Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sunday Morning on Boulder Creek

Last Sunday the 18th I awoke at 5:00 and decided to go fishing for a few hours.  I went to the garage and opened the door, letting the warm upper 70s air in as the morning light gently pushed itself awake, and prepped my gear.  Ten minutes later I was in downtown boulder and walked downstream behind the high school.  I politely nodded as I dodged a good handful of homeless folks at different places along the way and got in the water just above a footbridge upstream of 17th street.

Water dropped quickly over 2ft of rocks, creating eddies and a nice long slot on the far bank with very clear water in which to watch the fish.  I tried a few different flies before figuring out the ticket - small caddis, Griffiths gnats, and tricos all brought fish up for looks and sometimes gentle strikes but I did not hook any.  The working fly of the day was a size 14 elk hair caddis with a green caddis pupa training behind it.  I caught a few little browns before casting across stream to a corner pocket that was just below the falls and just upstream of a snaggy looking tree.  The caddis sunk and immediately I saw a fish move.  Before realizing what was going on I had set the hook and was in to a nice brown.   After a nice battle on my 1wt rod, a few minutes later I had a 14" brown in the net.

Another time I cast and watched the caddis skate sideways on the surface while a smaller brown took the trailing fly for a ride before I realized I needed to strike.  Late.

 A few fish, a lot of action, and a nice 14inch brownie before heading home a few short hours later.  Not a bad morning on this little tree lined city stream.

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