Fryingpan River 8/21 - 8/24 2008

[CO_Flyfisher]

We arrived at the Reudi Reservoir campground at about 11am on Thursday. First order of business was to get our accommodations for the next few days set up. We found our favorite spot in the campground unoccupied, and proceeded back to the host's station to pay the $54 our stay would require ($18/night - getting expensive). My dad got his trailer squared away while I pitched my tent. Once we were done, we ate a light lunch and began to get the fly rods set up. I would be carrying two rods - one set up exclusively for dry flies, and the other for nymphing, while my dad figured that the reports had said dry fly action was so good he would start with that.

We got down to the river at about 2pm, only to find a guide and his two clients occupied our favorite spot. We took our time putting on our waders and boots, watching the two clients fish. It was immediately obvious that these two were inexperienced fly fisherman, as the guide was constantly helping them with their casts, untangling their line, and retrieving flies from the trees along the bank. My dad and I started fishing a little ways above them, and not too long after we got in the water, the guide and his clients departed for the day. We worked our way downstream and settled in to our favorite stretch.

The first thing I noticed is how much the river bottom had been changed by this past spring's high flows. In my opinion, the ideal flow for this river is 250 cfs. The previous week, the powers that be had raised the flow from just over 200 cfs to 320 cfs; I'm assuming to bring the reservoir down faster. Just this past May, they had dropped the lake down to just over half full (54%) in anticipation of the spring runoff. I read somewhere online that the Fryingpan drainage above the lake had anywhere from 109% to 196% average snowpack this year, so there was a lot of water waiting to melt. I recall seeing this river as high as 600+ cfs in the past (about 12 or 13 years ago), and it is nearly unfishable at that level. This past June (8th and 9th to be exact), the river was raised to over 850 cfs! That is more than 4 times the average flow, and I can't imagine what the river looked like, but I doubt there was any way to fish it (max flow I remember was over 1,000 cfs). I don't know why it was raised that high, but I suppose it was to keep the lake from overflowing, as it nearly did in July (it reached 99.72% full on July 25th).

Anyway, holes that had been there for many years were now half filled in with sand and gravel, and a couple of large boulders had been moved, changing a couple of runs for the better. The first fish both my dad and I caught were small, stocker sized Rainbows. They looked a little different than the Rainbows in this river typically look though. They had very dark, almost black backs, silver sides with small black spots, virtually no pink or blue stripes, and small mouths. The usual Rainbows in the 'Pan are medium green on top, with a bit of light blue and pink striping with black spots over a light yellowish background, and larger mouths. I suspect the DOW has recently stocked this river (I don't think it's normal for them to stock Gold Medal waters), and I have a hunch that they introduced a new Hofer hybrid strain that I've been reading about in the paper which is supposed to be Whirling Disease resistant, however I couldn't find any evidence online of this. Size ranged from about 6" to 10", and they didn't take the flies lightly; in fact, you could have nymphed with your eyes closed they hit so hard. We started getting into some medium sized Browns, about 12" - 16" later in the evening. There was some top water action - a few green drakes, some dark colored caddis, and a nice rusty spinner fall just before dark. We called it a night at about 7:30.

Friday, we were a bit lazy and didn't get to the water till about 10am. We missed all the early-morning action, but got to the water just in time for another rusty spinner fall. There was a different guide in our favorite spot by now (early bird gets the worm, right?), and his clients appeared to be a father and son. The father was an older fellow, I'm guessing in his late 60's, and the son was probably in his 40's. The father had obviously been fly-fishing for some time, as he could easily put a dry fly more than halfway out into the river from where he was sitting on the rocks onshore, and get a nice, long, drag-free drift. The son, on the other hand, looked like this was his first day fly-fishing. He was having trouble throwing the nymph rig more than about 10', and he was missing strikes right and left. We put into the river well above them, in another run above a large island. We had similar success Friday as the previous evening. We caught a fair number of small stocker Rainbows, and a lot of medium sized Browns, like this one.


I had luck on the surface using green drakes, yellow stimulators, blue-winged olives, and rusty spinners. There was also a nice midge hatch in the late afternoon, but I stuck with nymphing since I was doing well. For nymphs, I had good luck with a black midge pattern of mine (a good stand-by pattern that always works here), light grey micro-scuds, a BWO bead-head loop-wing emerger I tie, and pheasant tails. I landed a lot of decent fish Friday (not counting the small Rainbows), and even managed to land a 13" old guard Rainbow (this would prove to be one of only two the whole trip). At the very end of the night, I had a nice, colrful Brown just crush a green drake pattern I was fishing on top. That's always fun!


The one thing that stood out most on Friday was the guide that had his clients fishing in our favorite spot. At about 1pm, he went to his truck to get boxed lunches for his clients, and while his clients were up on shore eating, he literally walked into the water where they had been fishing and just stood there. A couple of times, he walked back to shore and picked up one of the fishing rods to change a fly or something, but then he would walk back out into the water and stand there doing nothing. He didn't have a vest on or a fishing rod in hand; he was actually squatting in the spot to hold it so nobody else could fish there. What a load of crap! No etiquette whatsoever. If I had been close enough at the time, I would have let him have a piece of my mind. I don't mind saying that this guide was from Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Basalt, and I DO NOT recommend this place. They're overpriced, won't hardly give you the time of day unless they know you, and all of their guides I've run across have been real jerks on the water. They act like they own the river when they're there, and expect everyone else to stay out of their way. Their online fishing reports are always overinflated in order to get business in the door, especially when the river is fishing slower. On a previous trip several years ago, I actually had one of their guides walk right through the spot I was fishing with his clients without even asking or apologizing. I chastised him severely in front of his clients, and made the point to the two clients (who appeared new to the sport) that this was extremely poor etiquette and you should at least ask someone before walking right in front of them, but better yet, go behind them after asking. I later called the shop to complain, but was blown off by the manager. He acted like he could care less. Anyway, avoid this shop. Maybe it is their rich Aspen clintele, I don't know. Just pisses me off though. Sorry, rant off.