I hope to be pitching my tent July 1 near the Ruedi Reservoir and fishing the Frying Pan & Roaring Fork for a few days. I tied up a couple dozen Mysis shrimp (CCravens). Looking for more suggestions…also any helpful info about the area. (where to toss flies…where not to) Will be sipping beers in Woody Creek, but don’t know much else about the area. My uncle is a Woody Creek local…but he doesn’t know much about fly fishing.
Do yourself a gigantic favor. Stop in at Taylor Creek Fly shop in Basalt, or Roaring Fork Anglers in Glenwood Springs. Purchase one bonified “Fishing the Roaring Fork and Frying Pan Rivers” map for $10.00. It will show you, in detail, where 90% of the public access is for both rivers.
Mysis? Charlies is an awesome pattern, but dont limit yourself to just one. Try the pattern here on FAOL’s Fly of the week. I have it on pretty good authority that it works well on the Pan. Try ribbing it with red Krystal Flash aswell. Try sizes 20 to 14 for both patterns.
For nymphing both rivers I use an egg pattern as an attractor year round. For the Pan below the dam I trail Mysis, small RS2’s and midge larva/emergers behind the egg.
The lower Pan and Roaring Fork I use an egg but trail Soft Hackles and larger Baetis Nymphs (18-14’s) behind it most of the time.
I dont fish drys unless I absolutely have to (preferance), so you are on your own there.
Frying Pan Bow a couple weeks ago
Huge Roaring Fork White Fish
Typical Roaring Fork Brown
Average Roaring Fork Rainbow
I usually catch 3 or 4 big Whities like that a year. If I had them officially weighed, they would be State records.
Thanks Dub! That’s exactly the kind of info I’m looking for. Will definitely hit the shops and grab the map for sure and tie up some more flies. That was just my first batch.
What size and color egg patterns. I’m a Great Lakes steelheader so I have boxes and boxes of the things. Do you use shot to get the flies down or is the river shallow enough to not worry about weighting them. Also do you use an indicator rig? I’ve never seen it so I don’t know what I’m looking at. Nymphing is how I fish most of the time…but if I see risers…I like to play with them. I think by the time I get there…it will be running pretty low. I have options…not sure whether to go for a camp site around the upper FP or stay at the ones down at the dam area…or does it matter. Not sure what distances / drive times are. Fish mostly below Reudi or above in the Upper?
The colors of those fish are pretty cool. Different than here for sure. NICE Whitie!! I wonder if Mt. White Fish taste as good as Lake WF. LOL …no worries…I throw everything back anyway.
When you say small rs2’s and midge patterns, how small? I have hooks that go all the way to #32 and will tie them if I have to. But usually just tie to 26 for most of my small flies.
How about san juans…should I have some of those and what size?
Send me a PM with your mailing address and I will send you some samples…eggs, rs2 etc…22 is as small as I will go.
PM sent…
Deb,
If you are in that area, I strongly recommend that you try the “Hog Trough” just under the dam on the Taylor Reservoir. Most of the record sized trout in CO have been taken there. The fish all have “PhD’s” and have seen every fly known to man. I caught a couple of little ones there last August that were 28" and probably around 5#. The record sized ones are near 30#. Have a great trip and Best Regards…
Thanks! That looks like a nice spot too. Will throw that into the itinerary. From that area…we’ll be moving up towards your direction. Jackson, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone… fishin’ fishin’ fishin’.
just up the road from the res. in between there and tin cup in a nice little stream with some nice fish in there. also there is a nice pool just next to the road accross from a mail box i think. It had some monsters in it last year. Keep on that road through Tin Cup to Mirroe lake (up the mountain about 10mins) nice fish in there. If i remember right the spot just below the damn was catch and release only. It was shoulder to shoulder when I was there, but there were some monsters in there. Take pictures. i love that place. I cried when I teared up when I left and ive thought about every day since then. good luck, be safe, and catch lots of fish.
