Paola Cat

Spent 8/25-9/1 in the Dillon, CO area. It was about a 10 hour drive from Paola, KS. Fished for a total of around 25 hours in the Blue River (at Silverthorne), Blue River (between Silverthorne and the Green Mountain Res.), Colorado River (at Parshall), and the William's Fork River. Day 1: Drove north to Parshall to fish the Colorado River. Beautiful stream. Fished for about 4 hours. The action was OK for small to medium sized browns. Brought 10 browns to hand .... biggest around 15". The fish were fairly active. There were huge trico clouds off and on. Also saw some sporadic caddis activity. The flow was pretty fast. Took all the fish in 2 feet of water or less. Fished double nymph rigs. All fish were caught on #20-22 Mercury PTs and #20-22s RS2s. Day 2: Drove back up north to Parshall. It was just under a hour drive from Dillon. Fished for 3.5 hours and brought to hand 12+ browns. Nothing huge. Maybe up to 13". Used the same patterns as Day 1. Around noon I noticed a few fish rising in some riffles. Put on a partridge/olive SH and first cast ..... bam ..... 22" rainbow. This fish was in less than 1 foot of water. Pretty good tussle in the current but was finally able to bring him in. This was the only rainbow I caught in Colorado River. Day 3: Fished the Blue River just north of Silverthorne at the first public access. Fished for 4 hours. The fishing was unbelievable for small to medium sized rainbows. Also caught 1 small brown. Fished the same patterns as the Colorado ..... double nymph rigs ...... Mercury PTs, RS2s, and Jujubees (I've had great luck on these for Colorado trout). Too many fish to count. The water was crystal clear with good flow. Most fish came out of 3 foot of water or less. My biggest fish for the day was caught out from under a bridge .... 18 incher ..... caught on Mercury PT. Day 4: Drove back up to Parshall .... crossed the Colorado River and hiked up to the William's Fork. What a beautiful place. Fishing was great for medium sized browns up to 16". Again double nymph rigs were the ticket. Too much action to count fish. Day 5: In the morning .... fished the Blue River at the last public access north of Silverthorne (last bridge before the Green Mountain Res.). It was very cool and windy. Hiked in pretty far to an area that the locals called the "shale hole" (I think I got this right). Fishing was great for small to medium rainbows. Great action on EHCs and Green Drake dries. When the action slowed on top I'd switch back to double nymph rigs and the action would be on again. Also took a few fish on a hopper/dropper. In the evening ...... fished the Blue River below the Dillon Dam up to the outlet stores. I had heard that this area was very technical fishing for large fussy rainbows. I also had been told that these fish gorge themselves on mysis shrimp that are flushed out of Lake Dillon. Anyway, I tied on a couple of #20 white marabou midges and decided to give it a try. Didn't catch any monsters but caught numbers. Took lots of rainbows pretty consistently. It's kind of freaky to be fishing right under I-70 and right next to a bunch of outlet stores. I'm a better fisherman than photographer ... so the pictures are pretty basic. This is a wonderful area to fish and I would recommend this as a fantastic alternative to the South Platte or the RMNP area. Fantastic scenery, great water with lots of active trout. The crowds were pretty big in a couple of areas but not too bad. Thanks to FFM for recommending the rivers, locations, and fly patterns. Can't wait to get out there again .... I'll definitely be going back. PC

XP ... thanks for the report. It's about time to get over there. PC

Oneshot ...... I hope you get to feeling better. I understand it can take awhile. Get well soon. PC.

Rugulo ..... Thanks for the report. Good to hear that you could see numbers in Zone 1. PC.

Oklahoma Joe's and Hayward's are my favorites. The sausage at Hayward's is incredible .... a must do. PC.

This technique works great and I've used it many times. I once got a stonefly nymph embedded in my ear lobe. It looked like stonefly earring .... kind of stylish. Anyway, I gave instruction to my wife and she was able to follow the directions and get it out on the first pull. PC

Pat ..... Sounds good to me. We should get a crew together and set something up for a CO trip. Probably too late this year but something to keep in mind for next. Sounds like a BSSP junket is in order though. I'm doing the CO trip 8/25-9/1 and then I've got a TN Smoky's trip lined up for 9/20-9/27. I think a BSSP trip would work in Oct. What do you think? Mike

