Spring Fling and BWOs

We just completed our 7th annual Spring Fling at the Arkansas River KOA at Cotopaxi. We had great weather and a great time. Thanks to all of you who participated. I hope the BBQ was to your liking. I thought it was one of the better fares of late.

BWOs have been hatching away on cloudy days as we prepare for the Caddis Hatch. We have a little more water to contend with this year than we are used to, but that has stabilized water temperatures and should lead to a great hatch. If snowpack stabilizes or some of it evaporates, we are told that BOR may actually cut back on releases in a couple of weeks. We'll see, but if flows stay as they are, it will still be excellent. Get out and fish. April is Numero Uno.

Spring has Sprung for Fly Fishers

The South Platte below Spinney is fishing extremely well right now and some big spawners from Elevenmile are cruising upstream now. Micro eggs, Midge Larva and Black Leeches are the trick. Lots and lots of fish to the net with some 5 to 8 pounders possible.

The Arkansas in Canon City and West to Salida has broken ice free and Browns are having a good ole time on molting Stonefly Nymphs and Caddis Larva. Basically any green Larva in a #16 and a #10 Golden Stone will do the deed. Fish are in deeper runs in the early morning and by Noon have filtered out into prime lies. Some fish are moving to Black or Brown Woolly Buggers. The rivers have certainly come alive the past week and fishing will only get better before runoff, which could be substantial this year, but probably not early. We've got lots of great fishing days before May 15, which is average runoff startup for the Arkansas.

Spring is up next, believe it or not

With the Christmas season upon us, spring is right around the corner. Years pass pretty quickly for me, so as usual I find myself behind in planning for spring fishing. My buddy, Larry Kingrey and I are confirmed for lots of presentations after the 1st. We'll be doing seminars on the Arkansas hatches, how to tie and fish Caddis hatches, and tying and fishing wet flies. I hope we're in your neighborhood and that you'll come out to see us. Our schedule right now looks like this:

January 4,5,6 The Fly Fishing Show...Denver; February 8,9,10 The Albuquerque Sports Show; February 22, Wichita, Kansas Flatland Fly Fishing TU; March 13, Cherry Creek TU, Denver. I suspect we'll add a few more to the list, but I wanted to post these so you can put them on your calendar. We're looking forward to seeing you.........

Bill

Fishing Report

Fishing has been very good over the last week. Fish Have been On hopper / Dropper rigs using a Red October trailing # 16 Red Thunders, #20 Black Ice, # 20 Black Thunders and # 20 Purple High Voltages. Streamer Fishing has Been good in the afternoon With Olive Squirrel Streamers, and Spruce Streamers. Blue Wing Olives have been hatching mid day with fish eating adults even on the sunny days. Curtis

Fishing Report

Fishing was good today. We had clear water from Coaldale up in the morning and grey / olive water at Texas creek in the afternoon. As long as we don't get a heavy rain tonight I think we will have fishable water all the way to Canon City on Sunday. The picture is Evan with his first Arkansas fish. Fish were on # 10 red Octobers, And royal PMX's, # 16 Red thunders, # 16 Red / Silver High voltages and # 16 Orange / Yellow High voltages. Most fish were still on the edges. Curtis

Low Flows and Hungry Fish

After a long spell of heavy rain, the Arkansas has now dropped in flow and is fishing extremely well. Wet flies like the little Brown Hackle Yellow in the photo are responsible for lots of hook ups right now as are the traditional hopper/dropper rigs that are so popular on this river. Approaching fall, we are turning to Royal patterns for the top flies such as a Royal PMX, Royal Wulff or Royal Trude. Copper colored bead heads like Larry Kingrey's Copperhead, Curtis Andrew's High Voltage Pheasant Tail and a standard old Copper John will all take lots of fish when suspended below the big dry fly. Streamers are right around the corner, but for now we need to enjoy the numerous Caddis species that are hatching as well as the sporadic hatches of Red Quills. Me, I'm just waiting for the Royal Wulff hatch..........

Arkansas is fishing well now

The Edges are now clearing from all the rain we have had over the past couple weeks. Flows are still up and pushing the fish to the edges. My wife and myself had an evening float on Sunday the 12Th and did very well with streamers ( muddlers and olive buggers)fished on sinking leaders. We also moved some fish with hoppers. The pictures are of a couple fish that we caught including my wife's first fish on a fly rod! Curtis