Over the last two weeks, it has snowed almost every other day out here. This has made for great skiing conditions. I have skied at least 4 days with over a foot of fresh powder during those two weeks. With all this skiing, I have not fished too much. However, I finally got back into the tailwater section of the Yampa today. The forecast was calling for low 40’s and sunny, so I decided to make the 2 mile trek to the tailwater.
I got to the river around 10:30 and nymphed up stream through several pools landing 5 and hooking into another 4. I was using a size 20 frenchie nymph that I had picked up in Paris last Thanksgiving. It has great detail but is covered entirely in epoxy so it sinks like a stone. This fly accounted for all of the fish I picked up nymphing.
As the temperature increased, a few noses started to poke through the surface, but nothing too consistent. I needed to adjust for the changing feeding behavior. I continued to cast my nymphs upstream; however, once the flies reached my position, I stopped tracking the flies with my rod. My flies continued downstream from position, but this subtle change allowed my nymphs to rise through the water column like an emerger. It was immediate and continued success until the adult baetis were fully on the water.
Once the surface activity was in full swing, it was size 18 traditional comparaduns in olive and black that continued to produce fish. For the really picky ones, size 20 cdc comparaduns did the trick.
Once 3 o’clock came around, the adult comparaduns were not catching as consistently. To account for another feeding behaviour change, I tied on a size 20 cdc rusty spinner and continued to hook up more fish. This fly has a low profile against the water surface. It was tough to track it throughout its entire drift. To compensate, I would gently set the hook any time a fish rose in the general vicinity of my fly.
It was an amazing day. I got to fish the entire life cycle of the baetis mayflies that were hatching today. Landed over 20, hooked into another 10, and over 15 were on dry flies. Mostly rainbows, with about 3 nice browns, and one brookie. The sizes ranged from 12″ to 19″.
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