You know where

Finally got to take my Dad up to Rainbow Falls last Sunday. I think he was pretty excited about checking it out in person. We've posted some pretty nice pictures since opening day and we haven't even been through a full month yet! Started this entry a week ago and only got one sentence in. Busy week! Work is getting in the way of my fishing. Not cool! That's OK - Alicia is kicking arse in school and is well on her way to becoming my Sugar Momma :-) Then I'll finally get some time to do some fishing....

Anyway... We showed up at 7ish... I wanted to get my Dad in the first few runs in the creek and we lucked out and had the place to ourselves. I pointed out a few good runs and techniques to my Dad and he was hooked up pretty quick. This all happened a week ago so the details are fuzzy but if memory serves I believe he landed a 32" bow on a size #28 that he hand tied creek side using naturally available materials after snatching a few naturals out of the air with his forceps. Fish broke the 7x tippet right at the bank and the Old Man dove in just at the last minute and noodled the beast out from the under cut bank we were standing on. The Old Man came out of the water, arm first held high, with a monster bow that had swallowed his fist. Rocky Mountain noodling! Call the Discovery Channel! Fish was at least 32" but my tape didn't extend any further. Weight was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 - 18 pounds.... Oh my Dad just called me back. I left him a message earlier and told him I was trying to remember the details from last week so I could write up the blog. I was mistaken. This fish has grown over the last week.... It was actually 20" and about 4 pounds. #4 instead of #28, 3X instead of 7X, and net instead of consumed fist. Still a nice fish! Really nice male bow with a sweet hook jaw. Great pic that shows the little creek we're pulling these toads out of.

We fished the creek most of the day. Further down stream was good just past the tunnels. There was a stretch of about 15 minutes where 18" fatties couldn't resist a slowly moving #4 white slump. I think I hit 5 or 6 of them. They are really picky about the retrieve sometimes but if you can dial it in you have a golden ticket. This hole right below the tunnels (first "bridge" over trout creek) is funny. I hit it again today (4/28/13) and the exact same retrieve worked. Always works in this hole. Medium length slow strips, one
or two, then a 1 to 2 second pause. They'll normally hit on the pause. This retrieve works well in general but it REALLY works in this hole. And they won't eat it any other way....

I did put some good time into my favorite Elk Lake and did hook a very large rainbow. Had him on for maybe a minute before he came unbuttoned. I landed about an 18" bow after that. No monsters but 4 fish over 20" aint none too shabby.

Rainbow Falls

Well our Tuesday trip was canxed due to us being soft and not wanting to fish in the cold, and our trip for today up to the Colorado was canxed due to a change in plans with my old man. So we headed up to Rainbow Falls for a quick Friday night trip.

Mike Greene joined us because he was tired of reading about this pig farm and wanted in on the action. We hit Trout Creek for the first hour and each of us caught nice fish. We then decided to head up to the lakes. We fished Spring lake and landed a few. I missed a nice one on a white slump buster that came up to the top and left a huge wake while ditching my fly.

I decided to hit my favorite spot on Elk Lake since it was getting later in the evening. I've found that you don't catch nearly as many in this lake but the ones you do are usually huge. I fished for a good 45 minutes without a bump. I tried a variety of colors and stripping speeds. After rotating through white, black, purple, olive, and brown I was back to white.... Time to start getting creative with stripping. I noticed there were fish cruising around the surface so I figured I go with a super fast strip to keep the fly up towards the top. I cast out to a wake and started stripping as hard as I could. BAM! That was the ticket... This nice 24" brown stopped my speedy white meat whistle in its tracks. She just kinda flopped her weight around and came right in. Not the best fighter in the world (as you can see in the pic I'm real worked up) but this gal is photogenic. Elk takes some patience but the rewards are worth it!

Not making any more promises on where I'll be fishing next. If you are a betting man I'd say the odds are on Rainbow Falls. I'm such a big fish whore....

Rainbow Falls (Again)

I know I know you're tired of reading about my trips to Rainbow Falls. I can't help going somewhere 35 minutes up the road that holds 10 pound and bigger trout. Do I sometimes feel that I just stole a lolli from a baby like a good friend of mine put it? Yes. Will that stop me from going at least once a week? No. Don't be a hater. I admit I have a problem! If you are tired of reading about Rainbow Falls and are one of my loyal reader(s) hit me up anytime and we'll go so you can experience it for yourself! Just be warned that you may find yourself looking to fund a membership so you can snatch some lollies too!

