Dry Fly Fishing Day Success - CDC and Elk

Flows hadn't changed much, wading was still difficult and some stretches remained too high to fish.  Still, I was able to catch cutthroat trout throughout the day on this front range Colorado creek and have another great day.  This time I caught all of my trout on dry flies, as I had hoped and planned, with the larger, deeper pools still fishing nicely.

The day started out on the right foot with some found money.  I guess it covered a bit of the gas at least.

I headed upstream.

And started producing fish on top using the CDC and Elk flies I tied up over the last couple of weeks.

The size 16's did really well and, it turned out, were the only flies I needed.  

The CDC helps this fly float very well, but does require a bit of maintenance.  The fly is also not overly durable, stripping down to bare hook after a few fish.  I'm glad they are easy to tie because they do seem a bit disposable.  I am planning to strip the hooks and retie the chewed up ones to make up a bit for their disposability.

For a day with a questionable weather forecast, the fishing was superb with sight fishing and dry flies being very successful.  So successful that I earned both a celebration stream donut and a celebration stream beer before heading back to the car.

Driving down the canyon towards home, I made a few casual stops and came up one trout short of a trout grand slam.  I hadn't even thought about it, but now I'm intrigued.

Although not large, the brook trout and the brown trout made me realize how realistic a trout grand slam is for this drainage.  I just need to zero in on those rainbow trout I guess.

All in all a great day and I couldn't have asked for anything else other than more time on the water, but who wouldn't.  Over the next week or two, I will be focused on replacing the lost and mangled flies and planning my next adventure.  I hope you have an upcoming adventure that has you excited as well.

Fly Tying - CDC and Elk - Prepping for a Dry Fly Day

Two weeks ago, stream flows were high and the cutthroat trout were feeding subsurface.  At the end of the day, one trout took an elk hair caddis off the surface in a shallow run.

With flows now lower and the desire to catch trout on dry flies, I figured I needed one last versatile dry fly pattern in the box.

So, I got myself some grey CDC feathers and started to crank out some CDC and Elk flies.  Simple and quick, I'm hoping these flies will help entice a few more of those colorful, Colorado cutthroat trout to the surface.

Only three materials to tie to the hook.  CDC, Elk Hair and thread.

I tied them up in both size 16... 

and 20 for some variety.

Sometimes it's just about catching fish, but sometimes it's about catching a certain fish or a fish in a certain way.  This time around, I am hoping to catch fish on dry flies and these late additions to the fly box should help with that.  I will let you know how I do.