Observations from the Ark, September 2nd

  I had a couple of friends come into town to fish today and I found the river to be a little tough and the river was very crowded. The flows dropped from 140cfs on Wednesday to 78cfs today and it seemed to move the fish into the entire river with no real order. When the river was a little higher, I was able to focus on the riffle runs. We did not get to the river til about 10:30a.m. and the sun was already beating down on us. Clarity was excellent so I had to move back to 5 and 6x fluoro. I started in some rock clusters but could only see a few fish resting and not really moving around feeding. I next moved into some shallow, quick riffles and found a few feeding fish but every hookup seemed to spook the other fish in the area. I last tried a few of the intermediate depth runs with good oxygenation and found a good first cast would produce takes. I thought over the last month that some of the soft jaw problems were going away but had a lot of hookups and quick battles followed by the “dink”, and a few choice noises of disgust. Most of my fish were hooked after moving into an area and making a good first cast.  I did see one angler in behind a weir that had good depth and good oxygen levels and he seemed to be hooking up in the same area for a while.

  My tips for the week if the water levels stay the same are to take your time and spot the fish, get into a good casting spot and make your first cast count. Fluorocarbon in 5 and 6x are a must because of the clarity. Best flies were still the blood midge, Ninja, RS2’s and your favorite PMD pattern; I was using a FOD that I tie in PMD colors.

  Now for the adventurists out there night fishing has produced some excellent fish over the last month. Dan and Josh, who I teased several months back in a separate blog, made themselves, The Drift and our river very proud this evening. I have not heard the exact measurements yet but this Brown was landed by Dan and is one of the two biggest I have ever seen landed here in Pueblo. Congrats Dan and Josh!!!!!!

 Now I also want to point out that Dan and Josh stopped into The Drift this afternoon and Cat helped them pick out flies for this evening. I can't guarantee these types of results for everyone that listens to Cat but she is not there just for her good looks....I'm just saying.....