) - Pillars Park

My nicest out of Pueblo so far. Not the longest I've caught but this guy is a specimen.

What a day! Three fish over 20" is good anywhere. Having that kind of day in the middle of a large city is pretty unique. We headed back to Pillars Park for another chance at dredging the weirs. Ben Lewis, Marty, and I showed up at daylight. A bit chilly in the morning but warmed up fast. Flow was around 40 at Moffat St. We started downstream on the weirs but it was slow going at first. I wound up catching one nice chunky bow here on the right. She slammed a size 16 chartreuse Amnesia John. Took a BIG run and I thought it was a bigger fish. Very strong bow that new how to throw her weight around. 

After whipping the weirs pretty good we decided to go upstream to the Martini Hole. I caught a few small bows but it wasn't too hot at first. Ben Lewis joined us and hit a nice 20" bow pretty quickly on a San Juan Worm. This fish was a fighter! She took a few really strong runs. She just wouldn't come in. I was finally able to get a net on her. What a fish! I love the graffiti in the background. This makes for a pretty unique picture and fishing experience. Very nice stretch to fight a big fish. Not a lot of underwater obstructions and a nice bank that you can run after fish along.

After Ben gave us a clinic on how to do it with a San Juan, I decided to try a sparkle worm. It didn't take too many casts before hooking into this nice 21" bow. Ben got a nice worm hole shot on this guy. This was turning into an epic day on the Ark. These fish were not sipping Tricos. They wanted meat. And what better combo than steak and eggs? I decided to trail my sparkle worm with an Otter's Egg and I moved up closer to the top of the run where I could get a faster drift. Anyone seen the movie Low & Clear? There is a line that stuck with me that talked about swinging an egg just as you would a streamer. Well.... it works. On my first swing attempt this guy about took the rod out my hand (fist pic and shown below). Any dry fly purists still reading? This guy took some nice runs downstream. Unfortunately he did some alligator roles on me and got my sparkle worm stuck in a fin. That made getting this guy in really hard! I eventually just had to horse him in and pray that I didn't break him off. Good tippet (Trout Hunter 5X)! This fish was awesome in every way. Jaw, shape, colors, spots. Just a really nice trout. An awesome day on what is really becoming my favorite Tailwater. There is a ton of water and big fish throughout.

Marty was having a rough day so I decided to see if I could help. We adjusted his rig and fly selection and he hooked up after a few minutes. Remember that the slightest adjustments make all the difference between catching fish and not catching fish. You have to dial into each run that you fish. You should be adjusting your indicator and weight every time you move to a new run (check out Mojo Mud). Just a few steps up or down stream can put you off the bottom or have you stuck on the bottom. The other thing to remember is that if your leader has become too short from fly changes, you really need to add some tippet to extend it back to 9'. If the butt section of your leader is within 3 or 4 feet of your flies then the fish will see it and avoid your rig altogether. Depth and presentation are more important than fly selection. Especially in the fall and in between hatches. Before changing flies make sure you are dialed into the run you are fishing. After that you should be able to hook up with one or two fly changes.

Arkansas River (Pueblo) - Urban Fishing

Today we had the pleasure of meeting up with Guide and owner of Steel City Anglers, Ben Wurster, to hit some new water on the Arkansas River in Pueblo. I had seen several pictures that Ben has posted of nice trout that had been caught in town. I emailed him to see if he could give me some pointers and he provided a map of where he goes and offered to meet up with us! As you can see this stretch of river has it's own kind of beauty. Not the typical image that comes to mind when you think of fly fishing in Colorado but the "graffiti" provides an interesting backdrop while you are fishing. It makes it easy to name different runs such as the Martini Hole. I have to say that this stretch has big fish written all over it. It's deep plunge hole after deep plunge hole. Even at low flows these holes stay deep and cool. Ben said that he's broken more good fish off along this stretch then any other stretch on the river and I can see why.

Ben (Lewis), Mike, Marty, and I got to the river a little late since someone was holding the map upside down on the drive to the river. I won't mention any names but it starts with a J and ends with a amie. We just took the scenic route which is what was planned all along. It worked out in the end though because as soon as we were rigged up Ben Wurster pulled into the parking lot. We decided to head upstream to the Martini Hole which starts with a nice drop off on a bend and then runs along the drainage and cuts a nice channel over 100 yards long. The Bens and Marty hooked up immediately. I decided I was going to work the length of the cut with a streamer but didn't manage to find any players. I switched to nymphs and landed a few nice trout on egg patterns and san juans.

A front blew in out of nowhere and it looked like our day was going to come to an end around 9. We grabbed our gear and started heading back to the truck. 5 minutes later we were at the truck and the wind was gone and the sun was shining. It was time for a change anyway. We whipped the Martini Bar fish enough for one morning.

