Deckers fishing report 8/19/2017
Flows have been stair stepping down and currently are in the mid 300’s, fishing has been good, apart from a few slow days here and there. Lots of bugs to choose from this time of year, and the fish are everywhere you would expect them to be (pools, riffles, banks, tucked into structure, etc).
Trico’s hatch’s in the late morning will have fish rolling in the soft water and seams. The funnest approach for these fish is to target them with a tandem dryfly rig. The first fly is usually a (hairwing caddis, high vis adams fly, stimulator in sizes 10-16) with about a 12-16 inch tailer to a sz 20-22 (trico spinner, sparkle dun, parachute adams). Or you could just go after them with a dry dropper rig, I’d use the same first fly selection as stated above but my trailer fly would be something with a bead head such as a rainbow warrior, zebra midge, black beauty etc… in size 20-22.
The mini rig is still a very effective tool this time of year with these flows. (see my previous fishing report for mini rig setup) If you’re not getting hook ups on the subsurface fly’s I would recommend adding a little more weight between them, this should make the takes more noticeable.
Nymphing is still a very productive method for targeting the sand fish and those trout that are still sucked down in the water column. Lead fly’s this time of year consist of san juan worms, pat’s rubber leg, 20″ers, and crane fly larvae (especially if you see the water going off color). The middle fly is most often a soft hackle caddis imitation sz 14-16. Point fly’s include red/black midge larvae in early am, and baetis imitations is the mid morning to evening, (think rainbow warriors, flash back PT’s, chocolate thunders, Barr’s emerger, juju baetis) in sizes 18-22.
See you out there,
Levi Lambert
Minturn Anglers
720-851-4665