Post by mirvc17 on Jun 5, 2016 18:54:31 GMT -6
26 May – 2 Jun CO – WY – MT – CO Trip Report
Day 1: 9 hr drive to the Deckers/Cheesman Canyon area of the South Platte River. Due to lack of cell service to let the wife know I made it OK, I geared up and drove back into Deckers to use the Flies & Lies phone. The guy reluctantly let me use the phone, but I told him me buying a new net from him should cover the phone bill.
The Fishpond Nomad mid-length is awesome btw. I got the Brookie Limited Edition.
Anyway, I didn’t want to drive all the way back to the Cheesman lot and hike in, as it was already past 1pm. As I started to fish above Deckers, the clouds rolled in and the BWO hatch cranked into full gear. I caught a couple and lost a few more. BWOs were all over the place—on my legs and on the banks. The swallows were out in force too and I wound up catching one accidentally. A few minutes later he was off and flying again. Around 4:30 I called it quits and drove to my brother’s place in Centennial. Jambalaya, beer, and a movie called.
Day 2: Picked up my buddy Rob who flew in from Anchorage and by 11am we were well on our way to the Tongue River campground area in northern Wyoming. Once we arrived, it started raining (not hard thankfully). Why does it always rain when you’re setting up the tent? As soon as we were done, it stopped and we hit the stream. It was extremely fast and high, but not terribly dirty. I landed a mountain whitefish of good size and that was it for us for the day. Our camp spot was awesome and we cooked steaks over the fire with baked potatoes and beer for the side dishes. A small bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label was desert.
Day 3: We packed up camp, geared up, and drove down stream where we had spotted slower water. We fished a couple of sections with a little success. I wound up with another freakin’ whitefish (they are really annoying) and Rob hooked a beautiful brown in this crazy fast water. Around 9:15am we de-geared and continued our drive to MT. The drive to Craig was beautiful. We arrived in time to get a couple hours of wade fishing on the Missouri before linking up with our guide at Isaak’s to discuss the game plan for Sunday. Rob had a couple of bites and I lost a monster that broke my rig off right after the hook set. Translation: these fish are strong—go up in tippet size. Around 6:15 we got off the river, cleaned up, and met Eric Adams, owner of Montana Fly Fishing Guides. The Trout Shop lodge was an awesome place to stay right across the street from Isaak’s and we had 3 nights there.
Day 4: 0815 meet up. We drove upstream to Wolf Creek Bridge to put in—where is the crowd?? We were the first ones there and after we put the boat in, a couple more boats arrived. The weather was perfect and was forecasted to remain sunny all day. I brought my 5 wt and Rob brought his 6 wt rod. Eric had two 6 weights rigged in a manner in which he said “we’re going to do something a little different.” By that he meant he had the rods rigged to get deep fast. The leaders were close to a formula I’d read about before, but basically consisted of a couple of short sections of 2X with a Thingamabobber fixed between the two, a longer section of 4x with a Wire Worm fly (size 4 or 6 I think) and a dropper of 5X with a Tailwater Sow Bug (size 18) attached. Split shot was above the worm fly of course. I started off with a Little Green Machine as a dropper, but it broke off on a fish. This combo worked awesome all day long. We caught loads of fish and it is incredible how strong these fish are. They put some serious bends in 6 wt rods. Once you discovered they were on the wire worm, you could really put the screws to them. They were still willing and able to pull line off the reel despite how cranked up the drag was. The casting was more of a snap it and slap it technique, with the hook set being the same as if you were going to re-cast it. It worked great.
Near the end of the day, we went looking for rising fish. We found a couple and used my 5 wt to offer up some bugs but no luck. We had 4 or 5 good drifts each over the fish each, but nothing took despite a couple of fly changes. By then, it was time to get back. Just as we pulled the boat out, a fish was rising just upstream of us. While Eric grabbed his truck, I grabbed my 5 wt and let ‘er rip. A couple of clients in a boat ahead of us watched. A couple of good drifts over top, but no take—bummer. Dinner/beer at Isaak’s.
