Frying Pan River Brown Trout
My father has a number of clients in Colorado and flies out a few times a year; most trips he tags on the weekend to visit. My company allows employees to do something awesome during the summer – take every other Friday off. Subsequently this makes for a great long weekend.
We headed out, taking the scenic route through Leadville and over Independence Pass; my father was amazed at the number of road cyclists we came across. The first night we camped out on in White River National Forest between the Lincoln Gulch and Portal campgrounds. While the site was not the easiest to get to (I would strongly recommend a vehicle with good ground clearance), it was scenic and quite.
After setting up camp we headed into Aspen to acquire a fishing license for my father and find some access points to the Roaring Fork River. After about 10 minutes in the Pomeroy Sports store we finally tore one of the employees away from a John Wayne movie on the TV. I was not very impressed with the service; the employees appeared more interested in pulling people in off the street in an attempt to sell them fishing gear. However we did succeed in buying a license and finding access points. The first place we fished, a bit north of the airport, was some fast moving water. With private jets roaring overhead every few minutes. Unsuccessful we headed upstream to a park on the edge of town; again the water was fat but I was able to land a small rainbow, about 10 inches, on a 16 Adams. While I have to imagine that the entire Roaring Fork was not rough, fast water complete with the slightly abhorrent attitudes of the locals, the areas we fished did not impress me.
View from the Roaring Fork River
On Saturday I headed north to Basalt and the Frying Pan River; my father fell ill and checked into a hotel to sleep for the day. My first stop was in town at the final few feet of the Frying Pan before it emptied into the Roaring Fork; I saw a lot of rising fish but had to settle for a single rainbow on a pheasant tail nymph. After a quick stop at the Taylor Creek Fly Shop, a full service fly shop with a great selection of gear and a fantastically knowledgeable staff, I headed upstream. About halfway up to the dam I stopped at some smooth water that contained a number of rising fish and got in the water. I caught 10 fish, ranging from 8 to 18 inches, that afternoon. None of the fish came easy; I must have used over two dozen flies trying to figure out what the trout were eating. Even though I caught fish, I think I still failed at matching the hatch. The flies I had success with were adams, brown caddis, Chernobyl ant, green drake, pale morning dun (PMD), and mysis shrimp.
Somewhat amusing during this time was the guide and client who decided to fish just upstream; the guide kept telling his client that she should not cast like I was and that they were not catching fish because I was standing in the best spot in the river. On the first charge, well, my casting technique is certainly sufficient for me. I could still drop a fly in a three foot diameter circle at over 20 yards with my Orvis Superfine 3-weight. As for the second charge, I do not know the river but I strongly suspect the big 10+ pound fish were mostly living just below the dam. In any case I was amused, though I pitied the woman for having such a poor quality guide.
Landing a Rainbow Trout on the Frying Pan River
On Sunday morning my father, recovered from a 24 hour flu, and I headed back to the Frying Pan. After unintentionally catching a pretty little brown, my father discovered the fish would take a green drake skating slowly upstream. Had he not come across this technique by accident, I am sure we would have never tried this. It was quite effective and we caught a number of fish before having to drive home via the disaster that was I-70 on Sunday afternoon. While not the most productive fishing we have ever done, I would and will happily return to explore more of the Frying Pan!
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