May 08, 2010 - Big Thompson (Sylvan Dale) Colorado

Today I fished the Sylvan Dale waters with the Trout Unlimited club.  A few of us car pooled up from Boulder, taking a nice scenic country route to the ranch.  About 20 of us gathered for coffee in the lodge as we got the low-down from the host, and then half of us went to the river and half to the lakes for the morning session.

I decided to fish the river first.  It was a nice freestone stream which was flowing about 150 cfs. I started on a long, deep run that was getting the first rays of sun but after 40 minutes had failed to get a strike.  Meanwhile, the guy downstream from me was pulling them in.  So the pressure began to mount.  I took note that he was in the shallower water that had been getting more sun, so I quickly changed tactics and stopped fishing the deeper run thinking it was too cold for the fish and instead worked the drop off between the shallows and the deep run.  Still no luck.   I switched to a black beadhead wooly bugger and immediately landed a nice 14inch + brown.   Throughout the morning I moved up and down the river catching good sized browns and rainbows on either the WB pattern or a size 10 golden stonefly.  Big stuff that made the fish want to move in the cold water.  It suddenly made sense, and always does after you land a few.   Once, after landing a nice brown, I forgot to check the tippet.   The next cast I was into a very nice fish that pulled hard a few times and then got off.  It was one of those releases where you automatically know that the line snapped instead of the hook pulling loose.  Indeed, I checked the terminal tackle and saw that the tippet snapped just above where the fly was tied on.   Amateur hour.

We had a stream side lunch at the lodge.  BBQ pork, chili, salad, potatoes, etc.   Blue winged olives started coming off - one landed on an iced tea glass - and we watched a few fish rise to them as we ate.

After lunch I went to the lakes for the first time fishing this way for trout.  We drove up through ranch land fields and parked near the lakes.   Some guys were in belly boats while the rest of us were wading from shore.  Some insects were popping off and fish, big ones, were rolling on the surface at them.  When the wind died down we could see rise rings all over the lake.   After moving down to the shallow end of the lake, I landed a steelhead who, although was only about 20 inches, was extremely strong.   I think I lost 6 flies throughout the day due to strikes that resulted in snap offs because I set the hook too strong against heavy cruising fish.  They were hitting #18 callabaetis emergers (red/brown) tied 18" behind a floating dry fly indicator, as well as red serendipity emergers and cream midges.  The lake was small, really a large pond about 10 acres, and we could talk easily to one another across it.

Overall, it was a nice day out with a bunch of nice guys spending time fishing together.