Even though I've moved back to Tennessee, I still love fishing in Colorado. Yesterday I made it out to the stream to battle the wind and hopefully find a few fish. Initially I was thinking of hitting Boulder Creek, but at the last second I decided to make a run over the mountain so to speak and fish South Boulder Creek instead. I'm glad I did.
When I arrived at the trailhead, I could see glimpses of the stream below and the most obvious feature was a distinct lack of snow and ice on the pools. Looking good so far! When I got down to the water after a short walk, I tied on a streamer to bounce around a couple of pools. When absolutely nothing seemed interested, I quickly changed over to a two fly rig consisting of a mysis shrimp pattern and a small midge. A little stick on indicator a couple of feet up completed the rig, and I got back to casting again. It only took 3-4 casts before the indicator hesitated. When I set, I saw a flash but missed the connection. Thankful that the fish were at least interested, I worked the pool a bit more before heading on downstream to some new water.
I came to a favorite pool that reminds me a LOT of a pool in the Smokies on Lynn Camp Prong. The water flows through both holes in an almost identical fashion and it just so happens that it makes for some very tough drifts. I was fishing in hiking boots so repositioning across the creek wasn't an option. Thankfully, since it is winter, several fish were stacked in a slow back eddy on my side of the pool. Several drifts around that eddy and 3 fish later, I was pretty happy about how things were going.
The wind was becoming increasingly annoying however. It was blowing straight down the canyon in fits and bursts that made casting frustrating from time to time. After another pool and another trout, I decided that it wasn't worth fighting any longer and headed back towards town.
Stopping by Boulder Creek, I made a few half hearted casts with a streamer for old time's sake but there was very little open water. That should be changing in the next few days thankfully with highs forecast to be in the 50s and even 60s for the next week or so. I'm hoping to get another chance to wet a line while I'm here in Colorado, but the big news is that all my paperwork is back to the NPS for my Commercial Use permit to guide in the Great Smoky Mountains. I'm predicting that late next week into next weekend will see some fantastic fishing in the Park. More on that over at the fishing report on Trout Zone Anglers.