Marty and I showed up around 7 and had the place to ourselves. I told Marty that I wanted to hit the first few runs in Trout Creek if no one was there. I was rigged and ready to go but Marty had to rig up. He said that I would probably have five fish before he started fishing and it wasn't far from the truth! Absolutely love the first few runs.

Both nymphs and streamers were working. A large white meat whistle seemed to be the ticket this morning. The cool thing about these runs is if you let them sit for 5 to 10 minutes it's just like you hit them for the first time that morning. The fish suffer from fly amnesia. We fished Trout Creek for an hour or so and then decided to hit Spring Lake.

We hit Spring Lake and Elk Lake for a few hours but no one was doing much at the lakes. This was the slowest that I've seen the lakes so far this season. No worries, back down to Trout Creek. One of the nice things about this place is that if one area is slow you can always find another open area to fish.

We hit the exact same runs we had fished in the morning and it was like no one had fished them all day. I think we pulled three or four 20 inch fish out this go around to include this 20" fatty that Marty landed.


We hit Elk Lake again on the way out but only managed to land one 18 inch rainbow. Ran into Greg Blessing and he gave us some great tips. Yet another great thing about Rainbow Falls is all of the nice people you run into while you're fishing there. Everyone is always willing to help and we try to return the favor anytime we can.

Did a little reading on the Donaldson Trout (aka Super Trout) that I've been told are stocked at Rainbow Falls. I'll have to ask Richard to be sure but I'm pretty sure this is what we are catching. I believe it because of the way these fish fight. I had an 18 incher almost tailwalk up the bank on me! Marty was able to snap a pick just as he came out of the water. He saw the net and went CRAZY! It is too fun catching these fish in a little creek.

This guy almost tailwalked himself onto the bank!

My New Addiction - Rainbow Falls

First weeknight trip to Rainbow Falls. Makes for one LONG work day but totally worth it. Not too many people there last night when we pulled in. It was such a nice day yesterday I thought it would be packed but it wasn't too bad. I'd say 10 guys total on the property.

Nice buck that took a #16 red annelid

Ben and I started on Trout Creek. We hit some areas we didn't hit on the first trip. The runs directly below the dam are as good as I thought they would be. There is a section of 5 nice runs directly below the dam. Each have a nice weir that dumps a little white water into the hole. There are two that I noticed that have an underwater shelf that drop off into a deep cut. You can get a really nice drift right up against the shelf and the trout seem to be stacked up against the drop off. Really fun fishing these runs because you can tell when a fish is going to hit before the take. Addicting!

This trip I came armed with a bunch of streamer patterns like the ones Ben was killing them with last trip and didn't have much luck with them. It seemed like bigger patterns were the ticket this trip. Just goes to show that you still have to figure out whats going on on any given day. Makes it even more addicting...

26" Hoss

We hit Elk Lake as the sun was setting. I fished it for about a half hour without much luck.  I tied on the biggest black slump buster that I had, came within a foot of knocking myself out with it on the forward cast, and let it sink for a good 20 seconds. I started a VERY slow and lazy strip. 4 short strips and a 2-3 second pause. I saw my streamer and was getting ready to cast when something caught the corner of my eye. I hesitated and this big boy swam around in front of it (between me and the streamer) and opened his mouth and ran it over. My heart was in my throat when I set the hook. My line just stopped. He just sat there for a second in front of me like he couldn't believe he was hooked. I thought he was going to come right in but that would not be the case. He found some motivation and was running. This gave me some time to yell over to Ben who was at Spring Lake. He jumped in the truck and drove over in time to see the end of the fight and this jaw with fins swim into the net.

We headed back down to the creek just as it was getting dark. I tied on a white Meat Whistle with yellow dumbbell eyes and stuck a few nice fish before it got too dark to fish. Awesome way to spend a Thursday night!

One thing I've learned over these first two trips is that a very slow and gentle stripping action is best on streamers. I've picked a few up on faster strips but it seems that most take the fly on a pause in between very slow strips. We'll see if that holds up.

Rainbow Falls Opening Day 2013

I have been waiting for opening day at Rainbow Falls ever since the Fly Fishing Expo in Denver this year. It was worth the wait!

