The Big Thompson – 7/5/2010

There were lots of activities going on at Estes Park this weekend. The fireworks were great, the weather was outstanding, and the fly fishing was on fire! I experimented with a few new locations starting at Sleepy Hollow and moving up stream from there about 2 miles, an area a bit farther away from Estes than I normally frequent. While the flow was a bit fast, the smaller pools and cutbanks were producing quite well. I was using brown stonefly patterns size 12 and a deep blue poison tung size 18. Add a little extra weight due to the flow level and don’t forget to start your drift in the faster water as the heaviest strikes will often occur just as the drift enters the slower areas.