Say what you want about Rocky Ford Creek fishing experience--how it's technical, or too crowded or full of tame fish or whatever. Every so often I need to get my big trout fix and when I had a meeting in Ephrata, the Ford beckoned.
Spent Saturday night sleeping in Big Red. Sunday morning broke a bit cool, so cool that I had to warm my butane stove using Big Red's heater before the fuel would ignite so I could heat water for french press coffee. Breakfast done, it was time to fish. Started with D'Dub's Lazy Leech in black followed by a Black Gold. For the first couple of hours the biggest challenge was not the ice in the guides, it was frozen reel and the line freezing to the rod. A weak sun finally raised the temperature to cure those issues.
The fishing was interesting--the catching was on fire. After so many fish I lost count, I started giving slack when a small fish hit. The fish were aggressive, willing to take either the leech or chironomid pattern. Made no difference whether it was dead-drifted or quickly stripped. At least three times, I hooked a fish on the chironomid and had a bigger fish take the leech.
How good was the fishing? I closed out the day with eight fish in eleven casts. Called it a day after breaking off both flies.
About Me
- The Fishing Writer
- First fly-caught fish was a trout on a Brown Bivisible 50 years ago. Aside from some years foolishly spent playing golf, I've been fishing ever since.