The Time To Get Up Here Is Now!

                                   The Time To Get Up Here Is Now!              July 15^th 2015

 Here on the Upper Colorado River, what turned out to be the Great Spring Runoff Of 2015 has finally past its crest, and begun its long, slow decent.  The other night I went home the back way, taking the river road via McCoy and Burns, and the river looked as perfect and sensuous as I've ever seen it in the 28 years that I've intimately known it.  As I drove along it’s northern flank, the river looked like Natasha Kinski suggestively wrapped around a writhing serpent.  The valley colors were made of deep warm browns and reds and olive.  It made me want to pull over and jump into the river to feel its cool embrace.

 The “Lower Upper” Colorado River peaked at about 8000 cfs this spring, but now I can see the wood of my riverside dock for the first time in a month. The rocks which helped hold it down against the river's relentless flow are all poking out above the waterline again.  As I've noted in previous emails, when the river rises, it goes off-color. When flows stabilize, it clears.  When flows drop, it clears faster.  After three weeks of high water, the river had already shed itself of turbid sediment.  Now that it’s dropping, it looks clear and perfect. 

 
  Float fishing the river at levels between 8000 and 2500 cfs might sound like a scary number to those accustomed to floating the Lower Upper at its 1000 cfs summertime norm.  Such high flows do reduce the fishable areas of the river, but if you know this water then that's a good thing, not a negative.  In 2011, we had some of the best fishing here ever from 10,000 cfs on down to where it is now, since it was clear and the fish long overdue for a good meal. I never thought I'd see those high, wonderful flows again, but here we are! While most of the west suffers from dry conditions and low water, and the east has its usual crappy weather, Colorado is probably the best place to be in the United States, if not beyond.  If you look at the national Snotel map, the Centennial State is a huge moist blue blob surrounded by a sea of blank nothingness or pale green. The wildfire season has begun in other places, which is making for some nice sunsets here downwind. If you live in Colorado, thank your lucky stars!

  Two days ago, I took one of my wife's new employees for a quick float.  For me a "quick float" means putting in at Pinball, and taking out at my shop five miles below.  Though its not many river miles, this float encompasses running Pinball Rapid (going right of the bridge abutment, into a meaty wave train), checking out the rock with dinosaur tracks, doing multiple laps around Whirlpool Canyon, running the exciting center line of the Twin Bridges, and cantering through the continuous waves below that for a half-mile all the way past Rancho Starvo. In short, this is the most fun time to be on the water! Its mild whitewater, plus all the fish are stacked up in the eddies where they're easy to find and they’re hungry.

  My wife's employees name is Ashley, and she grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, and she’s only had the most fleeting brush with the Great American West.  Thus far being here has been everything she had hoped for when she came from back east. Being from Massachusetts originally myself, I can relate to what its like to be someone from the east coast turned loose onto the spectacular visceral experience that is western Colorado.  I last took Ashley on the river a month ago, just before the river rose from the 5000 cfs range to 8000 where it peaked. On our first trip, I didn't bother bringing any fishing rods and regretted it, for there was a nice caddis hatch that night and we saw trout noses in every eddy.  The other night I almost made the same mistake again, and only at the last minute did I remember to bring my ten foot Loomis three weight.  The Loomis was already rigged with two caddis patterns, a Hi-Vis Elkhair all ginked up, and a tiny, natural-looking caddis pattern left trailing behind it undressed so that it would sink just a bit subsurface.  

 
  Ashley and I stopped next to the Dinosaur Rock, and then sneaked past the right side of the Pinball Bridge. We flew on to Whirlpool Canyon, where I tossed my cataraft around in the waves multiple times.  Then it was through more fast water all the way to Jack Flats, where it suddenly occurred to me that we had a fly rod with us.  I eddied left and as the boat was being carried back upriver I showed her where the fish should be, though I didn't see any riseforms.  Caddis flies were dashing about in their erratic flight paths, and I knew that at least some of them were being consumed.  Remembering the rod, I took it out of its holder, showed Ashley the flies that were attached to it, stripped out some line, and made a cast upstream ahead of the boat.  I needed a couple more feet than I had, and pointed out the wakes the flies were making to demonstrate what a non drag-free drift looked like.  I pulled a couple more feet of line out, made a bit of a reach cast to get a better drift, and after only a couple feet of floating the Hi-Vis Elk Hair suddenly had a little tug.  I set the hook and felt a stronger tug in my hand.  A trout had taken the second fly which was just below the surface, and the battle was on.

  Ashley was looking on wide-eyed and smiling.  "Do you want to land it?" I asked, and she sprang forward to grab the rod before even answering.  I told her to keep the rod tip high, and not to give the fish any slack but also not pull too hard.  With the net at the ready, Ashley steered the trout to the boat and soon we had a handsome fifteen inch brown trout on board.  It was the first trout she had ever caught, and was utterly delighted to see it up close and personal.  My small cataraft has an open floor, and we were able to hold the net in the water and let the trout swim around at our feet like it was in a live well.  I had hooked not only a fish, but a new fisherperson as well!

  I let Ashley know that a ratio of one fish caught per two casts made is not to be expected, but when you know where the trout are, and they're feeding, then fishing can be pretty easy sometimes!  And that's how it is on the Lower Upper right now.  There is still little holding water along the banks, so the trout are stacked up in the Colorado's multiple big eddies.  It’s been a little tough for them to get a meal over the last few weeks, but now that the water is clearer, and the bugs are moving again, the warming water temps (64 degrees) have their metabolism going.  It’s all come together in a perfect storm of trout (and trout fisherman) nirvana.  So you've been waiting for the water to come down before doing a float, don't, come now before the river drops the rest of the way, and the fattened trout scatter!

Jack Bombardier  -  13403 Colorado River Road Eagle County CO 81637                            970-524-1440 (home)  -  jackbombardier/blogspot.com – jack@confluencecasting.com