April 16, 2017 Happy Easter-Fishing Report
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”139″ gal_title=”April 16, 2017 Easter sunday, new car”]
Happy Easter Everyone!
Good morning from sunny and warm Decker’s, Colorado! It’s a glorious Easter Sunday here in the South Platte River Valley. Temps are already in the low 50’s, and climbing fast! Getting you quickly updated, let’s talk a little about the flow. We saw an increase on Friday, going up from about 130 (cfs) to about 150, currently in Decker’s/Trumbull. Just up stream, at Cheesman Canyon, where I will soon be living, fishing, writing, and cooking daily, we’ve got a similar flow of 153 (cfs). As a result of this bump in flow, the clarity is a little bit off, but has cleared up considerably since the increase. I did, however, feel the effects of this bump yesterday, as I took a few minutes before work and threw a flew flies in hopes of taking a bigger brown or cut-bow, feeding on worms and stone flies in the somewhat murky water. The fish were holding deep and it took me making three additions of weight to my nymph rig in order to get down where the fish were feeding. I also switched over from the previous set up to a longer leader, switched out my indicator bug to a stone fly, and added a Barr’s emerger and trailed a black zebra midge. Before long, I found the feeding population of trout, deep under a bubble line that had formed along a funky eddy that continuously was fooling me, by pulling my strike indicator into a series of whirlpools! With a little persistence and attention to the depth, the faster water didn’t keep at least 8 fish from taking either one of my three tasty choices! On the bug end of things, I’ve been seeing considerable increases in the dry fly hatches occurring throughout the day. Big BWO’S, sometimes in size #18 range, can be see covering the surface of the water, especially in those overcast afternoons with a slight wind, wow! The fish were just gorging on these on several of my outings over the last couple days! Underneath, tons of Baetis patterns are working. The amount of Stone flies I’ve seen coming down the river on a continual basis have been impressive. This has led me on several occasions to stray away from the ever dependable, “Pat’s Rubber Leg’s” to the Stone Fly, leech, or even the Slump Buster as my indicator fly. On the nymphing end of things, I’ve not strayed far from the Rs-2, however, I have had pretty good success with the black version of this bug, where 90% of the time I’ll find myself using the grey, tan, or brown version. The Barr’s emerger has been my second bug on the set-up for the last two outings, while following up with a variety of smaller size midges, such as the juju, miracle, red/black zebra, disco, and chocolate thunder. As most of you are aware, the fishing right now is pretty hot, so the bug selection, although important, isn’t as important as the basic good drift, with the right weight and distance! So come on up and try your luck on some of the best Trout fishing the State of Colorado has to offer! That’s all for today my friends, Happy EASTER and I hope to see you on the river soon! Chris! Hope you enjoy the shots from the last few days!
Chris
