[arkfisher]

the water is very clear and running around 350-400 CFS.
fished below salida saturday morning. the fly shop said there was dry fly action but after trying various drys for an hour with zero rises,went to nymphing. immediatly started to catch fish on Barr Emergers. Also had on a size 18 Bead Head Pheasant tail and through out the day caught most on that.also got some on a Gold Ice nymph.
fished above Salida in the afternoon . ended up landing around 20. lost many more and had lots of hits.saw a few fish rising but not enough to switch often.
sunday was slower than saturday but the Gold Ice was working the best and the barr emerger. Had 6 fish in 3 hours. most were browns, caught 3 rainbowa and got 1 cutthroat(!). First cut i ever got out of the Ark. didn't even know any were in there. Fishing should be good from now until Late october. Some people were Hopper-dropper fishing with some results. I tried that Sunday and Had a few hits but it was few and far between.

 

[_colorado]

arkfisher,

Fly Chucker and I were working Texas Creek on Saturday and had very little success (see my report). How do you tie this Gold Ice nymph and what's the closest thing it matches? Glad to hear that your success was better upstream. I love that section but we spent the night in Westcliffe and I didn't want to take the time to drive up to Salida....{sigh}

My son and I were at Texas Creek on Friday evening and took 4 fish each in about an hour or so, mostly on gun metal midges. No such luck on Saturday.

Good job!

 

[arkfisher]

the Gold Ice is like no other nymph i've seen. a large gold bead and some glossy ,almost holographic mylar tied below it tapered to the tail. i got them at the fly shop at the junction of 291 and hwy 50 in Salida. i think they are called Junction Anglers Fly ship. Its only been there a year.I think they originated at Royal Gorge Anglers in Canon City. I have not seen them in shops in denver. They also come in other colors like black. its the first time i tried them and they were effective,but the bhfb p-tail was the one that caught most of the fish.Barr emergers are available in most shops. stick to a size 18 or 20.
sorry they weren't biting around texas creek. i haven't been down that far on the Ark.

 

[_colorado]

Arkfisher,

I typed in Gold Ice Nymph on Google and looked at the image it returned and htis was it. Is this the Gold Ice Nymph that you fished?

http://images.google.com/images?q=gold ice nymph&num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[arkfisher]

there are probably various versions of it like all the others we fish but,no that picture does not look like the one they sell in the valley. the one they sell is not fuzzy at all.it has a short brown hackle tail then its very smooth and tapered from the bead to the tail and uses smoother holographic mylar dubbing. they get the name partly from the dubbiing material which is "ice Dubbing". i have seen it sold locally. i was in a fly shop in golden monday but they did not have it.i don't know how to post pictures or i wouls post one.

 

[_colorado]

Thanks - I'll be out in the Arkansas Valley over the long weekend so I'll be on the lookout for it.

 

[kirbydog]

arkfisher-Do you fish the Arkansas thru the winter months? It usually has an open channel that narrows or widens depending on how cold its been. Years ago I used to fish the Texas CreeK to Cotapaxie to Parkdale sections right thru the winter on the warmer days.

 

[arkfisher]

i have tried it a few times in the dead of winter but did not do well. its not a tailwater fishery so i think the fish are not as easy to find.

 

[epic]

i have tried it a few times in the dead of winter but did not do well. its not a tailwater fishery so i think the fish are not as easy to find.

I only do good on the Ark with streamers during the winter... I'm usually fishing in Canon City or below.

 

[_colorado]

I've tried it a few times in the winter and you still get a 'slush hatch' - the stuff where I believe the ice forms on the bottom and releases once it warms up. It depends where you are fishing as to whether this clears up or not - upstream is better but there are fewer open channels. Downstream has the channels but all of the slush from upstream as well.

My advice: hit either a tailwater or the hardwater!