Frying Pan River

Another great trip to the Pan this weekend. Ben, Marty, Dad, and I headed up on Friday afternoon to Basalt. We pulled in to The Greene Drake around 4PM and unloaded the mass of gear in the car. If you haven't eaten at Basalt's only Pizzeria you are missing out. Didn't catch the name of it but it's the only Pizza joint in town. There have been several other Pizza places in the same place but they had been shut down for a while. Good to know there is a new one that is worth checking out. Hope it stays open for a while. It's over by the 711.


After stuffing our faces we headed over to Taylor Creek Fly Shop. I have always been impressed with the mount they have on the wall. I asked Scott (can't remember his last name) who was working there about it and he stated that one of their guides found it dead one day. They called DOW and they allowed them to mount it. It was something like 25 pounds! Amazing the type of fish the Frying Pan can produce. I'm not sure how you would ever land something like this but it would be on my mind trying to fall asleep later on at The Green Drake!

After that it was back to the hotel for a marathon Klies's Mysis tying fest. I tied up 18 or so of this saweet pattern in various sizes / eye colors. John has used these on the Taylor with great success but to my knowledge this would be the first time this pattern was fished on the Pan. I was really excited to see how they did. We have the toilet bowl pretty dialed in so I knew we'd be putting this fly right on the nose of some huge trout. It was going to be hard to get to sleep this night!


Normal crazy drill in the morning. Wake up early, drive to the toilet bowl, turn the corner to see if anyone is there, warm up in the truck till brave enough to head out into the cold. If the fishing wasn't so good I would forget about this hole altogether. It gets pretty crowded and not everyone is polite about crowding in. We were the only crazies this morning and it wasn't hard to figure out why. It was 4 degrees on the thermometer and the wind was blowing like crazy. It must have been at least -10 degree wind chill. Way too cold to do any sort of productive fishing. But...... if you want to fish the toilet bowl you have to get there early.

Once the sun came up and we could feel our faces we started dredging Klies's Mysis right below the damn. Ben hooked up on his second cast with this really nice male bow. Couldn't believe the kype on this guy. Orange Klies's Mysis #16 on the board! Could be the first Pan fish caught on that bad boy. Ben, hands numb, a little delirious from the cold, flipped his half frozen line back in the water and WHAM! Another victim! This was a BIG GIRL! At this point I'm sure Ben had no feeling in his hands. I can imagine that fighting this fish was like holding the rod with your elbows! He was able to get this girl in the net and show her his "O" face. Really fat 23" hen! What the hell were we on to here? This was shaping up to be the most epic day on the Pan ever.

The action kept up for the next hour. Ben had to run up to the car after this second catch to keep his hands from falling off. Almost immediately after he left I stepped into the head of the run and hooked a BEAST! This thing tried to jump but was only able to get her shoulders out of the water before flopping over. Marty was right below me and was just as blown away by this as I was. This was a 25" class fish in the 8lb range. She took me right up under the damn almost all the way up to where the water drops in. In my experience fishing this hole, only the big guys and gals are able to do this. I knew this was a big fish! She stayed in the head of the run and I was confident I was going to land her. Dad was bringing the big net up to the head of the run when the hook pulled out........ Ouch!! Tough to lose these fish but we were only 15 minutes into the trip! Guess what she hit? That's right folks. Did I mention that the Klies's Mysis is currently under investigation by the DOW? They are trying to determine if that fly falls under the "bait" category.

Whoops! Like the belly shot though

We kept at it and kept hooking into big fish. I landed a 23" and a 24" bow and Marty landed a 22" bow. This was amazing. We were an hour into our trip! Then....... someone flipped the switch. Everything stopped. I really think that fish migrate throughout the day in the toilet bowl. I think there are always fish with their noses on the damn outlet but you can see fish moving in and out of the main run. In  the afternoon Ben and I went to the far side of the hole and they were stacked up like crazy. A number of factors could influence this movement but I think that pressure in the main run has a lot to do with it. It seems like on past trips the migration continued for most of the day with action coming in waves. I also believe that Mysis Shrimp swim in schools and that the amount of Mysis Shrimp coming through the damn happens in quick spurts.  It seems like when one guy hooks up on a Mysis pattern someone else does almost immediately. These schools could be in different areas of the reservoir during different times of the day.  The fish in this hole may have become conditioned to this and know the times of day that the most shrimp are available and move into the head of the run and deal with the fishing pressure because the pay off is worth it in caloric intake. I'm sure the weather and any hatches that occur also play a role in this migration but haven't seen any noticeable patterns to key in on yet.

Even though it was a slow afternoon it was a great trip overall. Any time you land fish of this size it is a good day! We also had the chance to land some bigger fish and that is all you can ask for. Size #16 orange eyed Klies's Mysis seemed to be the ticket for most of the day but we did also land some on #12 - #14 with yellow eyes and black eyes.

I'm beginning to miss the lower sections of the Pan. The last several times we've fished it the toilet bowl has been open. It's hard to walk away from it. I miss fishing the flats, beatis bridge, the bend hole.......etc. One of these trips the toilet bowl is going to be taken. I think I'll be OK with that. Looking forward to hitting the rest of the river this summer!