Fishing Report Saturday AM, April 10
Dave ‘Doc” Moore
Wow , what a week….lousy weather early in the week to full sunshine on Friday and what a week for fishing…..!!!
The Blue WIng Olives (aka BWO or Baetis) have decided that the time is right to spring forth from our mighty Arkansas….from Small 16-20 slate to green, various species started to really pop early in the week. For three days it was insane, and tricky. Matching the hatch was not always easy, presenting a real brain game for us. Were they taking adults or emergers? What color? What size? And, to make it even more tricky we found several stages of the hatch that were actually complex hatches with midges coming in as favorites to the blue wings for a period. All in all a very challenging week for the thinking fly fisherman.
Yesterday……no hatches, it was all down and dirty nymphing. Early morning was much better than later in the day with the fish taking small (16) Ptails, dark copper johns, and
peacock johns, with a dropper of 18 zebra midge and bead head. We found fish in pretty medium current runs in the AM, and in faster runs closer to the head of the run in the afternoon. The active fish were nosing up into faster current from the lower runs. Water levels pushing just over 300 cfs in Salida, clear and very good for wading. Don’t be afraid to work the edges of fast water. The fish are absolutely all over the river now well out of their winter deep slow runs.
It’s that time of the year when we are all getting anxious to get air in our rafts, get the wheels greased and our rigs ready to float the Ark. Mixed reports coming in on early floats on the Arkansas. Baetis are taking their time to getting from nypmh to adult, we are seeing very few in the air. Every trip brings reports of a few risers, but the only dry flys working so far are Griffiths Gnats in small still pockets …………it will be any day we keep saying, and the Blue WIngs will start to pop…we will be sure to keep you posted on the first good activity we see.
Our fish are all coming on nymph rigs under an indicator. We are using a size 14 generic bead head on top (Prince Nymph seem to have the edge, with PheasantTail coming in a close second, the bottom fly is an 18-20 PTail or your choice of midge also in size 18-20, the Zebra Midge is working well.
The fish are still mostly still in their winter holding areas slow deep pockets, and they are bunched up for the most part. We have just started taking a few nice fish nosing up into the head of rapids. Rainbows are the more agressive, and we are seeing more of them this spring. About half of our fish are Bows, this will begin to change as our Brownies start breaking out of their winter patterns and the Bows start to get romantic.
These big spring snow storms are not helping our water to warm up, and making our attitude kinda grumpy as well. Salida really got dumped on this week….12 inches of very heavy wet snow……and it is taking its time melting this time.
Heavy equipment is still in the river above the F Street Bridge in Salida. They are putting in a new river feature for kayaking boaters. This is causing a bunch of dirty water down stream from Salida. We are seeing the dirt drifting several miles down stream. We are hoping the in-stream work will be done shortly……
Water still low, making floating techincal in many places……………..I should say “more” technical than ususal.
Be sure to call to make your reservations for the Caddis Hatch 719.530.2100…..
Antero catch
With the Ark trickling along in the low 200cfs range last week, we decided to take some customers to Antero Reservoir for a day of still-water angling. And what a day it was! Our 2 flyrod boat hooked 35 fish and landed 25 of them. It was mostly browns and rainbows but we also pulled in 6 Greenback Cutthroats!-the native species and Colorado state fish. Master guide Dave “Doc” Moore ties his own proprietary fly for Antero and the fish were hitting it all day long.
We usually get blown off the water by high winds around noon or 1:00 but the gods were smiling on us this day and we didn’t take out until 3:00. A great day of Colorado lake fishing!
With rafting season over, anglers now have the river all to themselves. Water levels of 247 in and above Salida have resluted in very slow, bumpy runs. Better to drop in at Salida East and float down to Rincon or Vallie Bridge for float trips. Walk and wade on the other hand has never been better! Rainbows are showing a stronger than normal presence and giving anglers a lot of entertainment. Hopper Droppers continue to produce great results especially Yellow Stimulators with Prince Nymphs. Current hatches are ant, caddis, and BWO’s.
With the water leveling off in the 700-800 cfs range and offering perfect clarity, the fishing is only getting better. This week we saw large hatches of pale morning duns in the morning and caddis hatches in the afternoon and evenings. Dry droppers continue to deliver great results in the mornings for the PMD hatch. Try a beadhead nymph with a Yellow Stimulator and get ready for a strike!
The successive days of afternoon showers have made hoppers quite popular as well. The bottomline is that it’s all about the dry flies right now: yellow sallies, caddis, PMD. The best action we’ve seen all season!
Water levels are still dropping making for excellent clarity and walk and wade fishing has improved. This past weekend was about introducing new anglers to the sport of fly fishing. We ran a few Full Day Beginner Trips, with great success and had a great time.
Beginner Instruction
Hot weather made the fishing better in the morning and evenings. Yellow Sallie Stoneflies, Pale Morning Duns and Caddis continue to hatch.
The water level is on the way down which means the fishing success is on the way up! Levels at Parkdale have dropped almost 40%-from 2330 a week ago to 1380 today. This has resulted in a very productive week of fishing for anglers. The water clarity has been terrific and several varieties of dry flies are getting a great response from both rainbows and browns. Dry droppers with Yellow Stimulators and small brown caddis larvae are the best bet right now, particularly Elk Hair Caddis.
The fishing below Salida continues to be a safe bet. High winds further north around Hayden Meadows over the weekend drove most anglers off that section of the river. Look for this coming weekend to be even better as the water drops and the hatches continue!
High water has put a hold on the Arkansas River fishing for a while. While the river is up, it’s a good time to practice some rowing, and get into shape for the fishing season to come. Meanwhile the tributaries are fishing nicely. If you haven’t had much experience rowing be sure to check out our one-on-one rowing instruction.
Well, it is definitely accurate to say that the caddis hatch has finally arrived. I spent the day floating downstream from Salida in the Coaldale / Cotopaxi / Texas Creek area and the afternoon saw a pretty significant hatch for several hours over several miles of river. Good hatches were also reported as far upstream as the Swissvale area. With the weather predicted to continue to warm up, I would expect these hatches to become more prolific and widespread as the week rolls on.
It took a little while today for the fish to key in on the adults, but once they did they were taking dries aggressively. Our best dry fly patterns were a size 16 black foam caddis and a size ten yellow stimulator. Although most fish took the caddis, the stimulator also took a good number of fish.
In the morning the fish were active below the surface on bead heads, with size 14 and 16 p tails and princes producing really well. I would look for a similar pattern over the next few days, with subsurface feeding in the mornings until things warm up sufficiently for the caddis to start hatching late morning to mid afternoon.
See you on the river.
