Hi,
I took a trip to Boulder/Longmont Colorado for a Company meeting last week and took couple of extra days for fishing. After a 1 1/2 days of extremely painful meetings I set off to fish the Big Thompson below Estes Park. I fished about 3 hours in the late afternoon at several spots about 3 miles below the dam. I was skunked and saw no fish due to the water level being 280 ccf which is very high for this river. I ran into a couple of locals who did OK with small black beadhead nymphs. They told me that there has been high water for a week+ due to the need for increased water for irrigation down stream. I stayed at a cabin in Estes Park just outside RMNP. The next day I drove into RMNP and checked out the Morraine Park section of the Big Thompson and saw that there were already 4 people fishing the section by 8:00 AM. I skipped it and fished Glacier Creek which was running low and clear. I was overjoyed to find no one else fishing on the creek so I spent the day wading and walking several miles up the watershed. Since the water was low and clear the fish were very spooky so most of the fishing was ambush style upsteam casting. The creek was highly vegitated and tight so I struggled with my 9 ft 6 wt which is my smallest travel rod. I caught a number for Browns and Cutts from 6-9 inches mostly on small bead head and copper john nymphs. The biggest fish I caught was a 12" Brown. As it warmed up I saw a variety of hatches which to the best of my knowledge looked like Midges, PMDs and Caddis. I tried dries on and off all day and got some rises and a grab or two but no joy. I was hoping to fish some of the lakes in the park but ran out of time so I will have to save that for the next trip.
Cheers,
Thomas
I took a trip to Boulder/Longmont Colorado for a Company meeting last week and took couple of extra days for fishing. After a 1 1/2 days of extremely painful meetings I set off to fish the Big Thompson below Estes Park. I fished about 3 hours in the late afternoon at several spots about 3 miles below the dam. I was skunked and saw no fish due to the water level being 280 ccf which is very high for this river. I ran into a couple of locals who did OK with small black beadhead nymphs. They told me that there has been high water for a week+ due to the need for increased water for irrigation down stream. I stayed at a cabin in Estes Park just outside RMNP. The next day I drove into RMNP and checked out the Morraine Park section of the Big Thompson and saw that there were already 4 people fishing the section by 8:00 AM. I skipped it and fished Glacier Creek which was running low and clear. I was overjoyed to find no one else fishing on the creek so I spent the day wading and walking several miles up the watershed. Since the water was low and clear the fish were very spooky so most of the fishing was ambush style upsteam casting. The creek was highly vegitated and tight so I struggled with my 9 ft 6 wt which is my smallest travel rod. I caught a number for Browns and Cutts from 6-9 inches mostly on small bead head and copper john nymphs. The biggest fish I caught was a 12" Brown. As it warmed up I saw a variety of hatches which to the best of my knowledge looked like Midges, PMDs and Caddis. I tried dries on and off all day and got some rises and a grab or two but no joy. I was hoping to fish some of the lakes in the park but ran out of time so I will have to save that for the next trip.
Cheers,
Thomas