A Step Ahead

The 2012 fishing season you could say seems to be a step ahead of previous years. After a lack luster 2011 season, where we barely saw any dry fly fishing and the streams raged much of the summer, this summer and spring are shaping up to be much different.

This past weekend I guided 3 trips on 2 different rivers and saw some great fishing.  The upper Colorado was our first stop and the fishing was ok, although admittedly I wished it could have been better.  There was a cold front moving in and that very well may have been the problem.  We did see plenty of bugs from Blue Wing Olives, which fish were selectively rising to as well as a few Caddis, small Stones and midges. While the action wasn’t super hot, we did miss fish, hook fish and land a fair share.

The next day we made the trip to the Arkansas to try and track down the infamous Mother’s Day Caddis hatch. (It was the day before Mother’s Day after all!)  The cold front was still lingering the fishing seemed to start out a little bit slow, but as the day warmed up so did the fishing.  We only had a few takes on the dry and saw very few bugs besides Blue Wing Olives. This was expected with the cold front that was lingering and the choice to fish a little in front of the hatch. We did catch many fish on various nymphs, from Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails, Blue Poison Tungs, Prince Nymphs, Zebra Midges and more.  Fishing was quite good in this pocket water section and with the warm weather on its way I would look for the sections above Buena Vista to explode with bugs in the week to come.

On Sunday I had the chance to get out and use my drift boat with some clients.  I was looking forward to not only rowing my boat and enjoying the day, but also getting the chance to see if there were any bugs flying on the Colorado, namely the Salmon Fly. Sure enough as I was rigging my boat I happened to see a Salmon Fly crawling on one of the willows and then noticed a few more crawling on my boat and fluttering on the waters surface.  Their numbers weren’t huge, but this excited me for the chance at fish on big dries.

 

Shortly after putting in we were catching fish on the Stonefly and Copper Johns nymphs we were fishing below our large Orange Fuzzy Wuzzy and then we got our first hit on the dry.  A few moments later we had our first fish to the net, out of fast water on our large dry.  The rest of the day we had a hand full more rises to the dry and maybe one or two more fish to the adult pattern.  Many more fish came to the nymphs below our dry and the fish were not picky as we caught them on Copper Johns in black, red and copper, Pheasant tails, Prince nymphs and Stones.  The fishing is usually quite good on this section this time of year, but what surprised me is to see the Salmon Flies a good three to four weeks ahead of schedule.

The fishing was quite exciting and rewarding this past weekend and hope you all will take the opportunity to stay a step ahead of the rest and get out and fish with us soon.

We are still offering the 25% OFF special for trips booked in the window from now to

6-15-2012. Give us a call or use our NEW On-line Booking Portal and get out with us in this early season.

We also want to introduce our all NEW On Line Booking Portal and calendar through Fly Book.  As an introductory offer to all my returning customers I will honor the 25% OFF on all trips booked for summer.  You just have to book by 6-15-2012, Use our On Line Booking portal and Pay in Full when asked.  Just enter Code- SPRING12