Day 5: 0815 meet up. Memorial Day. It was even slower today! We put in at the Craig Bridge and planned to float longer today. Again, we had great success nymphing and I know we caught more fish than the other boats. My best was a 20” brown and Rob reeled in a beautiful 21” bow. We caught a lot of fish. After lunch, I spotted some lightning in the distance. We pulled the boat over and put on rain gear—it was coming. We got rained and hailed on for about 15-20 minutes. It went from t-shirt weather in the morning to rain gear, and then chilly in the late afternoon. This made our search for rising fish challenging. Eventually we found some and got some good drifts over them but no luck. The search continued downstream.
Eventually we found another single, consistent riser near the bank on our left side of the river (facing downstream). Eric positioned the boat above the fish, 45 degs off at about 30 feet. Rob started first in the front of the boat. This trip was his first time ever dry fly fishing. He learned a lot but didn’t get a rise—bummer. The frustration started to set in as Eric is yacking in his ear “coaching” him, the wind is 8-10 mph direct cross wind coming from his right, and he needed a left reach cast followed by feeding in slack to get a drag free drift. Rob gave up and handed me the rod. For fear the fish might see us, I stayed in the back of the boat and had to cast over my left shoulder with the same conditions. After four or five decent drifts that were close, I finally laid down the money cast. This had to be a winner. The fish broke the surface at my fly and I raised the rod tip and took up all the slack. The fish went ape shit. We all hooted and hollered. The fish wound up being a beautiful 16” brown. It took a Harrop’s Rusty Para-spinner, size 18.
Next, we drifted down some more looking for bank sippers. Eric’s acute eyes found another one and he positioned the boat the same as before. Rob was up. Again, he had some good drifts over the fish but was unsuccessful. I felt bad because he really wanted to catch a fish on a dry fly for the first time on this trip. It just wasn’t in the cards. While Rob was casting, Eric looked over his shoulder and I saw his lips silently say “big fish.” Rob insisted I have a turn. Once again after a couple of drifts that were close, the money cast landed and I knew it was going to work—I cheered it on as the fly drifted. The fish erupted on the fly and I set the hook—chaos! The rainbow made some powerful runs and nearly got under the boat. A beautiful 17” bow.
After getting the boat out, I stumbled upon a brand new spool of 3X fluoro in the grass—score! We met up with Eric at the Craig Bar for some intel on DePuy’s Spring Creek. Isaak’s was closed so we bolted over to Wolf Creek for some dinner. The chicken strips were quite tasty.
Day 6: We left Craig early in the morning and arrived at 9:45am. Since it’s a private creek, all anglers have to sign in at the southern plantation style mansion. There were only three other anglers that arrived just before us. Since they were fishing near Eva’s hut, we went further downstream which is where Eric said he heard most of the fish were. He was spot on. We reeled in a bunch. The set up was a yarn indicator with a size 18 Zebra midge three feet down on 5X, then a midge dropper of some kind 12” in trail. For my dropper, I tied on a fly I made up with materials my wife picked out—she called it The Adrian. It absolutely tore up fish. I’ll post the recipe for it later. The fish of the day was a beautiful 16” Yellowstone Cutthroat Rob landed. Eventually, we went up to Eva’s hut after lunch because the other guys were gone. We checked out a section of river they had marked off due to spawning cutthroat and watched the fish do their business. We turned around and saw the guys in their car heading to the sections we worked all morning. It was awesome not running into them because we more or less had the entire 3 miles of river to ourselves! We explored basically the entire river and ended the day at 8:30pm because it was about to get dark—10 hours on the water. My lower back was getting tired, but I had at least another hour in me. Finally we gave up and decided we should go check in at the KOA campground 10 mins down the road. This was a quick unpack, get a fire going, eat some hotdogs, and get to bed kind of thing due to the 10 hr drive we had the next day back to CO.
Day 7: 10 hrs later we were back at my brother’s place, eating bratwurst, drinking beer, and watching Red Dawn. WOLVERINES!!!
