Glenwood Springs – This was an argument that scarcely came easily to a man tip-toeing along a river rushing past his hips at a volume not lately associated with a day in the middle of July.
But Jay Cronk gave it his best shot.
“We’ve got 92 years of flow history for the Roaring Fork River at Glenwood Springs and, actually, what we have this year is about normal,” said Cronk, a tall, angular man rarely given to outrageous thought. “It’s just that we’ve gotten so used to low flows lately.”
Pragmatist that he is, the veteran river guide retraced the pattern: 2,200 cubic feet per second on a warm day last week, 800 on the same date in 2004.
“We’re very thankful for a solid snow year,” Cronk said, watching the last good squeeze from that ample snowpack gush past on a day when the 100-degree temperature in the valley pushed a hot-air blast far up into the highest mountain crannies.
As he spoke, a blizzard of aquatic insects swarmed over the river, demanding an entomologist’s guidebook to name them all. To get a handle on the bottom line, an angler must jump sciences, from biology to math, big water, more bugs and, ultimately, bigger fish.
Not that anyone has to wait to appreciate this equation. Here was Cronk in a nondescript section of the Fork near the upstream town limits – the mayhem of afternoon commuter traffic steaming close by – hooking fish on almost every cast.
Granted that a man who works as a guide for Roaring Fork Anglers in Glenwood Springs (970-945-0180) can catch trout better than most. But his success rate using a double-nymph rig to maximize a couple feet of visibility bordered on something you would expect from a Canadian wilderness or maybe another planet.
So much for the theory that you have to wait for rivers to shrivel down into the midstream boulders to catch trout. Fact is, when heavy water pushes energy-conscious trout out into the margins nearer shore, they become sitting ducks for anglers nimble enough to go with the flow.
Amid a riot of insects whose progeny should flourish with the higher flows, a fly-fisher now can choose among three or four species of caddis, Red Quill mayflies, Yellow Sally stoneflies and, of course, that giant of the Colorado mayflies, the one called Green Drake.
Despite heavy flows that should plunge rapidly after this last heat squeeze, dry-fly fishing has been remarkably good, particularly with a fly that serves as an early season catch-all on most Western rivers.
A hungry trout might take a Stimulator for a caddis, a stonefly or perhaps even a grasshopper. Who knows? That particular interview remains unfinished. Suffice to say that the pattern floats well, is easy to see and trout eat it like popcorn.
Drew Reid, who manages the Roaring Fork shop, touts the Stimulator in orange or yellow in sizes 12 to 16 when used as a point fly, a bit larger in 8 to 12 when employed as an indicator. Trailing a nymph a couple of feet below proves a particularly effective strategy.
“A red Copper John works best,” said Reid, who also mentioned a Pheasant Tail nymph.
Anglers who take their dry-fly fishing with a flourish target the big Green Drakes that emerge toward evening, sometimes earlier under heavy cloud cover. Reid recommends a CDC Parachute or a hair-winged pattern, sizes 10 to 12, to imitate the adult Drake. For the nymph, it’s an epoxy-back pattern or the new Barr Tung Teaser.
Battling the heat and a midday sun, Cronk settled on a separate nymphing strategy that, if nothing else, demonstrated that any logical fly selection will catch fish right now on the Roaring Fork. A Little Yellow Sally, size 14 as his first fly, a standard stonefly, size 12, riding a foot below.
On his first cast, Cronk landed a fat whitefish, then hooked and lost a nice trout with the second. So it went until monotony and a sudden thunderstorm pushed him away: A strike on every second drift, trout in the swifter side currents, whitefish in the soft water closer to shore.
You can make a solid case for the Roaring Fork, the largest undammed river in Colorado, as the state’s finest. Again, it’s that old equation of big water and big fish. After this year’s return to a typical runoff pattern, that association won’t change soon.
Listen to Charlie Meyers at 9 a.m. each Saturday on “The Fan Outdoors,” radio KKFN 950 AM. He can be reached at 303-820-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
