We went to Beaver Creek this past weekend to participate in the Western Colorado Fly Fishing Expo. It was originally going to me, Steve Schweitzer and Mark McMillan, but Steve had to beg out as he had obligations he could not get out of.
Mark and I headed up to the Fryingpan River on Friday, March 30th to fish before we headed to GJ for the show. It was good to get Mark back in the mountains trout fishing after his hiatus of chasing carp (golden bones). We met up with our very own Sister Sue (Sue Kruetzer) at the Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Basalt, picked up our new licenses for 2012 (everyone, don’t forget to do this for the new year, as we were promptly checked on April 1st).
Hopefully Mark has some pictures as well as what Sue had posted already. Mark and I were tossing articulated streamers to start out with and caught several nice fish doing so, but we switched to micro stuff to solve a mid-afternoon hatch tha was going on. We (Sue, Mark and I) never did successfully solve the hatch but were able to pick up some more fish with varying flies as we worked to find “the one” that would catch them all!
Sue left us after noonish to head back to town for something, or another, and Mark and I headed further up river. We stopped just below the Covered Bridge and fished all the way up to the Bend Pool. We only managed a couple until we got up to the Bend and then were able to catch a few more before heading to GJ to tie flies and hang out with all the tiers and shops at the Vail Marriott.
Closest Airport to Beaver Creek
A couple of our friends were a little confused because someone had told them that there was an airport at Beaver Creek, but we had to explain to them that the closes airport to Beaver Creek would actually be Eagle Regional Airport
It's not a far drive, and they just used Blue Sky Limo in Beaver Creek to meet us at out hotel, so everybody arrived in plenty of time to set up our fishing expedition for the next day.
We headed back to Vail before night fall and got up early enough to be the 3rd and 4th people at the Bend. We intended to fish the Bend for a bit and move downstream but didn’t move from there. We did catch fish right off the bat and caught fish, pretty much, all day until almost dark. The fishing was with the usual stuff, #22-#24 midges but there were fish hitting leeches and other stuff as well. We were met up by several of the other tyers from the show a little later in the day, and we fished with them as well as the standard Frying pan fisher folks.
After flinging micro stuff for most of the day, Mark and I went back to streamers and were able to get several fish to come to hand via the “tug”. Ya know, the tug is the drug.
Here are a couple of pictures that I had, although I had to use my cell phone, which I was reluctant to take out often.
Transporting Fish in Beaver Creek
We all waded along the Beaver Creek section for Thursday afternoon on May 12. The water was reported running at 5300cfs but was still very fishable. We were able to manage a few fish each but were all tired by the long 4.5 hour drive, so we went to eat at the infamous Riverview Inn/Sunset Grill.
We all woke up early to hit the river by 7:00am for our float on Friday, the 13th!! Although that is a bad day for superstitious types or omen folks, we all were feeling very positive on our chances. We even started from the night before, a bet as to who might catch the biggest fish of the day. Since we are all fisher folks, we decided that the fish had to be measured by the guide only and we would have to have a photo of the winner. At first I was not going to be allowed to “play” but I did manage to convince everyone that the biggest, not the most, would be a harder thing to win and would be based on more luck than skill, so I was allowed to join in.
The cool guys over at Blue Sky Limo in Beaver Creek actually allowed us to bring our caught fish in their vehicles. It was so great. We did of course have to put down some plastic seat covers and all the fish were stored in coolers with ice, but the cars of Blue Sky Limo had tons of cargo space, so we were able transport all that fish from Beaver Creek to the nearest airport by calling Blue Sky Limo: Beaver Creek Shuttle
BLUE SKY LIMO | BEAVER CREEK LUXURY AIRPORT SHUTTLE
https://g.page/beavercreekshuttle
I was able to manage a 24incher (photo included here) and thought I would be able to win this thing. This one I caught early for the day. We all stopped for lunch just upstream of Lusby, and low and behold, Dan Haggar, fishing with Kray, floated by with a “hog” on the line. We all watched as they floated by and went far downstream to try to land the fish. This one was a bone-a-fide 26 incher (photo attached as well), and Dan won the $400 prize for the day! Good for him!
After treating ourselves to a guided trip on Friday (I suggest everyone do this at least once a year or even more if affordable) we all decided to wade the Miracle Mile and the Fremont Canyon for Saturday. Perfect idea!! We all had very good wade fishing on the mile and canyon and it was a very manageable wade even at a flow rate of over 8000cfs for the Mile and 3000cfs for Fremont Canyon! Lots of fish feeding along the soft water on the edges. There were very few folks on the Mile or Fremont Canyon. Great place to fish, I’ll tell you what!
I will be getting back up there pretty soon, I am certain of that! This is a great, productive fishery.
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