Wrench .... strictly C&R. I'll bring a counter. LOL. BTW: Have you been doing any SM fishing on the upper Niangua (Charity, Hico, Big John)? Was wondering how it was down there? That's some of my favorite water for numbers. PC

Maybe they're stocking the river with suckers .... seems to be lots of them. Wrench let's get over there and see if we can put a dent in those totals. Has the river come back down yet after the recent rains? PC

The Big T is a great time .... especially this time of year. I like the stretch below Drake .... but it's all good. I leave Tuesday for a week of fishing the Blue, Colorado, and Williams Fork ..... really looking forward to it. PC

Always carry some olive mohair leeches (#10). These always work at Montauk and the upper Current. Take some San Juans also. I second the egg recommendation. I also fish an egg with a pheasant tail, hare's ear, small stone, or a tellico dropper. Good Luck. PC

#10 is good on the leeches ...... PC.

Make sure you bring some olive mohair leeches. PC

Hey Pat .... sounds like a good trip and some significant changes to the stream. The deep CB stripping guys must be doing a lot of complaining. What did you think of the high bank? Same old high bank or not for numbers? PC/Mike

I was stripping it pretty fast on 6X. PC

Dove .... Your right. I'm thinking a top water beer can (in size 12 oz.) with a Jack Daniels dropper drifted drag free in the middle of the vinyl hatch would have got some takes. PC

Magnifiers or ...... "old people glasses" .... Heck I'm using them now. I actually can't see anything up close without them. Watch me try to thread a #20 without them ..... pretty comical. After a while you'd be asking .... PC are you sitting this one out? I've actually had to go back to the truck to get them after 15 minutes of total frustration. PC

I was at RRSP a little over a week ago fishing the C&R area and witnessed the vinyl hatch. What a sight ..... out of no-where a full hatch of multi-colored float thingies appeared. A whole clan of vinyl hatchers were in full progress. All shapes and sizes from the nymph state to the full grown adult. This was accompanied with multiple shrieks and screams (I guess because of the cold water). It was absolutely incredible. I didn't have a pattern to match it. All I can say is that you had to be there. PC

Phil .... I think Dano nailed it ..... instructional ..... patterns .... methods/techniques .... riggin' .... gear .... seasons .... locations .... and I really like the "reading water" idea. The scenery is good for spot lead-ins and fade outs. PC

I've got 3 of the 1506 boxes (I think that's the number) .... they're probably the same as the one Greg got. Top and bottom slit foam ..... double sided slit foam leaf. I like them a lot. They hold a ton of flies. They're a little bit of a pain to load but anything with slit foam is kind of a pain. They hold flies well and once the flies are engaged, they hold well. PC

Greg .... awesome report from an absolutely great place to fish. I've fished those areas many times and you did well. Moraine meadow can be tough. I have never had a day like that in Moraine. 20 fish ..... you are the man!!!! I'm headed to Dillon in a couple of weeks to fish the Blue and Colorado. I hope I do as well as you. PC

Troutgod ..... Well done. Moving through Zone #2. I've had decent success on a #16-18 tan elk hair caddis and then follow it up with an olive mohair leech after they quit hitting the EHC. Targeting pods of active fish. The water is low and gin clear. A couple of weeks ago they hit the olive crackleback pretty good. My buddy has done well on a foam beetle also. If you can live with snapping a few off ..... the 7X is the way to go. PC

Dove ....I hear ya. "Two guys did really good in Zone 2 using a red SOFT PLASTIC bait. They both had a stringer of 4." I see it every time I go to any of the trout parks this time of year. Lots of illegal baits .... fishing after stringing up a limit .... culling fish off of stringers. I'm surprised they stopped stringing them up at 4 each. I saw a guy at RRSP (2 weeks ago) with 7 fish on a stringer. PC

Pat .... Ah yes ..... the trusty old rusty midge, PT, and the P&P. What did you think about the number of fish in the high bank? I didn't hook near as many as usual there. I also didn't see many risers the last time I was down. KSBASS fished above the dam and said there were a ton of risers ..... he took a bunch of fish on a SH. PC

I hear ya. I'm kind of hit-n-miss on the 7X. I fish quite a few patterns where the hits come on the strip or swing .... the hits can be pretty hard. I keep having to tell myself to calm it down a bit to get a good hook-up. The water's low and clear and lots of willing fish to take a dry, SH, or crackleback. I fish those patterns for awhile and then come back with the leech or bugger on 6X and take a few more. PC