Tailwater Rainbows: Olive Pheasant Tails
Headed North yesterday morning with my buddy Joel for a little Rainbow action below Stagecoach Resevoir. We railed the hell out of them on Olive Pheasant Tails and Sparkle Wing RS2’s. After lunch we headed up river towards the dam to hit some pocket water. Joel broke his very expensive ____?____ Rod on his third cast at one of his favorite runs. I had to laugh, because what else can you do? I handed him my rod and posted up on a rock with a high life and spotted fish for him for a few casts. That is how it went for the rest of the afternoon. We spotted fish for eachother and took turns trying to hook them. We saw some monsters hanging in the funkiest of runs but couldn’t get it in front of them. Here are some shots of a couple we fed.
that bottom fish is killer looking … nice.
Believe it or not jbone, most of the bigger fish in there have colorings like that. It is a awesome fishery.
That bottom picture looks like a painting. The fish you’ve been posting are all pretty awesome. Is that a wild fishery?
Joey,
How come your fish are always bigger than the fish Joel catches???
Pete- I wouldn’t be able to tell you an exact answer on that. I don’t think that they stock that river anymore. All the fish in there are colored like that. Especially the larger 18+ fish. There are a ton of scuds in there as well which might give them that bright red.
Zimm- Joel doesn’t have any shuck midges……Can you give a better answer to pete about the yampa fishery?
Pete,
I guess that the term “wild” anymore is subjective. Before the damming of Stagecoach Resevior in 1991, the Yampa was a meandering “stream” stocked on a regular basis. Now I believe it is self-sustaining. I do not believe that they stock it anymore, but I wouldn’t bet any money on it. Every subsequent generation of egg stock gets more “wild”. The fish get huge from all of the food washed through the dam especially protein rich scuds.
Whether truely wild or not, it totally rocks. Joey is the King of the Yampa.
Thanks Zimm- I am far from the “king of the yampa” but I do enjoy fishing there. How could you not?
Hey, without stocking there is no trout fishing near where I live, so I wasn’t passing judgement either way. In my book holdovers become more wild with each passing season and their first generation of frye are born wild, so that’s that.
I was more curious because you all seem to be catching big, beautiful fish on a consistent basis. I don’t know much about western fishing, but it looks like you guys have it pretty good. No stripers, though.
No harm taken Pete, I just wanted to give you the best answer I could. The fishing is nice out here. No Stripers, but we do have wipers……Anytime you find your way out here look me up.
j-