It was a crisp morning early September on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs. I’ve got the river to myself and its the first day of my first trip to Colorado. I’ve done my research, purchased the right books, spoken to the local fly-shop owners and feel like I’ve got enough know-how to start landing fish immediately. I’m fishing some fairly technical tail-waters and these waters are known to be highly pressured by others that share my passion. It’s slow going with a few rises and my choice of fly selections aren’t very successful. Around 9:45 I notice a hatch starting to evolve, and by 9:50 I am making sure I am not breathing with an open mouth as the swarm of insects massing upstream literally reduces my visibility and I soon realize that I am standing amidst the heaviest Trico hatch I have ever seen. I don’t even think I threw a cast for at least 10 minutes as I simply stood there in awe as the hatch flowed around me similar to how a river current flows around an obstruction. Once the density of Tricos reduced enough for me to remember why I was standing out there in the first place, I changed my tippet from a 4 to a 6X and tied on a #22 black Trico, which was near identical in size to the dozen or so that decided to abandon the group and camp out on my shirt sleeves.While I’m setting up my line and tying on the fly, I couldn’t help but notice that the water which was previously calm and showed only minimal signs of active feeding was suddenly boiling with slurping trout. I had to think about where to cast as trout were literally rising 2 at a time within a 10 foot radius of my position. I soon found out that it didn’t really matter as I began to land 10 to 12 inch cutthroats at a rate of one fish for every two casts. This lasted for perhaps 20 minutes and I was likely laughing aloud in disbelief after my twentieth plus trout.The hits slowed down and I began to take a second now and then to appreciate the scenery around me; right out of a TU calendar and I’m smack in the middle of it. Where’s my buddy with a camera when I need him? During one of my ‘less attentive’ moments as I’m staring off into the mountains, I hear an aggressive slurp and splash coming from where I remembered my fly to be the last time I looked. I couldn’t find my fly on the water’s surface and immediately realize that if that was a fish taking ‘my’ fly that he probably had enough time to realize it was a fake and spit it out by now. At the end of my second full-arm strip I felt the familiar tug of something at the end of the line that let me know it wasn’t pleased with the current situation. One leap clearing the surface of the water and I see that I’ve just hooked into a rainbow. He fights for a short bit as I lead him into my net and I soon realize that I just landed a 19″ beauty on ‘technical waters’ while I wasn’t even paying attention. I was fortunate enough to snap a photo of him as I released him to better preserve my memory of a great morning when luck was on my side.
Very descriptive flycaster. felt like I was there for a moment. I’ve had the pleasure of being in that monsoon of tricos. It is a little freaky at first for sure. It is very validating to do your homework and be successful in a new location on unfamilliar waters!
Great read.. Colorado is a magical place isn’t it?? I can’t wait to get back out there and fish amongst the mountains. Thanks for the post.
j-
great read and nice photos too.. – i know that headrush makes a trip every year to the yampa – and this year he did really well – he says its his favorite river….i am starting to understand why.
hey flycaster i spend way too much time on the Yampa every year, but have never spent any time at Stagecoach because there is way too much good private water available. This year I spent most of September in Steamboat and tore it up. Sept. is my favorite month there, you should let me know about next year, I know a bunch of guides out there and have learned that river well, and I would love to show you around. Ill post some photos of my trip in sept. a little later to show you what im talking about.
check out a couple fish from our july trip to the yampa:
http://www.fliesandfins.com/article396.html&mode=&order=0&thold=0
Nice fish! Looks like you faired much better than I did. I didn’t hire a guide and spent much of my trip time downtown or near downtown, then one day on the tailwaters, one day on a public stretch of the Elk river, and one day floating around on Pearl lake. I had a blast and would definitely be up for another trip sometime, especially with someone who knows the area. With the family and work situation I would likely need to plan weeks ahead as I am no longer capable of simply taking off whenever I want to anymore. Keep in touch, you’ll likely see me posting or simply logged into the site in the future.
PS: In one of your photos there is a guy in a blue shirt that looks just like one of the guys from Straightline Flyfishing in downtown Steamboat……any chance I’ve met this guy?
Tight lines,
Dan (flycaster)
Waterwippa,
Thanks for the comments. I had a blast out there, definitely not the waters and hatches I’m used to here in the East. I’ll likely return when funding and timing allows.
Tight lines,
Dan (flycaster)
yeah that is my friend Dillon. he guides out there is the summer and fall, but lives in Penn. It looks like he will be joining a few of us on a steelhead trip in a couple of weeks.