Ben with a 24" bow landed on a Streamer

Ben and I hit the gate around 6:45 and thought that we had screwed something up because no one was there! We had the place to ourselves except for one older gentleman that was fishing the runs just below the dam. These runs look REALLY good and I can't wait to hit them next trip. We didn't fish the creek very long. Still have more of this creek to explore. There are some really nice holes and runs along the creek that I'm looking forward to spending more time on. Ben landed one small bow and I missed a small bow in a nice beaver pond but the lakes were calling us and so we headed back up the road. We were like two kids on Christmas morning. We didn't know which present to open up next!

We had no idea which lake to fish so we just stopped at the first one we came to. It took us a while to figure out how to fish this area. Yes the fish are stocked, and yes they don't see may flies but they are still trout and it's still fishing. We fished till 8:30 without much action on the lakes.

We headed up and met everyone for breakfast. Dave Herber had a huge iron pot filled with Bacon! This is the life! After bacon, some coffee, and a chocolate doughnut we were properly fueled to stick some pigs. It didn't take Ben long. We took about 20 steps to the nearest lake and Ben hooked this nice 21" brown within a few casts! Uh..... this doesn't seem fair!

Scary! Don't wade barefoot!

We were starting to learn a few things about this place. Earlier in the morning both streamers and nymphs were working. I landed several on a size 16 Red Pheasant Tail. Other nymphs that worked well were a size 20 Red Forget-Me-Knot, and a size 14 Flashback Hares Ear. I landed several on the streamer patterns I've been posting on the Facebook page. Steamers seemed to be the ticket but you had to have the right size, color, and profile. Everyone was catching fish and having a good time. There were some very large trout landed to include a 28" 12lb bow on a size 14 Prince Nymph.

After lunch things slowed down a bit but fish were still hitting streamers. By this time Ben had found a fly that was really producing and he continued to hook and land monster trout on it like this HUGE brown.

 We hooked up with Phil Benton in the afternoon for a lesson on deep water stripping. Uh ..... that is fishing streamers on right on the bottom. We watched him land a HUGE rainbow and brown almost back to back. Crazy! Fly Fishing paradise!

I landed a lot of nice 18-20" fish but couldn't land the biggest that I hooked. It was a friggin LOG and when I hooked him he just sorta calmly swam by Ben and spit the hook as if to say, "nice try PUNK!". Even though the big one got away I cannot complain about not catching a monster this trip. Man I really wish I caught a monster this trip.

We hit just about every section of open water and found fish everywhere. Even the culverts between lakes held big fish. I have no idea how many fish we caught but I'd say it was close to 40 between the two of us.

I have to say that I had mixed feelings before fishing Rainbow Falls. After the trip though I realize that it's still fishing. It is easier for sure to land huge fish here but it still takes using the right fly and getting the correct presentation. You just expect to hook a 6-10lb fish every cast :-)

Do I really get to fish here all summer?

Arkansas River (Pueblo)

Nice bow that fell for the jazzed up Copper John

Quick half day trip down to Pueblo today with Ben and Marty. We started out at the Nature Center and worked our way up around the first bend. Got to look at some of the new structures and they are awesome! Crowd started to fill in above the Nature Center pretty quickly so we headed down to the water treatment plant which was also packed. Plan C was to head down to Pillars Park and we had the river to ourselves. Missed a nice fish on the second cast in the Martini Hole. There are also some nice new structures along this stretch. We all caught fish today but nothing huge to speak of.

Brown that fell for a "pegged" egg sucking leach.

Two nice experimental flies caught fish today which is always fun. The first was a Red Copper John tied with Prismatic Pliable Peal Sheet Back and Red UV paint covering the copper. The second was more of a rig than a fly. I tied a slump buster on with a non slip mono loop knot and slid a bead egg on with the fly so that the egg and the fly were in the loop. I think this setup will work well once the flows are higher. Hoping to get a few more big snow storms this month and in April.

The Copper John and the egg rig can be seen on my FB page if you are interested.

https://www.facebook.com/jamiesfishingjournal

Next week - Colorado River!

Ben with a nice little bow right off the bat

Marty with a bow towards the end of the day

Biggest Catch of the Day!!!
BINGO Burger!
This thing put a hurting on me. Ben ordered the same thing. Mine was up first and when I sat down at the table Ben took one look at it and said, "I'm in a world of hurt". I'm not going to eat for at least 2 hours!

