On the River: East River, Gunnison, Colorado

May 15, 2010

A short jaunt to the East River during one of my favorite seasons to fish it! Sadly, living in Colorado Springs now, that is a statement you won't get to hear much from me. In the Gunnison days, we really could head out to the river for an evening hatch after work. Living a minimum of an hour from trout water makes that a little tougher to do.

I love fishing the East River in the pre-runoff season because you can hit days where the water is just starting to come up (i.e. greenish murky) but is easy to wade, and the fish are stuffing themselves with any and everything being washed down the river by the slightly increased flows.

If you are just beginning your love affair with this sport and are in need of some encouragement here is my best suggestion: Buy some flies with a tungsten bead (AB hare's Ear, AB Pheasant Tail, AB Prince Nymph) and fish them below an indicator in slightly off-colored water. It's the best time to catch fish when they aren't too spooky, are feeding like crazy, and lots of nymphs that the hare's ear/pheasant tail genre are in the water. The strikes will be solid!

Having said all that, that is pretty much how our few hours went. Numerous fish, slamming a single Hare's Ear set about 3 feet below an indicator.

If it's not pre-runoff season, just look for summer days when there has been a light rainstorm recently and you may get a taste of what it's like!

-Jeff

On the River: East River, Gunnison, Colorado

April 2 and 11, 2010

It's that season again (and almost past since I'm blogging a little late and water is already running chocolate around these parts)! Time for the pre-runoff fishing where the winter chill has gone but the spring runoff hasn't hit yet. These are the times when it's pretty easy to find fish midging lazily all day long, and if you get enough warm days in a row, the rivers start to get off color, which is a deadly time to try and fool a fish with a fly (that is if you're into catching large numbers of fish).

The main reason it is so deadly is because the water just starting to come up gives you some pretty huge advantages as a fisherman.

1. Flows starting to rise means food being washed down stream. Those little clingers make one mistake and, like a Hollywood action star losing his grip on that helicopter landing gear, they fall off the rocks and become someone's lunch.
2. Slightly off-color water means fish that are feeding heavily while being a lot harder to spook.
3. Fishing pressure is at an all time low since fish had a three month break from all but the craziest of fisherman.

So, Michelle and I headed during one of our favorite seasons (yes, if you're think "all of the seasons are this guys favorite", you are correct), for a couple of afternoons on the East River. I love fishing the East River because it's a classic freestone with various types of water. When the fish are still in winter holding lies, we focus mostly on deep, slow pools and riffles that are of uniform depth, but still pretty slow moving (i.e. 2' deep riffles).

The 2nd of April was still pretty cold so we were able to capitalize on super slow, clear water which meant risers were tucked up into the head of pools waiting for midges to cross their path. We really only took one fish on the surface (had a couple others on), but the fish were much more aggressive for our "micro-nymphing" technique, as they were feeding pretty high up in the water column.

The East River is a "Wild Fishery" meaning they don't stock it. All the browns are wild, but the hatchery nearby means a fair amount of "not so beautiful" rainbows make it to the river. Then again, I've caught some really good looking ones if they decide to stay in the river for a few years.

The 11th of April was a different story ... the water was much higher, and starting to get into that greenish color. We fished for about 30 minutes with a two fly rig, and after hooking 8 fish all on the point fly (tungsten hare's ear) we opted to get rid of the trailing fly since it was virtually useless. Why mess with a complex rig when you can go simple?

A sun beating down on our backs and Michelle landing about as many fish as she can handle is all a man can ask for in this world. It is also the reason we like this pre-runoff season so much ... if you hit the right conditions, the fishing can just be silly! The best part is, you can really run across some bruisers too since all the fish are usually bulking up during the spring runoff.