We headed downstream and started fishing the weirs. This stretch of river is awesome. Use plenty of weight and make sure you have 10 feet of leader to get down far enough. I'm sure there are some 8-10lb trout in this area. Marty hooked into two nice bows (no pictures unfortunately) and I landed this nice 16" bow. Size 14 red Copper Johns and any Amnesia pattern seemed to be the ticket. The secret to this section is getting to the bottom. A stiff 6 weight to chuck weight is ideal.

Had a really good time on this trip. Always good to get a great group of guys out on the river. Almost everyone caught fish (sorry Mike - your day is coming up :-)) and Marty had an all star day with two nice 18" bows. I'll be doing more urban hog hunting for sure!

Arkansas River (Pueblo) - 100 Fish Day!

What a day on the Arkansas! If we went three casts without a fish we started wondering what we were doing wrong! Marty and I linked up with David and Stephen at daylight and walked down to Valco Bridge. I have hooked some very large trout under the bridge and I wanted to position Stephen to have a shot at one of them. I helped Stephen rig up for deep dredging and showed him the drift that he wanted. He took the rod and had the drift down right away. This guy knows how to fish! He hooked up within a few casts but unfortunately the fish broke off. Might have been the fish of the day!

The flow was low, around 40. It's the lowest I've ever fished this river. The hole at Valco still fished very well. I've had two types of day fishing this area. Days were I hook several large fish and days were I hook tons of dinks. Today was a dink day. I think the hole had recently been stocked. I don't think our flies had a chance to get deep enough to the larger fish before being gobbled up by a little guy. Even though we weren't catching big fish it was a lot of fun having constant action.

Fly selection didn't seem to matter. Anything worked for a few fish. We even got into some good streamer action. Stephen was catching nice fish on nymphs and streamers. He did a good job switching back and forth when the action died down with one method.

Probably the most exciting point of the day was when Marty hooked into something large that took a good tear across the stream right towards me. This was not a dink! Stephen was ready with the net in case the fish took a run downstream. After a few minutes the fish came up and we all got a good look at a large SUCKER!!!!! It isn't a trip to Pueblo unless you feel the burn of the sucker. Today it was Marty's turn. Good net job by Stephen. Good practice for the dozens of huge trout that he is sure to catch in his young angling career!

Marty with the fish and the sucker burn of the day

South Platte (Charlie Meyers SWA)

Week 3 of the pursuit for a big spawning brown at the Dream Stream today. Not only that but is Marty's birthday. We were due for some big fish and our persistence paid off. 

Ben, Marty, and I got to the parking lot around daylight. More cars at daylight each week. I didn't see any duck hunters on this trip which made me a little more comfortable. I'm all about taking it all in but draw the line at shotgun pellets whizzing past my head along with my streamer. And speaking of taking it all in check out this sunrise we were treated to!


I decided to change up my tactics this week by carrying two rods. One with a streamer and one with an egg pattern. The last two weeks I concentrated on streamer fishing and caught some nice browns and learned a lot but hadn't landed the big brown I was after. If there is one thing I've learned over the years, it's that you can't force feed a trout.

For my loyal reader out there - Here is a good tip on eggs. Get some small plastic beads the size of a trout egg. If you buy "Trout Beads" the already come with a nice red dot on them. If you don't want to spend the extra money for those use a little red nail polish to add an egg yolk. Cut a 12" piece of 6lb mono, put it through the bead and tie two overhand knots to secure the bead in the middle of the mono. Epoxy the knot. Use a size 18 hook and tie the mono around the hook and tie two overhand knots. Wrap the mono in opposite directions once and tie two more overhand knots. Cut the tag ends and epoxy the knots around the hook to secure in place. The epoxy looks like "egg milk" AKA fish sperm. This is basically a peg egg without having to do the peg egg. It also holds the egg of the hook so that you get the max hook gap out of your hook. Peg egg works fine but I always thought that the fish may get turned off by the hook floating 2" next to the egg. Egg yarn works too but it takes a little longer to tie. Soft eggs are great but don't stand up to catching fish. This pattern is almost indestructible. Don't forget to pinch down the barb. Last piece of this puzzle is to tie this "fly" on with a non-slip mono loop. Allows the fly to move freely and, in my mind, if the stars align and this fly is floating correctly in front of the fish, the only thing the fish is going to see is the egg. No hook, epoxy, or tippet.  Here is a pic of the fly I landed this brown on. Only had this fly on. No dropper. Want to try something new? Tie a group of three beads together. Haven't tried that yet.

