Chad Pettrone

7/19 The Perfect Day – Steve, Nathan, Aaron

• By Chad Pettrone
• 23 July, 2013
• No Comments

The day started off with a news report that there was a mudslide last night in Rocky Mountain National Park, at the same location where the Fern Lake Trail Fire was last fall.  The water behind Kirks Fly Shop in Estes Park was coming down chocolate brown, but there was still some visibility.  When I picked up the group for the day the water was still off color, but I figured that after the lake it would likely be clear again.  Steve, Nathan, Aaron and I piled into the truck and headed to the Lower Section of the Big Thompson.  We started driving down the canyon when I noticed that the water color was no clearer in the canyon than it was behind the fly shop.  I immediately turned around and headed for the tailwater below the dam.  In dirty water situations, normally the tailwater of a lake will provide the clearest water because the lake acts as a filter.

I stacked the 3 guys in the bend hole to start the day and get a feel for what the fish were thinking on this unusually morning of dirty mid-summer water.  This year has been a weird year with flows.  The Big Thompson below Lake Estes never received a large flushing release from the tailwater, so the fish hadn’t seen much dirty water this year.  It was an anxious 5 minutes before the first hook-up, but then they all came at once.  Steve hooked-up on a rainbow scud, Aaron hooked up on a sowbug that pop-off right before I got a net on it, then Nathan picked one up on a Pat’s Rubber-leg.  I crush the barb on the hooks so it’s not uncommon to have fish pop-off.  We had some more hook ups in the bend hole and then we moving on up river towards the dam.

I put Aaron in the next hole because he hadn’t gotten one in the net yet, and then Nathan, Steve and I started walking upstream to grab another spot before the crowd of fisherman started filling-in.  Before I was able to get to the next hole with Nathan, we here “Got One!” .  I ran down and put Aaron’s first one in the net.  I left him to continued to work that hole, and when I came back to Nathan he had lost his rig the the tree.  This is about the time where I give the speech, “Each fly cost $2 to $2.95 retail, think of it as a $10 bill in the bush, would you go grab a $10 bill if it was sitting there?” …but, I spared him the lecture and Steve fished the hole for a little while.  Nothing came out of that spot, and onto the spillway hole we went…I forgot to grab the flies out of the tree (I hate leaving flies in the tree or under rocks because I’ve seen dead birds and bats hanging from flies. I imaging the same thing happens underwater with fish).  We re-rigged, I gave a little instruction as to where the hole should be fished, and then I left to go grab Aaron.  When we came back, Nathan had landed a couple, then landed another one with my guidance. Steve threw a $10 bill under a rock and I tied him on another rig that soon caught him another fish. But, the action wasn’t consistent.  I was about to blame the mud, maybe the warming sun on the water, but I’m not the type of host to sit and wait around for fish to bite…something wasn’t right.

We went back down river and Aaron picked off another fish from the same hole as the first nice brown he caught.  Then I moved Nathan to a shallower section of river that normally holds a smaller number of fish.  He was unsuccessful so we took a couple steps back out of the river and fished 6″ to 1′ of the dirty water…and BOOM, first cast.  He hooked a nice rainbow on the biggest fly on the rig, that’s when I knew we were onto some aggressive fish in shallow water.  I grabbed Steve to move him into some shallow riffle water and then he started hooking up on his biggest fly, it was a orange tube worm that I tied and was trying out for the first time.  I then moved over to Aaron, had him work the shallow water near his hole, and he immediately hooked up.  We continued the shallow water hook ups until we ran out of time.

I went back to grab Aaron and gave him a couple more drifts before calling it a day – SMACK, he hooks up and we get a bow in the net.

Aaron and I happily walk down to his brother Nathan, as we were walking – SMASH, he hooks up and we get a bow to the net.

Aaron, Nathan and I are now walking down to Steve and kidding around about him catching one, just as we say that the indicator goes under and Steve sets the hook…but, there was nothing there.  It was the next cast that Steve made and KERPLOW, he hooks up with the final rainbow of the day…making it, THE PERFECT DAY of fishing.

The guided trip ended and we parted our ways.  I was onto continue my perfect day with a Colorado Rockies Baseball Game against my home team the Chicago Cubs.  During the game I was able to ask my girlfriend’s dad for permission to marry his daughter.  Thankfully, he said “You have my permission”. That’s not all that was perfect and unique, the Cubs won.

We caught 21 fish on this trip, and on 21st day of July, I asked my girlfriend to marry me.