Generation Fly » Big Thompson Fishing Report (4-16 & 4-18 2010)

Big Thompson Fishing Report (4-16 & 4-18 2010)

Written by Adam Reder

The Big T was very productive this weekend. I took four of my friends out fly fishing and introduced two to the sport, all of which are now “hooked” on fly fishing. We presented a variety of flies to some hungry trout and the weekend was considered a success.

Friday 4-16- After class on friday afternoon, we headed up the Big T canyon and fished around half way up (sorry, not sure what mile marker). Friday was cold (45 degrees) and drizzling rain. We arrived at our location around 4:00 p.m and tried our luck with nymphing mainly because the dry fly action was absent. My buddy caught a 12 inch rainbow on a double nymph rig with a Hares Ear lead fly and a midge tailing behind. The trout bit the midge pattern. After having little success on nymphs we decided to switch to streamers and wooly buggers and the action began. The picture below shows the stretch of water where I presented my wooly bugger. This spot produced 5 strikes in 8 casts. This cold/wet day showed the most productivity with olive and black patterns in deep/slow moving pools.

Weather- 45 degrees /Cold & Wet

Area- Slow/Deep Pools and Eddies

Flies- Midge nymphs, Olive and Black Streamers and Wooly Buggers

Sunday 4-18- On sunday afternoon my roommate and I headed up the Big T yet again, but this time we stopped about a mile below the area we fished on friday. He caught his first fish on a fly rod on this day and told me later that night “Dude, I cant stop thinking about fly fishing!” Well, there goes a few hundred bucks towards a couple fly fishing manufactures, damn, I should be a sales representative! Anyways, the nymphing action lasted all day from noon to five. Since I tie my own flies I don’t really have names for the patterns we used, but they are shown below and they are similar to Copper John’s and Barr’s Emergers. The green stone and the “Copper John” on the left were used as our lead flies and we dropped a mayfly nymph pattern about 12 inches below on 5x tippet. We use a Thing-A-Ma-Bobber indicator and fished moderated to slow moving water. The day produced constant strikes and 4 rainbows landed, although we had about 12 fish on. Dont ask!