Those who have been braving the cold and recently the wet weather, have been hooking into several trout. Fishing has actually been rather good. Lots of warmer clothes are needed and some Stanley’s Ice Off paste hasn’t hurt either. Today we got just a light and spotty icing on the trees, again looking like we were spared the worst, but we still have gotten quite a bit of rain. They have been running the generators mostly just in the mornings with it being off in the afternoon.

Best Fly Patterns have been:

Scuds: tan, lt. gray, sowbug

midges: tungsten beaded, rusty, WD-40’s in black & gray

South Platte brassies: green

Soft Hackles: hares ear or phesant tail

Olive Woolies: smaller sizes

The trout fishing is great! For those geared up for big browns I’m sorry to inform you they are returning to the depths of the lake. We are still catching an seeing big fish, but I’m not convinced it’s going to last much longer. There was a 15lb. brown caught last week… So opportunities are still presenting themselves. On the bright side the fishing has been a lot better as far as numbers of fish. There have also been a lot less fisherman too.
The water has been not running much at all. If they do run water it’s only been for an hour or two. The weather forecast looks cold for Wednesday so for anyone not weak at heart that would be a great time to have the river almost to yourself. I seem to do really well on those cold days.
Lots of people have been giving me good reports about night fishing as well. Mostly on white zonkers as well as woolly buggers. Other fly choices would still be scuds, wd-40s, and a few larger dry flies (with midge droppers).

Adam

The fishing has started to taper off with the bigger browns heading back down stream. Still catching lots of fish, but mostly rainbows. We still have hooked into a couple of browns in the 24″ range, and one rainbow that was 24″ also, the last 2 days, but you really aren’t seeing the huge browns. Crowds are starting to thin out also, I only counted about 20 people at 8 am this morning.
The water generation has been really different this past week, running earlier in the mornings for an hour or two, and maybe turning on again towards evening. Today, (Saturday) it was off all day.

The hot patterns have been:

Midges:
WD-40’s
tungsten beaded olive flash back
Zebra’s ( in the slower waters)

Scuds in gray or tan, smaller sizes

large dry’s like renegades or griffiths gnat

CDC caddis in olive

Olive Woolly buggers in olive with flash

egg patterns (puff balls) used as an attractor with a small midge or nymph as a trailer

We are still using small tippets: 6X 100% fluorocarbon

WE ARE NOW OFFERING COAST GUARD CERTIFIED FLY FISHING BOAT TRIPS

Sure has not been a lot of changes the last week or so, other than the last 2 days the numbers of good fish being hooked are up. Water generation has actually helped fishing, giving them a much needed reprieve.
We have been on the water everyday, with both wading and boat trips. We have had some awesome trips lately, hooking some really nice fish 22″ - 28″, and getting a chance to work with some really wonderful clients, from the really experienced to those just starting out.

Generally you need to switch off patterns, but today was the exception. We fished the same thing all morning (wading). Yesterday in the boat we used tungsten beaded scuds and zebra’s mostly.

Top fly box picks have been:

Midges: red, coffee brown, and black
WD-40’s in black or gray

Dries: large griffiths gnat
Adams
black gnat
PMD
olive caddis
Also try:
small scuds- brown, tan, or orange
san juan worms
soft hackles
cracklebacks
and if streamers are your favorite :
woolie buggers- black, purple, or white at night
and small olive or white during daylight
sculpins–woolhead or rabbit- black or olive
zonkers– black or gray

It is definitely the annual anticipated “big fish” time. We are seeing a large number of 23″ and up, browns. Average sizes this week of the nicer fish have been 25″ - 29″, both males and females. We have been on the water everyday, all day. They did run quite a bit of water this past week. Yesterday it was off most of the day, and today looks like the same. Fly patterns themselves have not varied much, still try small scuds, tungsten beaded midges, WD-40’s, flash zebras, and san juans, but on some of the flies, the colors have changed on a daily basis. Last Sunday, cracklebacks and softhackles were doing well again. And don’t forget those large streamers; sculpins, zonkers and woolies. Your strategy with the big flies should be to pick a fish and keep casting to it. It may take a dozen or so casts to interest or plain annoy it into submission! On the flip side, smaller midges are doing well also, but really I can’t stress enough how important presentation is. It isn’t always what your using but how your using it.

We are now offering Coast Guard Certified fly fishing boat trips! We have added a nice 19′ flat bottom G3 boat, with lots of room to walk around in and lots of casting room!

Hope your time on the water is successful!

If your lookin’ for the big browns this is the time to do it.
The fly patterns the past couple days hasn’t changed much. Everything from size 22 scuds and midges to size 6 streamers.
This morning there were two big browns caught both were females, one was taken on a sculpin and the other on a zonker. I must say that the fishing pressure is probably the biggest issue right now. If records were kept I think yesterday was a breaker, for the number of people.
Night fishing has been productive, but I would recommend fishing from 12-4a.m. Basic black streamers have been working at that time. Generation at night has been minimal, but has been running later in the afternoon till dark or just before.

The fishing this weekend was great! With opportunities to catch several trout and possibilities of huge browns as well as rainbows. Yesterday on a guide trip we hooked a huge rainbow. It jumped several times before it finally spit the hook. This morning Joe’s guide trip hooked a large brown, but of course another one that got away. This afternoon Chuck’s trip landed a 25″x17″ brown,and caught a female brown 24″x14″. Bottomline is that the big ones are here and presenting lots of opportunities to dedicated fishermen.
Water generation has been very minimal in the mornings. They have remained off until later in the afternoon when just 1 generator came on for just an hour or so. I believe they will follow this pattern for at least this afternoon.

Fly Patterns

-Scuds-#14-#18 tan and natural brown
-Egg patterns- #12-#16 apricot
-San Juan worms- #16 brown
-Zebras- Rusty midge and Silver/black
-Sculpins-Olive #8
-prismatic emergers-
-Renegades-#10