OK - on to the fishing. We started at the bridge parking lot and walked upstream about a quarter mile. Things started off slow but picked up as soon as I started using the bead egg. I was at the top a long deep bend hole fishing the drop off. I had a VERY subtle take and set the hook. I felt two big head shakes and new this was not a small fish. He took a few short runs and then came up to the surface and right into the net! I like strong fighting fish but when you know you have a big one on a little cooperation is always nice! This guy wound up being 20" (just under really but he had been sitting for a while) but one of the nicest 20" trout I've ever landed. I almost didn't get a pick of him. I went to lift him out of the water for a pic and he decided to start fighting. He landed in the river outside of the net. I don't think I've ever displayed such cat like reflexes as I did pouncing on that trout. I willed him into my hands and back into the net! I was NOT done with this guy yet! Thank God I grabbed him because this was one awesome fish!


We quickly caught up to the mob that was spreading from the parking lot upstream and decided to start working our way downstream. We each hooked several more on the way back downstream and things really started to pick back up just above the bridge. I was fishing a deep bend hole and missed a nice fish I never saw. Shortly after that Marty hooked this NICE cutbow on a Rapala. After he hooked it he said this is a nice fish! I started hauling ass upstream with a net until he said "I think it's a sucker". Bummer! I had been burned earlier by a thick 18" sucker. I kept looking though and it didn't look like a sucker to me! This was a nice trout! I got up to him just in time to get him in the net as Marty's line was breaking! It would have been heartbreaking to miss this one.

What an awesome half day on the Dream Stream! Unfortunately not everyone can respect our wildlife resources that we have in this state. We saw Fish and Game at the bridge while we were getting out of our waders and they were drawing a crowd. A group of three had been using bait at the bridge hole and had a stringer of 20 trout! Thankfully someone had seen them and reported them. Unbelievable! We walked over to see what was going on and were quickly turned around by the Warden. I was able to see the bucket of dead trout though. Really frustrating. On a good note the majority of folks we encounter on our rivers are law abiding fisherman who are good stewards of our resources. 

South Platte (Charlie Meyers SWA)

17" brown that chomped a black Meat Whistle

TRESemmé! TRESemmé! (yes I had to look this one up) A duck hunter calling his hunting dog that had run off. Marty and I were waiting in the Durango for the sun rise on the South Platte above Eleven Mile Reservoir. TRESemmé! Nice hunting dog, open up the truck and she takes off and doesn't come back! Of course I wouldn't respond to that name in front of so many people either! The sun hadn't come up and the parking lot was filling up fast! Who are these people? Oh yeah crazies that wake up on a Saturday at 4AM to go fishing and creepers that like shooting ducks and naming there dogs TRESemmé......

Marty and I went back to the Dream Stream this morning for another half day of combat fishing after big spawning browns. We parked at the bridge and worked our way upstream. Marty was casting Rapalas and I was playing chuck and duck with large streamers. Nothing huge this morning but I did land a nice 17" brown shown above, another 16" fat brown, and a 15" cutthroat. No monster browns for us this year but we paid our dues in the trenches another year. One of these years we are going to hit it big!

South Platte (Charlie Meyers SWA)

Had to get over to the Dream Stream at least once this fall so we did a half day this morning. I wanted to concentrate on improving my streamer fishing so I only took a streamer setup. I had tied up some natural sculpin articulated patterns that I was excited to try.

Dad, Marty, and I got to the river around day light and parked down at the inlet at Eleven Mile Reservoir. We decided to cover as much water as possible and didn't stay too long in any run. Dad was throwing Rapalas and Marty and I were throwing streamers.

I was using a sink tip line, 3ft of 2X fluorocarbon tippet, and the articulated streamer shown in the video below. Dad was really getting good action on Rapalas and wound up landing 6 to include a nice 17" brown and had 4 more on.

 I was getting some action on my streamer but knew that I wouldn't catch a lot of fish on it. I just wanted that one big take and see a big yellow swirl. Well I got my chance. I got a good grab and saw a nice yellow swirl but that was the end of it. Didn't get a real good look at the fish but it was a larger brown. It really got the heart pumping! I didn't get a good hook set or he just bumped the fly but either way he was off before he was on.

I wound up catching a few small rainbows which really surprised me. It's amazing the size prey item a small trout will hit. Just another thing that amazes me about these fish. I've been told that a trout will attack a prey item 1/3 the length of it's body!

Marty wound up sticking a few on dries around 11. We made it up to the spillway and decided to turn around and call it a day. Nice half day on the Dream Stream.

No hogs this trip but good streamer practice. Getting a better understanding of using a sink tip line and how to properly fish a streamer. May head up next weekend for another half day and fish the spillway to the damn.