North Platte (Grey Reef)

Grey Reef!

Experienced a little March Madness in Wyoming this weekend. Ben Lewis and I stopped by Wyoming Fly Fishing’s booth at the Fly Fishing Show in Denver this past January and spoke to Greg Mueller who stated that the fishing would be good in March up on the Grey Reef section. “Good” turned out to be “did that day of fishing really just happen please get me ice for my arm GOOD”!

Back yard of our Red Butte Ranch lodging

Ben and I arrived Friday night around 9 at the Red ButteRanch where we would be staying for the weekend. Ruth Romp, Proprietor of the B&B, met us at the end of the drive and we followed her up to the guest house. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw our accommodations for the weekend. It felt like home right away. Ben and I unloaded the ridiculous amount of gear we drug up and crashed out for the night.

We woke up the next morning to the smell of breakfast burritos. We had an outstanding breakfast, courtesy of Ruth, and loaded up the boat. Off to the Grey Reef! I have heard so much about this section of river and knew it should be good fishing but I was about to get schooled on what Wyoming fly fishing is all about. Greg had rigged us up before we left so we put in and started casting just downstream from the boat ramp. Unfortunately it took a full 2 minutes to hook up (notice the boat ramp in the background). Greg told us to imagine what it would be like if we had a good guide! Ha! Love this guy already! I was a little leery of the quick hook ups because I’ve had days where I’ve hooked up quickly only to get shunned the rest of the day. This however, would not be the case today.

We continued to hook and land quality fish on egg patterns. Greg would put us through good runs half a dozen times! The “outhouse” hole was a blast. Greg must have rowed us to the head of that run 6 times. We hit trout every single time. We could have done that all day but Greg’s arms would have wound up being as sore as ours. We hit every good piece of water for the next 9 miles. Ben and I both hooked our biggest fish in the same run at the same time! Unfortunately we lost both of them. Both were north of 20” and absolute slabs. We ended the day somewhere around 40-50 fish! What we didn’t know is that Greg was just warming us up for round two.

Next morning started out with Ruth cooking us another awesome breakfast for the road. We were going to hit another section of river that will have to go unnamed. Please hold the hate mail. I know a guy that can put you on this water anytime (wyogilley@aol.com – ask for Greg). I promised I wouldn’t say where we were going since it’s a pretty uncrowded piece of water that Greg gets to guide on. From what Greg was telling us the day before this water was really good. Again, another understatement. If Greg ever tells you that a piece of water is great, quit your job if you have to and start driving to Casper. “Really good” equated to one of the top three days of fly fishing I’ve ever had.

We arrived and only saw one other truck in the parking lot. We drove down to the boat ramp and the other boat was anchored just across river from us. We were going to be the first boat downstream. We pushed off and unfortunately we didn’t repeat our 2 minute hookup time. We had to settle for 45 seconds! Uh….. WTF! Do Wyoming trout fast during the month of February? You can’t see the boat ramp in this picture but you can see some individuals that were punishing the water for a while before we put in without a take. Sorry guys! We peeled out of there and headed downstream. I don’t know how to write about what would follow. It’s kind of a blur of red stripes, kypes, and diving indicators sprinkled with short bouts of shit talking. The result was an 80 fish day to include 3 fish over 20” and the elusive cuttyrainbrown. The average fish was probably 17”. If we went more than a minute without a hit something felt wrong. Good thing for us that happened exactly twice as I recall. Okay maybe three times.

 

I’m still blown away by the weekend of fishing we had. It’s hard to think of hitting some of the spots I’ve been wanting to hit outside of the U.S. when there is fishing like this to be had close to home. This will be an annual trip for me 

As a bonus we discovered a new species of trout! It's born without a body so that it doesn't have to stop eating in order to wait for digestion to occur. Its tail is connected directly to its head so that all caloric intake goes into growing its killing apparatus located on its head.

 A HUGE thanks to Ruth and Greg for a fantastic weekend of fly fishing. Their company added immensely to our enjoyment of the awesome fly fishing Wyoming has to offer. I highly recommend hitting these two up if you want to experience the North Platte the right way. 

Ruth Romp

Proprietor

Red Butte Ranch

Greg Mueller 

Head Guide

Wyoming Fly Fishing

307.267.5494