Sunday, October 31, 2010

Bear Creek Fall Notes

An unexpected and very welcome change in family schedule & plans allowed me to head out to Bear Creek  for bit more than a half day. I fished with my Iwana 12ft from about 10am to 3pm and it was a gorgeous Fall day on the Front Range. It was sunny and pretty mild if you stayed in the sun. I was not the only one who liked the sun, the trout were much more cooperative in sections of the river exposed to the sun. I forgot to bring my thermometer for the water, but to me it felt freezing, lol.

















The action was pretty steady, I caught mostly browns with a few bows mixed in, the largest fish was just under 14", the smallest was a dink of maybe 3", pretty fish nevertheless.


















Another day I barely changed flies unless I had to due to the tree fish breaking me off. I started out with a black size 16 Charlie Boy and a mercury RS2 as a dropper. Both fell victim to the tree fish, so I tied on a new CDC & Snowshoe (like CDC & Elk but Elk hair was replaced by Snowshoe Hare) that I was experimenting with. Most fish fell for the mercury RS2 but some still came quiet willingly to the surface and took the dry. I really didn't expect any risers though, I only tied the dry on in lieu of a strike indicator (I still need some visual help to detect underwater strikes).



































Interesting that today, even with much if not all of the foliage gone, the tree fish were seriously teasing me all day long. For the first time I thought that a shorter rod would be handy. . A 10 or 10.5 footer might have been ideal today. Let's see of Daniel (of TenkaraUSA) will offer one soon.

















River Notes:
flow: 18cfs
temp. air: 53-70 during my time on river, sunny, windy gusts
temp. water: really cold, my guess mid 40ies.


6 comments:

  1. Nice report, looks like a great place to fish. Do you mind me asking what materials you use for the mercury RS2? Looks like something I should tie for winter fishing here in AZ.

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  2. Hi Brandon, thanks for your comments. Bear Creek is nice now that Summer is over and the big crowds are gone. It's one of the Front Range creeks that is "too close" to Denver... Anyway, the way I tie it is pretty straight forward: straight eye dry fly hook size 20, 1/15 silver lined bead from crafts store, 8/0 gray thread, fine & dry dubbing for the body, 3 or 4 fibers of off-white antron, white antron for the wing (check out this web site: http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=93). I don't mess with the tails since they don't seem to make a difference (to me at least and I like the added sparkle of the mercury bead. send me your address and I'll send you a sample.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Brandon - thanks for the comment, I deleted your post to protect your privacey and I am reinserting it below without your personal data:

    I have been mostly fishing the tenkara style reverse hackles since I got my 12' Iwana in May, and have done well this summer with them, but I don't think they will be very productive on the Lower Salt River, which I fish in the winter. Make sure your return address is on the envelope, and I'll send you some of the reverse hackles that have worked well for me, along with some killer bugs, which have also been good flies. Those two are the only ones I've used with my Iwana. Both are simple and cheap to tie, which is good for when I lose them on rocks or trees.

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  5. GFF -

    Great looking site you have here. I really enjoyed reading through several of your posts and look forward to more to come. Keep up the good work.

    Ben

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  6. Thanks, Ben. I also enjoyed reading through your blog last night. Tight Lines!

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