Straightline Sports | Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Due to the Average snow fall  the Yampa River Valley will be fishing very well throughout the month of June.  The lake fishing throughout the area is off the charts and will continue to be that way for another month.  Stagecoach Tailwaters is exceptional during this time.  Large fish on BWO nymphs and dries have been the ticket for most anglers while blood midges, scuds, and streamers have been a second favorite.  Most alpine lakes are still locked in.  As long as the sun continues to shine as it has been these lakes will be iced off and fishable way before July.  Keep your fingers crossed for rain this summer!    

Recient snow and cold weather have sent the tourists to lower ground.  The stream is empty and fishing is great.  Bluewings are hatching sporadically through the day and Mahogany duns have joined the show and have fish looking up for most of the day.  #20 parachute bwo patterns like the sprout BWO are killers for the spooky sippers, but as soon as you see a Mahogany on the water its time to bust out the #14 Mahogany cripple.  Its hard to not catch fish when these large mayflies are on the water.  Streamers are also kicking out good numbers of fish.  We’ve been fishing larger sized streamers with good success.  Beldar’s bugger in olive or brown/yellow and zonkers in natural or white are making fish take notice.  Happy fishin’. 

Tis the season for prolific streamer action.  Baitfish and Crayfish patterns on the Yampa and Elk River are hitting hard!  BWO’s are the most significant aquatic action.  Mahogany Dunns are emerging bringing the largest trout to the surface.  Trust us, this is the time of year to fish the Yampa River.  If you want to test your casting skills for pike get into the Yampa Valley.  Everything is fattening up for the winter, which arrived September 16th ! 

The Elk River has to be one of the most idyllic settings for a late summer fly fishing excursion.  The water levels are low but cold keeping fish active throughout the day, and there are enough bugs on the surface to make dryfly fishing one of the most productive methods.  Hoppers and Tricos have taken the center stage and early morning/late evening fish has been very good.  Blue winged olives will join into the mix on cloudy days and if you’re lucky enough to be out fishing, you will have a memorable experience.  Look for fishing to keep gaining steam as the blue wing hatches intensify into the fall.  Flies to have in your box for the Elk this week:  #16 elk hairs, #22-18 pheasant tails, #22-18 trico spinners, #20 sprout bwo, #8-14 hoppers in tan or olive, #10 olive crystal buggers, #10 zonkers in white or natural. 

The Yampa Valley is slowly becoming golden brown.  In other words, seasons are changing bringing prolific blue wing olive and trico hatches.The healthy trout throughout the rivers are migrating into the shallow riffles gorging on spent tricos and emerging blue wings.  It is not uncommon to see fifteen to twenty 18 + inch bows and browns in a pod no larger than a toyota truck in the head of any pool. This is the time of year to visit the Yampa Valley to test your skill for pre spawn Browns and energetic Rainbows.

Sorry we’ve been away from the computer lately.  Its been busy around here to say the least.  Tricos have taken center stage on all our waters as of late and the spinner falls have been truely epic.  Starting at dawn, fishing has been great with small trico nymphs like wd-40’s and copper johns in sizes 20-22.  Fish this in tandem with a caddis larva or pupa or a san juan worm.  Fish will turn on to dries as the hatch becomes thick at around 10am, however the most consistant action has still been on sunken spinners fished in the riffles under and indicator or a large attractor dry.  Incidentally, quite a few fish have been taken on the hopper fished as an indicator in the last week.  In the absence of hatch action, streamer have been taking some nice fish, especially if the water has a little color from receint rain. 

The Elk has dropped into prime fishing shape and is fishing beautifully.  Early mornings see fish responding to attractor dries like Humpies and PMX peacocks as well as streamers such as Zonkers and Buggers in olive and grey/white.  As they day moves along you will see tan caddis in size #16-18 and PMDs in size #18 come off just before lunch.  As the PMD’s fade yellow sallies will become the main menu item.  In the evening hours look for spinner falls of bugs ranging anywhere from size #12-18.  Evening is also when you are most likely to encounter some green drakes.  The nymphal forms of all insects listed above will take fish all day and are the best option when the fish aren’t rising.  Tight lines!

Small leech patterns (sz8-10) trailed by a small beadhead (sz 16) will produce fish from the morning through midday. The afternoon will produce dry fly action at most alpine and valley lakes. look for Callibaetis hatch take place. Try Adam Parachutes, Dandelion Flies, and small black midge patterns.

Trails are dry and hiking is Great!!! Try fishing one of the many high moutain lakes. Good flies are damsel nymphs, damsel dries, and wooly buggers (try different colors!)  A patient fisherman can do well with a sz 16 beadhead twitched slowly.

The Yampa River through Steamboat is fishing extre,mely well.  PMD’s and yellow sally’s can be expected in the morning and red quill’s are producing rising fish in the evenings.  The fish are keyed in on the rusty spinner spent wing…look for slow, calm takes in the slower water in order to spot the fish.  Some of the eats are very subtle and a keen eye is required to site fish.

 If dry dropper is your style you are in luck.  The large terrestrials are starting to show and #6 peacock PMX’s with a bubble back caddis emerger, soft hackle PT, barr’s PMD emerger 3 feet below will get the job done. Also, the Green Drake hatch has started to appear in town as well as west of town.  The hatch is thickest to the west but can be expected to move up river to the east.  The drake nymphs are active on the bottom, use large Prince Nymphs, Green drake Nymphs, or larger olive PT’s to cover the spectrum.