Dsavid
Hi Deb,
I live with in a stones throw of Woody Creek. July is going to be a very good time to be fishing the area! Allong with what DUB suggested you will want to have some Green Drakes 10-12, P M D 18-14 Golden Stones 10-12 maybe some Hopper patterns. DUB is right about the map.I could let you use mine and maybe show you some nice spots. P M me and I may be able to answer questions
Sheldon
Mato,
The Mysis are great on the Pan from the base of the dam (the toilet bowl) down to the bend pool. By that point they have mostly been plucked out by the big pigs. I will sometimes get eats as far down as baetis bridge, but that tends to be in higher flows. The map is handy to have when you are new to the area. Between Ruedi and Basalt there is about 14 miles of water on the Pan, about 7 mile is public & the other 7 is private.
Typically in early July you will see the last of the spring BWOs, with the summer PMD hatch kicking off and, as always on the Pan, lots of midges. The green drakes should be starting on the lower Fork but the river near Jaffe will fish similarly to the Pan in terms of flies. The Drakes typically don’t start on the Pan until mid to late July. BE CAREFUL if you wade the Fork. Big, slimy rocks and strong flows at that time of year.
I prefer light tippet, 6x and smaller, on the Pan, and love it for the dry fly fishing, though they can be selective, so be willing to change flies if you are getting refusals.
Another shop in the area is Frying Pan Anglers, which has one of the best fly selections of any shop I have been in and also carries the FP & RF map. They also have historical fishing reports on there website for the past five years. You can click here to see those reports.
Way ahead of you Castell. I’ve been reading through that site for several days now. You guys rock! ;)Thanks for the fly suggestions and the sizes…that’s key. What they call Green Drakes out there are different than the ones here. Will have to look for some recipes. I’ll be buying lots of flies. I tie but I like getting locally tied patterns from the local shops of any watersheds I fish. It helps shorten the learning curve, as the shop owners are usually willing to offer up more info that way.
I’m almost sorry I planned to head up to Yellowstone on this one…but I wanted to cover a lot of ground this time. The other half doesn’t fish, nor does he walk much and I worry about altitude with him. Life long smoker who won’t give it up…and it’s very obvious that he should. Not sure how it’s going to turn out. 
If it goes well with the other half…I’m thinking ahead to next year for another kick at Colorado. Less driving, more fishing.
One of my favorite Green Drakes is the ParaWulff tied by Jack Dennis
On the Mysis Shrimp, I suggest 2 kinds of dubbing–White, Milk colored and Clear, Translucent ones. These 2 represent the living and the dead. Sometimes those big overstuffed rainbows living at the foot of the Frying Pan dam will key only on one; then the other. Good fishing.
Deb - if you get to Yellowstone give us a call, we’re in Livingston of course. Would love to buy you a cup of coffee or whatever.
406-222-6530
Hugs,
LF
OK LF. Would love to.
Hugs back.
Deb
DUB,
PM sent…let me know if that didn’t work.
Thanks! I tied some Charlie Cravens for the translucent ones. Will tie the FAOL type for the white ones. Will also pick up a couple of different ones at the shops…just for testing. I like to switch flies a lot until I hit on what’s working…then I still switch up to see what won’t work. I’ll be working on SMALL flies this week. Mostly RS2s and variants., midges and nymphs. If I tie up some San Juans,’ any size suggestions? Micros?
Is the small tippet sizes for the small flies or for leader shy fish? How about Florocarbon tippet?
Just wondering what a typical rod/line/ leader/tippet/fly set up is for this water?
A 4-5 wieght rod with a floating line will be fine for either the Fork or Pan. 4 -5 x tippet on the Fork is fine but on the Pan you may have to go down to 7 x tippet. You may have to loose your indicator also for some of the pressured fish on the Pan. A red Copper John 16-20 Will serve you well on the pan. I have seen fish move out of the way when the “split shot” comes through. That should only be a concern up on the flats. Two fly rigs, and dry, droppers will work well on both rivers .
Sheldon
Nope, it didn’t come thru . Drop me a line at dubbn62@yahoo.com.