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.