Chad Pettrone

8/22 Dynamic Day with Jay

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

We were on the water and fishing at 10:00am, which worked out perfectly.  At this point in the year 10:00 is about the time of day when the fish are most active.  This is because the bugs that hatch, or float from the bottom to the top of the water crawl out of there skin and fly away, is at it’s peak (Learn More at www.flyselector.com).  When we arrived there were midge hatching with the occasional PMD mayfly.  We started fishing our way up a long run, and found fish at the top, where it dumped into large boulders sunk by 3-4 feet of water.  We started getting good drifts and soon hooked the first rainbow, a nice wild fish.  Soon after we hooked into another fish, a 15 inch stocked rainbow that put up a great fight.  Both fish were caught on a size 22 black RS2 with white wings.

We moved upriver onto another long run and started at the shallow end, moving upriver  to the deeper section.  Jay hooked a nice little rainbow that fought well, then leaped out of the water and threw the hook.  Right after this point in time the water started turning off color.  In Colorado, that means two things, either the flows changed from a dam release, or it’s raining upriver.

As we made our way up river we hooked a larger fish that immediately came up to the surface and thrashed in the balance that separates our world from the fishes.   As we was shaking his head I saw that the biggest fly, the Pat’s Rubber Legged Stonefly was buried in his lip.  He soon returned to his world where he showed us his explosive power and agility.  The fish peeled out line with a burst of energy and then turned 180 degrees to rage back in Jay’s direction.  Unprepared for such a charge Jay lost tension on the line and the barbless hook slipped from the fishes mouth.

We broke for lunch.  As we ate lunch we watch the brown water dilute back to the clarity similar to the started of the day.  We started fishing a deep hole after lunch and noticed a storm up-mountain.  We slowly worked the 6 foot hole with a slow and steady success.  I normally figure the hole for 3 fish, and we had hooked two.  The next fish we hooked was a bruiser.  He took Jay for a ride around the hole, then decided he didn’t want to play with us anymore and ran straight under the tree…he did not return.  “O.K.” I said, “That’s three, lets keep moving”.  So, we were about to leave when I noticed another change in the water color.  This time it was a dramatic change and an obvious increase in water flows.  Without communication, I quickly threw a test cast into the water to see if the fish liked this new mud -WHAM-.  As soon as the line straightened against the indicator and I immediately handed the rod to Jay.  Unfortunately, we lost the fish in the hand pass.  “Well, that’s a good sign”, I said.

Jay’s next cast, he puts a fish on….And on and on and on we go.  The hole was on fire, producing hit after hit with nice size fish.  We continued to work out our kinks and learn from our mistakes as we landed about half of the fish we hooked.  The fish were on sow bugs, as they normally are in an increased flow situation on the Big Thompson River.

We moved downriver and that’s when the rain started, the wildlife took over, and the fishing died down.  We ran into two snakes, a huge spider with a giant egg sack attached, a frog, a salmonfly, then on the way home I had to brake the truck for a flock of turkeys to cross the road.  Truly a great day outside as all the animals were out, including a possible growl from a mountain lion, but we weren’t going to stick around to find out what that noise was.