Day 8: Five cars in the Cheesman Canyon parking lot—not too bad. We geared up quickly and beat these two other guys to the trailhead. The canyon fishing was difficult and required a lot of weight and indicator adjustments. I used yarn most of the morning, but eventually fished with a bobber. I caught around five and Rob caught a couple. The best fish I caught was just awesome. If you’ve ever fished Cheesman, you’ll know how many large boulders there are. Usually directly across from those boulders is a fast current, then a silty slow zone just on the other side of the current. Fish hang out right on that seam, and I could see a nice one. After a few tries, I finally got my flies upstream far enough and on the right line. I watched the fish turn, chase my flies and a split second after I looked back to my indicator, it plunged and I set the hook. The fish went crazy peeling off line downstream and I scrambled to get off the boulder and chase it. A bright red-banded rainbow was the result. It was the highlight of the day, as the rest of Cheesman was relatively slow and many fish were just holding. The top fly for me was the Juan Rameriz’s Slim Shady Baetis nymph, size 20 (posted on this board). It did very well—all my fish eat this except one on a Zebra. I had one monster fish break the snot of one of my rigs also on this fly. I’ve already tied up another five of them to replace the lost ones. Rob’s day went south after I landed that fish and some guy came in on his spot. Both of us didn’t want to fish standing on boulders anymore, nor did we want to end the day being so slow (and hot), so we hiked out for Deckers around 2:30. We refreshed with food at Decker’s Corner and I actually ran out of 6X tippet in the canyon. I used some 6.5X Trouthunter, but I still wanted a spool of Rio. Soon we were back on the water around Deckers. It was very, very slow and we had no bites. We moved to several different places and it was all slow. Rob was checked out mentally and ready to throw in the towel. I caught an 8” brown and was ready to be done too. So, it wasn’t a great way to end the trip, but sometimes you just have those days and there’s nothing you can do about it but learn.
Day 9: Took Rob to DIA and drove home. Miles tally: 3153.3 miles.
Pictures to follow...
Day 1: 9 hr drive to the Deckers/Cheesman Canyon area of the South Platte River. Due to lack of cell service to let the wife know I made it OK, I geared up and drove back into Deckers to use the Flies & Lies phone. The guy reluctantly let me use the phone, but I told him me buying a new net from him should cover the phone bill.
The Fishpond Nomad mid-length is awesome btw. I got the Brookie Limited Edition.Anyway, I didn’t want to drive all the way back to the Cheesman lot and hike in, as it was already past 1pm. As I started to fish above Deckers, the clouds rolled in and the BWO hatch cranked into full gear. I caught a couple and lost a few more. BWOs were all over the place—on my legs and on the banks. The swallows were out in force too and I wound up catching one accidentally. A few minutes later he was off and flying again. Around 4:30 I called it quits and drove to my brother’s place in Centennial. Jambalaya, beer, and a movie called.
Day 2: Picked up my buddy Rob who flew in from Anchorage and by 11am we were well on our way to the Tongue River campground area in northern Wyoming. Once we arrived, it started raining (not hard thankfully). Why does it always rain when you’re setting up the tent? As soon as we were done, it stopped and we hit the stream. It was extremely fast and high, but not terribly dirty. I landed a mountain whitefish of good size and that was it for us for the day. Our camp spot was awesome and we cooked steaks over the fire with baked potatoes and beer for the side dishes. A small bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label was desert.
Day 3: We packed up camp, geared up, and drove down stream where we had spotted slower water. We fished a couple of sections with a little success. I wound up with another freakin’ whitefish (they are really annoying) and Rob hooked a beautiful brown in this crazy fast water. Around 9:15am we de-geared and continued our drive to MT. The drive to Craig was beautiful. We arrived in time to get a couple hours of wade fishing on the Missouri before linking up with our guide at Isaak’s to discuss the game plan for Sunday. Rob had a couple of bites and I lost a monster that broke my rig off right after the hook set. Translation: these fish are strong—go up in tippet size. Around 6:15 we got off the river, cleaned up, and met Eric Adams, owner of Montana Fly Fishing Guides. The Trout Shop lodge was an awesome place to stay right across the street from Isaak’s and we had 3 nights there.
