Time: 11:30AM – 4:30PM
Locale: Significant Horn Sheep Canyon
Arkansas River 04/10/2024 Photograph Album
Immediately after two subpar outings on Colorado Rivers for the duration of the past 7 days, I was nervous for redemption. I was happy with my go to to the decreased Arkansas River on 03/27/2024, so I made a decision to repeat the generate. The flows and clarity had been favorable, and the fly shop stories were optimistic (as they typically are), so I took the plunge and designed the 2.5 hour generate. I experienced by way of hurry hour targeted visitors in Denver, a very long stretch of highway development south of Colorado Springs, a detour all-around an accident concerning Florence and Canon Metropolis, and ongoing design on the primary road of Canon City. I was fatigued before I arrived at my decided on fishing place.
The air temperature was in the mid-fifties, so I pulled on my North Experience gentle down coat, and I assembled my Sage R8 4 bodyweight. A white pickup truck preceded me, and I spotted two anglers meandering together the river sixty yards above me. To begin my working day I elected to hike east alongside US 50 for .2 mile, right before I dropped down a steep financial institution to the river. My morning session showcased fishing to long and deep pockets among the incredibly large boulders future to the highway. I started my journey with a New Zealand chartreuse strike indicator, a break up shot, a 20 incher, and a vibrant green go2 caddis pupa. The 20 incher proved to be in desire, and I landed a little brown and a thirteen inch rainbow, right before I adjourned for lunch and returned to the motor vehicle.
I quickly devoured my common lunch, and then I crossed two braids and headed to the northern most department of the river. This was the part I fished on March 27, and I was seeking forward to a repeat throughout the afternoon. However, right before advancing to the north department, I lined some nice deep shelf pools on the braid that bordered the highway. While the h2o appeared really attractive, I was unable to bring in fish, so I moved on to the confluence of the north braid and the main river. I shuffled along the south lender, till I was positioned upcoming to a large pool 20 yards over the confluence. I swapped the 20 incher for an emerald caddis pupa, and I added a sparkle wing RS2 on the place, and I started to prospect the prime drinking water with my indicator nymphing setup.
I managed to hook and land a spunky 13 inch rainbow, but as I innovative, I was unhappy to note the return of the occupants of the white pickup truck. While I was eating lunch, they returned to the truck for lunch, and I hoped that they had been making ready to relocate, but that was not the scenario. They had been positioned in yet another prime run and pool fifty yards previously mentioned my location.
I continued my progress by means of some respectable deep operates along the north side of the river with a few momentary hook ups rewarding my endeavours, until I arrived at a slim and deep trough together the north financial institution underneath a huge uncovered rock. I was now 20 yards beneath the two other anglers, who by the way, were being the only other fishermen that I noticed on the overall river involving Parkdale and where I was fishing. It was just my luck to seek out out the very same portion of the huge Arkansas River public drinking water.
I swept some drifts by way of the appealing trough in entrance of me, and as I was undertaking so, a cloud blocked the sunlight and the wind kicked up a bit, and 5 trout started to rise sporadically in the trough location. I checked my observe, and this action commenced at around 1:30PM. The rises were pretty regular, but they had been not the rhythmic cadence that generally potential customers to fairly straightforward fishing. Dry fly fishing to blue wing olives is what I produced the trip for, so I paused to get rid of the indicator nymphing paraphernalia, and I chosen a peacock human body hippie stomper and included a CDC blue wing olive on a twelve inch dropper. I used the future forty-five minutes generating achieve casts along the bubble line, and my fly was addressed like inert flotsam. I swapped the CDC olive for a comfortable hackle emerger and a Klinkhammer emerger, but a refusal and brief seem had been my only reward. The lighting was not the greatest, and I was having a tricky time distinguishing the white poly tuft of the hippie stomper from bubbles. I reverted to a size 24 CDC BWO with small hackle, given that the naturals appeared to be really compact. At last during a gust of wind, I lifted the flies and inadvertently skated the compact trailing CDC BWO, and an aggressive brown trout grabbed the olive. Seemingly motion was the important. I concluded that the trout were being trying to get additional movement than what was exhibited by my dead drifting dries, so I began twitching and skating the flies, but, alas, I was not able to entice a different strike.
The two anglers above me departed, and this opened up the remainder of the north braid for my exploration. I retained the double dry for a little bit, but the more quickly pockets and operates were being not conducive to spotting rises, so I resorted to nymphs nevertheless, I was unwilling to resort to the indicator and split shot, so I deployed a size 8 yellow fat Albert alongside with a salvation nymph and sparkle wing RS2. Between 2:45PM and 4:00PM I sophisticated together the left aspect of the north braid, and I managed to increment the fish count from four to 7. The RS2 was the successful fly, and the trout responded to the swing and elevate at the conclusion of the drift in reasonable riffles of two to a few toes of depth. These trout had been in the twelve inch variety, and I was delighted to web them, but the ordinary sizing of the trout landed on April 10 was inferior when compared to March 27.
By 4:00PM I reached the primary stem of the river, so I waded alongside the edge toward my crossing issue to return to the automobile. Below a long segment of fast pocket drinking water, the river shaped a pleasant wide pool, and I noticed a couple rises in the slow band of h2o alongside the bank future to my position. I took the time to get rid of the dry/dropper and tied a solo CDC BWO to my line, but as was the scenario on March 27, the feeding stopped by the time I was well prepared to solid, and the adjust in ways did not pay out dividends. I returned to the motor vehicle by 4:30PM and built the return excursion.
Wednesday, April 10 was a first rate day, but I in truth experienced bigger anticipations. Applying 20-20 hindsight, I almost certainly really should have reverted to the indicator nymphing system soon after my unsuccessful try with the double dry. Also, I should really have deserted the dry fly debacle sooner, and maybe I ought to have sought another area of the river that highlighted the absence of competing anglers. Nevertheless, it was a stunning working day, and I appreciated average achievements.
Fish Landed: 7