November 17, 2019

Flow: 92

Water temp: 47-51

Winter water storage has begun my friends and things are lookin’ good.

For those of you new to an agricultural river (as opposed to a municipal waterway) we see a lot of dramatic changes in flow during the summer months. It’s all dependant on what the farmers and ranchers call for in their water rights downstream and what exchanges are transferred above. Water is a commodity here in the high desert and every drop has been claimed a long time ago.

Guiding on an agricultural river is like guiding a freestone (natural) river on drugs. If a call comes in the flow can go from 100 to 4000 in minutes at the dam and can take up to half an hour to realize you’re standing in a flood five miles down. So when winter water storage starts we have two goals, see how healthy the trout are and learn what spots have changed. For us, however, that’s easy, three of our four guides live within walking distance of the water. So, when you want a guide to put you on fish, who ya gonnna call? the spotted faced kid from Colorado Springs “guide school” , a guide from Denver or the a descendant of the people that actually founded this state and county.

Fishing today with my compatriots was a mixed bag. We had had spotted hatches of bugs all day long from great clouds. We fooled around and caught a few on dries without much fuss but getting below them was the trick. Olive midges and zebras put them in the net.

This is going to be a great season and we’re ready for it. We’re ready for it and ready for our wonderful guests. Are you ready?

Tight lines,

Ben

11/2/2019

Flow:  183 CFS

Water Temp:  53Deg

Clarity:  Green (Algae)

Hatches:  Midges & BWO’s

I had an incredible day with Norm Hicks, our newest member of Team Steel City Anglers.  He is really a good guide, fly fisher and he is really patient.  We started out at the Nature Center Norm on dry flies and I was fishing midges and a #20 Pheasant Tail.  The little dinks were all over the water, since the BWO’s have been hatching all day.  That was fun but no large fish.  We proceeded to the 100 Yard Run and began hooking into some nice 14 to 16 inch bows and browns .  Because the water clarity was terrible you had to literally put the bug on their nose.  Bugs of the day:  Sz 20 BWO dry,  Sz 20 Olive Midge,  Sz 20 Zebra Midge and Sz 18 BH Pheasant Tail.  Norm seined the runs and found web caddis larva and BWO nymphs.

Stay off the redds!

See the pictures accompanying the report.  Right in front of the Nature Center there is a small redd!  After fishing the run for a couple of hours I walked up to the third J Hook and caught a few dinks but walked a little above the J Hook and there are redds everywhere!  Please give them a wide berth.  The browns are in full spawn mode and we want lots and lots of babies from them! 

Sad Note

The flag hole, one of the finest holes in the tail water is completely gone.  The first weir is ninety percent filled in and no longer directs the thalwag to the center of the river.  So the flow is toward the north bank and has filled in the rock structure and the island that we used to guide on is half  gone.  By next summer high flows we could see Nature Center flooding.  The high flows against the island has created a seam in the calm water that does hold some fish but you need to be on the south bank standing on top of the rock structure to fish it.

Happy Note

We are thirteen days from winter storage, hopefully the river will clear some and the fishing will be excellent.  Go to www.steelcityanglers.com and book a trip with Norm! You will be glad you did!

Tight Lines

Lou