Day 4: 0815 meet up. We drove upstream to Wolf Creek Bridge to put in—where is the crowd?? We were the first ones there and after we put the boat in, a couple more boats arrived. The weather was perfect and was forecasted to remain sunny all day. I brought my 5 wt and Rob brought his 6 wt rod. Eric had two 6 weights rigged in a manner in which he said “we’re going to do something a little different.” By that he meant he had the rods rigged to get deep fast. The leaders were close to a formula I’d read about before, but basically consisted of a couple of short sections of 2X with a Thingamabobber fixed between the two, a longer section of 4x with a Wire Worm fly (size 4 or 6 I think) and a dropper of 5X with a Tailwater Sow Bug (size 18) attached. Split shot was above the worm fly of course. I started off with a Little Green Machine as a dropper, but it broke off on a fish. This combo worked awesome all day long. We caught loads of fish and it is incredible how strong these fish are. They put some serious bends in 6 wt rods. Once you discovered they were on the wire worm, you could really put the screws to them. They were still willing and able to pull line off the reel despite how cranked up the drag was. The casting was more of a snap it and slap it technique, with the hook set being the same as if you were going to re-cast it. It worked great.
Near the end of the day, we went looking for rising fish. We found a couple and used my 5 wt to offer up some bugs but no luck. We had 4 or 5 good drifts each over the fish each, but nothing took despite a couple of fly changes. By then, it was time to get back. Just as we pulled the boat out, a fish was rising just upstream of us. While Eric grabbed his truck, I grabbed my 5 wt and let ‘er rip. A couple of clients in a boat ahead of us watched. A couple of good drifts over top, but no take—bummer. Dinner/beer at Isaak’s.
Day 5: 0815 meet up. Memorial Day. It was even slower today! We put in at the Craig Bridge and planned to float longer today. Again, we had great success nymphing and I know we caught more fish than the other boats. My best was a 20” brown and Rob reeled in a beautiful 21” bow. We caught a lot of fish. After lunch, I spotted some lightning in the distance. We pulled the boat over and put on rain gear—it was coming. We got rained and hailed on for about 15-20 minutes. It went from t-shirt weather in the morning to rain gear, and then chilly in the late afternoon. This made our search for rising fish challenging. Eventually we found some and got some good drifts over them but no luck. The search continued downstream.
Eventually we found another single, consistent riser near the bank on our left side of the river (facing downstream). Eric positioned the boat above the fish, 45 degs off at about 30 feet. Rob started first in the front of the boat. This trip was his first time ever dry fly fishing. He learned a lot but didn’t get a rise—bummer. The frustration started to set in as Eric is yacking in his ear “coaching” him, the wind is 8-10 mph direct cross wind coming from his right, and he needed a left reach cast followed by feeding in slack to get a drag free drift. Rob gave up and handed me the rod. For fear the fish might see us, I stayed in the back of the boat and had to cast over my left shoulder with the same conditions. After four or five decent drifts that were close, I finally laid down the money cast. This had to be a winner. The fish broke the surface at my fly and I raised the rod tip and took up all the slack. The fish went ape shit. We all hooted and hollered. The fish wound up being a beautiful 16” brown. It took a Harrop’s Rusty Para-spinner, size 18.
Next, we drifted down some more looking for bank sippers. Eric’s acute eyes found another one and he positioned the boat the same as before. Rob was up. Again, he had some good drifts over the fish but was unsuccessful. I felt bad because he really wanted to catch a fish on a dry fly for the first time on this trip. It just wasn’t in the cards. While Rob was casting, Eric looked over his shoulder and I saw his lips silently say “big fish.” Rob insisted I have a turn. Once again after a couple of drifts that were close, the money cast landed and I knew it was going to work—I cheered it on as the fly drifted. The fish erupted on the fly and I set the hook—chaos! The rainbow made some powerful runs and nearly got under the boat. A beautiful 17” bow.
