Dentry: Just dropping a line that fishing is fine

Friday, October 20, 2006

One irony of a year-round fishing season is that so many fair-weather anglers hang it up just before the Big Show gets started. October angling, particularly fly-fishing for trout, is the brass band.

It is the flame burning brightest.

Waters have cooled. Stream flows are serene. Fall spawners, particularly brown trout, are said to be "aggressive," and that's not much of an exaggeration.

The tourists have crept off to hibernate. Many fishermen have switched to big- game hunting. Some are skiing. River beats that were packed with fly fishers in summer now burble in solitude, reflecting gold cottonwoods.

You might have noticed that most fly shops have let the fishing reports on their Web sites slide into disrepair. With few exceptions, the reports are stuck in time: It's July or April.

We should take a clue from the shop owners and fishing guides, who are all out fishing.

The show's star performer is the brown trout, a fish said to be difficult to catch (but they aren't, if you know them). You don't need a fishing report to tell you that in October and early November, browns will be spawning wherever there are browns - which is almost everywhere. They also have been honing their predatory instincts.

Thus, the season's leading flies are Glo Bugs and other egg imitations. Egg patterns and micro-egg patterns pick up not only brown trout, but the rainbows that hang just downstream of the spawners.

Trout in larger rivers, such as the Colorado, Eagle and Arkansas, and in lakes, such as Spinney Mountain Reservoir and North Park's three Delaney Butte lakes, are keen on Wooly Buggers and other streamers.

Streamers trigger the fish-eating proclivities of brown trout, most of which we find in October to be deeply spotted and dressed in orange, red and gold for the reproductive ritual.

Cast the Bugger across the stream, keeping in mind that brown trout like to lurk near cover (logs, rocks, overhangs). Then strip, drift, strip some more and hold tight.

River temperatures have dropped into the 40s, squelching hatches of lighter-colored mayflies that hatch in summer. But darker, smaller bugs are available to trout and anglers who prefer to trifle with tiny stuff.

Blue-winged olive (Baetis) mayflies have been dense at times on the Frying Pan River, the South Platte below Spinney Mountain Reservoir and the Arkansas.

As winter approaches, midges come into their own again. Tiny as they are, midge larvae are the main course in trout streams. When they hatch and fish rise to floating midges, the old standby Griffith's Gnat comes into play.

For a change of menu, try matching mysis shrimp where they have been feeding brute trout in tailwater streams.

With colder weather, reservoirs such as Ruedi, Dillon and Taylor Park have "turned over," an event that funnels banquets of the clear/white shrimp through dams.

A word of caution to wading anglers: Those clean, gravel discs on the streambed are brown trout redds - spawning nests. Stay off them to avoid crushing eggs. And consider cutting actively spawning trout some slack.

OTHER FALL SPAWNERS: It's late, but maybe not too late, to get in on some wild fly-fishing for kokanee salmon. Those fall spawners have been running up the East River, the lower reaches of the "Dream Stream" (South Platte below Spinney Mountain Reservoir) and the Blue River.

You'll want brightly colored flies drifted naturally to hook the leapers. Spawning kokanee cannot be kept, but they are fun to fool with, if they aren't too far gone in their ultimately fatal spawning term.

For more autumn kicks, anglers at the Roaring Fork and Crystal rivers know they can count on whitefish. The silvery natives congregate in pools and near tributaries, where they are eager to slurp up small nymph flies.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com