Fishing Report

For the Week ending 5th July 2015

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Everything is great for the season now. The Pan is perfect and both the Fork and the Colorado are in great condition for floating. The Fork has come down another 500cfs at Basalt and at 1500cfs is great. Ruedi is currently 99.1% full with an inflow of 239cfs. The current outflow is the same so expect the releases into the Pan to drop a little this week to ensure that Ruedi fills.

We have had quite a of rain, but it is not affecting the flows much. So it would be reasonable to expect the Pan to drop a little further to enable Ruedi to fill and thereafter the releases will equal the inflow until there is a call on the water. Visitors are arriving in town now. The Pan was very busy on Friday but as the floating has improved more trips are taking to the Lower Fork and a few boats on the Colorado.

This week in an important water law case, the Colorado Supreme Court decided that "aesthetic, recreation and piscatorial uses" is not a recognized use of water under Colorado Law. On the one hand it was argued that enhancing properties by building water features and enhanced waterways for, inter alia, fly fishing purposes was a beneficial use. The contrary argument was that opening the door to such uses over and above irrigation could lead to wasteful diversions which could deplete a valuable public resource. The result is that the Roaring Fork Club cannot divert water from the Roaring Fork river and run it through a mile long private ditch for "aesthetic, recreation and piscatorial uses". The diverted water must be for a purpose recognized under Colorado Law such as irrigation. It will be interesting to see how this develops. There are cogent arguments on both sides.

Frying Pan

Current Flow: below the Dam 257cfs.(if you want more uptodate figures check out current readings on our "Links" page)

For the past week the releases have remained at an ideal 257-261cfs. The water is in excellent condition and the flows are perfect. The PMD's are starting to come off well. Close to the dam the hatches have been excellent while lower down the hatches are picking up the pace. The fish are still tending to take dries in the shallower water. Where it is deeper they remain low so nymphing is a better strategy at the moment.

We have some more rain forecast for the coming week with marginally lower temperatures, so that will bring the hatches on nicely. Just dress for wet weather.

Recommended Flies:Use PMD's, midges, bwo's, nymphs and attractors. The fish are also taking small nymphs and caddis patterns.

For mysis at the dam use Mike's Mysis. epoxy mysis, and BDV mysis.

The midges will come off during the day, particularly if it is sunny. So try Wilson's Reverse Candy Cane #20, red and black chironocones #20, nick's larva in miracle pink, olive, and purple back, brassies #18 - #22, midge larva patterns #18 - #22, copper johns #18 - #22, rainbow warriors, black polywings #18 - #22 and bling midges # 18 - #22.

As they come off try the gray loopwing emergers #20 - #22, the FPA special emergers, biot emergers both with and without the trailing shuck and gray RS2's #18 - #22, Johnny Flash in Olive, Grey, and Black, Olive and Red Jujubee, trailing shuck midge black and cream.

In addition try dry patterns such as the z-wing real midge, black cdc midge and any similar dry black and gray patterns in sizes from #20 through to #26.

The fish are taking generic nymphs such as pheasant tails and caddis larva patterns. The BWO's are coming off as well. Try emerger patterns such as rs2's and WD-50's.

For BWO naturals use standard BWO's, parachute BWO's, parachute Adams, and Thorax patterns.

For PMD's use emergers and dries. For emergers, use the RS2, the emerger, or the FPA shuck trailer PMD. For dries use the No-hackle, the Comparadun or the parachute.

Roaring Fork

Current Flow: near Emma - 1560cfs (if you want more uptodate figures check out current readings on our "Links" page).

With the Fork having come down quickly it now offers good floating. However most of the traffic is floating from Carbondale and getting good results at the moment.

There are reports of a few drakes coming off lower down as well as a lot of caddis. There are also yellow sallies about. However higher up where the water is still fast, nyymphing is producing the best results.

Recommended Flies: The best results on the Fork now are from nymphing but with caddis in the evening and a few drakes showing up use dries later in the afternoon and evening. When nymphing, use either attractor patterns down deep, caddis larvae and emergers, or stoneflies with baetis.

Try small baetis such as the FPA Sparkle Baetis, the FPA Thorax Emerger, and black pheasant tails have also worked well. For emergers, the rs2 in black or gray. Also the sparkle wing rs2.

For small flies, copper johns, pc phlash, mercury rs2's, pheasant tails, bubble back bwos.

For the stone fly nymphs good patterns continue to include the BB FB Epoxy 20 Incher, the BTB Hot Spot 20 Incher and the CTB RL Epoxy 20 Incher. Also try drake nymphs such as the FPA Nymph, or the poxyback. For variety try the muskrat as well.

The caddis are coming off as well as a few drakes lower down. Use caddis emergers and drake nymphs. Higher up on the Fork the water is still fast, so use attractors such as princes, large stonefly nymphs, and hare's ears in that area.

Also try yellow sallies.

Colorado

The conditions in the Colorado have improved dramatically over the past week with reports of good fishing while floating.

Recommended Flies: Generally the way to go is nymphing with small baetis, the FPA sparkle baetis, sparkle rs2's and biot emergers.

For stonefly nymphs use the BTB Hot Spot 20 Incher, rubberleg patterns such as Mike's BTB Coffee/Black and the Halloween Speckled Girdle Bug, with midges, worms and small baetis patterns behind the lead fly.

Try drake nymphs and yellow sallies as well.

Check out our new Frying Pan River Lodge.

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