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Fishing report: Angling opportunities abound

Will Sands
Special to The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado

BASALT – There certainly are plenty of angling opportunities out there, despite all the talk of possible flooding and historic runoff levels. This week the Fryingpan has been fishing very well from about mid-river up to Ruedi Dam. The controlled releases from the dam are an angler’s saving grace amidst the peak runoff on other area rivers.

Blue-winged olive hatches have been prevalent and mysis shrimp have been spilling out of the dam in great numbers. Other options this week might include hiking to lower-elevation lakes and ponds.

Timing can be everything. Anglers should focus their efforts from 10 a.m. into the afternoon and evening. Early mornings are still a bit inconsistent due to water temperatures. Blue-winged olives have been most active from 10 a.m. on, and the sweet spot has been noon to three p.m.



Dry-fly activity has been marginal with the bright beautiful weather; a little overcast would change that altogether. Anglers should focus on fishing a mix of BWO nymphs and emergers throughout the river. Mysis shrimp patterns beneath the dam or glo-bug patterns throughout the river certainly have been choice lead flies.

The hot nymphs this week have been rojos, batwing emergers, BLMs, juju baetis, sparkle RS2s, mojo-mysis, epoxy mysis and Tim’s mysis, cat poohs and 20-inchers. Dry-fly must-haves would be para-emergers, sparkle duns, no-hackles, perfect baetis and hackle duns.




Try dropping in local shops where river access maps and local up-to-the-minute knowledge can be attained.