After getting the boat out, I stumbled upon a brand new spool of 3X fluoro in the grass—score! We met up with Eric at the Craig Bar for some intel on DePuy’s Spring Creek. Isaak’s was closed so we bolted over to Wolf Creek for some dinner. The chicken strips were quite tasty.
Day 6: We left Craig early in the morning and arrived at 9:45am. Since it’s a private creek, all anglers have to sign in at the southern plantation style mansion. There were only three other anglers that arrived just before us. Since they were fishing near Eva’s hut, we went further downstream which is where Eric said he heard most of the fish were. He was spot on. We reeled in a bunch. The set up was a yarn indicator with a size 18 Zebra midge three feet down on 5X, then a midge dropper of some kind 12” in trail. For my dropper, I tied on a fly I made up with materials my wife picked out—she called it The Adrian. It absolutely tore up fish. I’ll post the recipe for it later. The fish of the day was a beautiful 16” Yellowstone Cutthroat Rob landed. Eventually, we went up to Eva’s hut after lunch because the other guys were gone. We checked out a section of river they had marked off due to spawning cutthroat and watched the fish do their business. We turned around and saw the guys in their car heading to the sections we worked all morning. It was awesome not running into them because we more or less had the entire 3 miles of river to ourselves! We explored basically the entire river and ended the day at 8:30pm because it was about to get dark—10 hours on the water. My lower back was getting tired, but I had at least another hour in me. Finally we gave up and decided we should go check in at the KOA campground 10 mins down the road. This was a quick unpack, get a fire going, eat some hotdogs, and get to bed kind of thing due to the 10 hr drive we had the next day back to CO.
Day 7: 10 hrs later we were back at my brother’s place, eating bratwurst, drinking beer, and watching Red Dawn. WOLVERINES!!!
Day 8: Five cars in the Cheesman Canyon parking lot—not too bad. We geared up quickly and beat these two other guys to the trailhead. The canyon fishing was difficult and required a lot of weight and indicator adjustments. I used yarn most of the morning, but eventually fished with a bobber. I caught around five and Rob caught a couple. The best fish I caught was just awesome. If you’ve ever fished Cheesman, you’ll know how many large boulders there are. Usually directly across from those boulders is a fast current, then a silty slow zone just on the other side of the current. Fish hang out right on that seam, and I could see a nice one. After a few tries, I finally got my flies upstream far enough and on the right line. I watched the fish turn, chase my flies and a split second after I looked back to my indicator, it plunged and I set the hook. The fish went crazy peeling off line downstream and I scrambled to get off the boulder and chase it. A bright red-banded rainbow was the result. It was the highlight of the day, as the rest of Cheesman was relatively slow and many fish were just holding. The top fly for me was the Juan Rameriz’s Slim Shady Baetis nymph, size 20 (posted on this board). It did very well—all my fish eat this except one on a Zebra. I had one monster fish break the snot of one of my rigs also on this fly. I’ve already tied up another five of them to replace the lost ones. Rob’s day went south after I landed that fish and some guy came in on his spot. Both of us didn’t want to fish standing on boulders anymore, nor did we want to end the day being so slow (and hot), so we hiked out for Deckers around 2:30. We refreshed with food at Decker’s Corner and I actually ran out of 6X tippet in the canyon. I used some 6.5X Trouthunter, but I still wanted a spool of Rio. Soon we were back on the water around Deckers. It was very, very slow and we had no bites. We moved to several different places and it was all slow. Rob was checked out mentally and ready to throw in the towel. I caught an 8” brown and was ready to be done too. So, it wasn’t a great way to end the trip, but sometimes you just have those days and there’s nothing you can do about it but learn.
Day 9: Took Rob to DIA and drove home. Miles tally: 3153.3 miles.
Pictures to follow...