Tight lines,

-Jeff

On the River: Slate River, Crested Butte, CO

July 19, 2009

I was working at one of our jobsites last week and my friend Justin had mentioned he owned property on the Slate River and had access to more than 1/2 mile of private water ... HE HAD ACCESS TO MORE THAN 1/2 MILE OF PRIVATE WATER ... HE HAD ... ok, you get the point.

He said we should hit the river on Sunday afternoon because the caddis were going off. I said yes. We ended up meeting Justing and his girlfriend Sara around 6 PM.

The beauty of private water is that often times you get to see what a river could be like, without the pressure of the general public, and more importantly, without the general public eating half of the trout population.

Mind you, I'm not at all opposed to keeping an occasional fish, but growing up around spin fisherman and fly-fishermen my whole life, I also know how it goes 97% of the time. Frank catches his limit (maybe even more if he thinks he can get away with it) and says to himself, "I'm going to eat all these fish, and what I don't eat I'll give to my friends". As it turns out Frank puts half the fish in his freezer ... and they go bad and get thrown out in a month. The other half he gives to his friends who, in turn, put half in their freezer ... and they go bad and get thrown out in a month. Now, I know, you're saying, "Jeff, that's not how it goes", but the problem is that me, and my Father before me have seen this countless times. It is how it goes. So, the moral of the story is "don't keep fish".

Oh my, I've diverted for too long ... back to the subject. I did get to see what a river could be like, and it was sweet!

Michelle hooked into at least 3 fish that were in the "large" class and as evening descended the caddis started showing up in numbers. Justin hooked this monster brown of the night on a caddis stimulator (see above). For a river that pushes about 20 CFS it was pretty mind blowing to see how many big browns were in there.

Nymphs were doing well, but why bother when they were coming up to the surface. Most of the time Michelle and I shared a rod and had one hooked up with a caddis and the other with an AB hare's ear. After we took out all the risers in a pool, we would play cleanup with the nymphs.

It was a sweet time. Justin said I could come back. I think I will.

On the River: East River, Gunnison, Colorado

July 6, 2009

For my birthday we decided to work a half day and hit the East River. Turned out it was the first real day this year that I felt like I was fishing in the "summer". Ah yes ... the cottonwoods were in the air so thick it looked like it was snowing, though for some reason my allergies were non existent. There's a feather in your cap!

The water is still running high around here, but things are finally in that blue/green clear stage where you can see 4 feet deep, it's just not crystal clear. I actually think this is where the west gets it's famous reputation. When the water is still moving fast like this and the fish have great visibility, but not too great that they get spooked easily, it seems like they hit hard and fast.

And so, with a clear blue sky overhead and very little wind, my wife and I proceeded to hammer fish. Any decent pocket, eddy line or back of pool produced at least 5-6 fish. We were really only out for 2-3 hours, but landed at least 15+ fish (and that's sharing a rod). Most were East River classics in the 8" to 12" range, but I did manage to land this sweet brown that fought like a linebacker. I also hooked his brother, but didn't land him.

-Jeff

On the River: East River, Gunnison, Colorado

The wife and I headed out for some winter fishing this afternoon.

If I can diverge for a moment, I'm soooooo over winter! It's funny that I moved out here for college and the prospect of skiing all the time, and now ... I live for the summers. That's sort of the fate of this valley; it seems to be a common theme.

Anyway, It was a great time, and if you haven't read my article on winter midging you should go check it out. It was a perfect day for midges.


We showed up at around 1:30 and it was a balmy 19 degrees out. Actually, with the sun it was quite nice, and there was no wind either. The guides iced up pretty frequently, but we weren't wearing gloves so that's always a bonus.


Truth be told, it wasn't epic, but we showed up and there were a few risers here and there. After a few minutes of fishing dries with no luck, we switched to a #24 olive midge and fished the deep slow runs. It was classic winter midge fishing. The takes were super slow, and when you hooked up with the fish they were very sluggish.

All in all, good times, and just wonderful to be out on the river with no gloves on, pretending it was summer!

Tight lines,
-Jeff