Boulder Creek, CO

[David Knapp]

I have finally been able to get out and get some fishing in although I have stayed close to home thus far. I'm hoping to venture a bit further afield, perhaps starting as early as this weekend. My recent fishing has largely been on Boulder Creek in the canyon above the city of Boulder. The stream is small, especially in this dry year.





The first time I fished it was one evening last week. I made it out on the water by 7:00 or so, perhaps a little earlier. I drove until I stopped passing other fishermen and finally found a nice little steep canyon stretch all to myself.

A dry/dropper proved to be the ideal way to fish this creek and I went with a Parachute Adams in a rust color (lots of rusty spinners dancing above the water) with a soft hackle as the dropper. I started getting hits right away with most fish preferring the dropper. As the light faded, the fish started rising to the bounty of insects. I started catching more on the dry than the dropper.





Yesterday I made it back up again for a couple of hours. This time, the fish didn't really want the dropper but were begging for a dry fly. I went with a yellow Neversink Caddis since its easy to see and the fish weren't picky. Chunky browns would come out and hammer it from just about every dark little pocket and hole. None of the fish were large but all were beautiful...

[CinciVol]

Dave, I was able to fish Clear Creek west of Golden last month and caught a bunch of similar sized browns, all on a parachute adams. Really fun fishing for very aggressive trout. I look forward to hearing about your further adventures in Colorado trout fishing!

[bigsur]

Great post, interesting to see how terrain differs from the Smokies, do you have to also have an additional trout license along with a regular fishing license like we do in Tennessee? Good luck and keep posting!

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by bigsur

Great post, interesting to see how terrain differs from the Smokies, do you have to also have an additional trout license along with a regular fishing license like we do in Tennessee? Good luck and keep posting!

You don't need a trout stamp although they do require everyone to purchase a "Habitat Stamp" which supposedly goes to enhance wildlife habitat. Since I just moved here I had to purchase a non-resident license which is around $60. Resident license is only about $30 though which is pretty nice...everything else out here is outrageously expensive...

[MadisonBoats]

Very Nice! Glad you got to get out and explore!

[yonder]

great report.....any plans to fish the RMNP for greenbacks

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by yonder

great report.....any plans to fish the RMNP for greenbacks

Thanks! I've already been up that way a couple of times but have yet to actually chase the greenbacks. I'm thinking about hiking in to a high mountain lake this weekend to search for them. It is getting late for this year, but next summer I'm hoping to do some serious backpacking up in the mountains and the high lakes will be my main goal, hopefully for greenbacks!