DENTRY: Fly fishers should go with the flow

By Ed Dentry, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 10, 2008 at 11:40 p.m.

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Photo by Ed Dentry / The Rocky

A fly fisher casts to a side channel of the Arkansas River at Hayden Meadows to avoid the main channel, where runoff flows remain strong. The Arkansas River's renowned spring caddis hatch isn't over -- it has moved upriver.

Photo by Ed Dentry / The Rocky

A caddis fly rests upon a roadside map at the Kobe fishing access area in Hayden Meadows.

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Go up high, and you might find a trout stream starting to look like one. After a long, frustrating runoff, rivers and streams are starting to settle a bit.

Up at Hayden Meadows, eight miles downstream from Leadville, the flow from snowmelt has dropped from slightly outrageous to sprightly and manageable, with caution.

Currents even in the energetic main channel have that iced-tea clarity that inspires dry fly fishers.

Some of the river's wild brown trout remain tucked away in sheltered eddies, pools and undercuts. But others have been exploring heavy riffles and pocket water to claim summer holding spots.

Here is where the "Mother's Day caddis hatch" went after it fizzled at more popular and populated reaches downstream. The river moths didn't disappear in May. The hatch always ascends upstream.

They are here.

Between the High Lonesome and Kobe access lots, revolving spheres of caddis flies swarm over willows and shrubs near shore by day. In the evening, the females pay final homage to the river and lay their eggs.

Trout will rise from the minieddies and so-called "soft water" to slurp an Elk Hair Caddis or Stimulator near the banks. That is where anglers are instructed to fish during runoff.

The tea-colored currents still boil heavy, and fish are easier to find and play where they have gathered at elbow pools in braids and side channels.

But a transition is under way.

Increasingly, the soft shelters have held fewer trout, while a few more trout have been intercepting nymphs drifted through the rollicking main flow.

Nobody said this was going to be easy. It wasn't. But the upper Arkansas is starting to look like summer. You can explore a bit now, at least in spots where the wading is less challenging.

The flow Wednesday at Hayden Meadows was 580 cubic feet per second.

That's down about 300 cfs from a couple of weeks ago. Back then, we passed by the five or six miles of public water -- and passed them up.

But with summer peeking around the corner, a fly fisher's marching orders are clear up here. If you have a fly that floats, float it.

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Waters worth watching as runoff subsides:

* Arkansas River, Salida to Parkdale: Clear and dropping. Water temp is in the 50s. Pale morning duns, golden stoneflies, hoppers. Flow 1,970 cfs at Wellsville, 2,010 cfs at Parkdale.

* Blue River: High and clear, 726 cfs below Dillon Dam. Water temp: 40s. Midges, BWOs, caddis, mysis shrimp.

* Fryingpan River: Big releases from Ruedi Dam have stepped down and some consistency has returned. Midges, BWOs, PMDs. The flow is 300 cfs.

* Roaring Fork: Runoff declining. Currents off-colored but fishable in soft edge water from Basalt to Glenwood Springs. Green drake nymphs, Prince Nymphs, crane fly larvae, Twenty Inchers. Flows: 3,990 cfs at Glenwood Springs, 2,750 cfs at Basalt.

* South Platte River: Dream Stream flows are generous. Water temp: low 40s. Midges, caddis, PMDs, scuds, San Juan worms. Flow 350 cfs below Spinney, 390 cfs in Elevenmile Canyon, 577 cfs in Cheesman Canyon.

* Taylor River: Clear and strong, 548 cfs below Taylor Dam, 752 cfs at Almont. Midges, BWOs, streamers. Mysis shrimp at the Hog Trough.

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