Thursday, June 17, 2010

Fishing the Big Water Thompson

We all got spoiled with the excellent and dependable fishing on the Big Thompson River. The flows were just about flat-lined at 120 cfs for well over a month. And the Blue Winged Olive mayflies were pouring off in droves. I heard about and saw more great fishing days and large trout than any year to date. Yes, it has been that good! But, for awile there it was blown out and the easy fishing wass temporarily on hold. Notice I said “easy” fishing…there was still some good fishing to be had for those brave enough. When the water gets this high on your favorite river, use streamers tight to the banks or a meaty (i.e. fat and high floating) caddis dry and dropper with short casts into the remaining calmer pocket water. Or a San Juan worm and PT…like Thomas Blackham did the other day on the Big Thompson while it was steadily rising to 900 cfs…
“I got on the water at daybreak and started off with a double rig; a San Juan worm and a bead head pheasant tail. Both flies produced fish, but the bead head seemed to be the fly of choice. By late morning the air temperature reached 48o F and the water level had risen from about 520 cfs to 890 cfs. Fishing was still fairly consistent, but the high water levels made holding water hard to find and even harder to get to. Overall, I ended the day with 19 fish most between 12 and 14 inches with one brown trout and the rest bows.” –Thomas Blackham
Note: As I write this, the Big T is back down to 125 cfs…so get back and fish…NOW!
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