Arkansas River, June 2012

I was able to get out a little over the weekend.  I fished the late afternoon on the Ark.  It was hot and the fish knew it.  They were not too interested in eating a lot on the surface during the heat of the day.  After the clouds came in, it was good until the sun came back out.  Once the afternoon sun got lower, the fish responded a little better.  It wasn't until the late evening that they were really cooperative, but that only lasted for a half hour or so.  I camped in my car that night at Salida East.  I had to share my bed with Buddy and Miles.  They are pretty much bed hogs.  After falling asleep, I received a phone call and somehow I ended up breaking my glasses in the process of looking for the phone in the dark, proceeded to set my car alarm off around 10:30 PM for about a minute before I found my keys to turn it off, had to go to the Salida Wal-Mart to look for parts to fix my glasses and then sneak back into the campground after setting my car alarm off and loading my crap up and then come back to the campground and unload all my crap again.  By then it was 11:30PM.  I had an old pair of eye glasses that got me to Wal-Mart and back, but I wonder what the people who saw me thought.  My "back up glasses were broken also.  Oh well.  I stayed that night and slept with the dogs and got up the next morning and headed out.  I fish a section with a streamer and had a few misses.  I moved on to other stretches, but it was still early and the fish not too active.  I finally found a great stretch of water and proceeded to fish it hard.  I also proceeded to find out I had a leak in my fairly new waders.  What else could go wrong?  Oh, I hit my rod hard with my cone head Sculpzilla.  It was my Hardy Zenith, so they claim it is up to 60% stronger than regular graphite.  After a hit like that, I believe them.  The sun was bright and the fish ate--every once in a while.  I caught a few, but not like I was expecting. The water was great looking, but the fish just were not eating my bugs like they should have.  The wind came up and was blowing steady about 20-30 mph.  I finally had enough around 11:30 and left.  The fishing was only ok for me.  It was the heat and the wind that did me in.  The good flies were the Hopper Juan and a Prince Nymph as well as a Sculpzilla.  A CDC caddis also moved some fish that shied away from the bigger hopper.  I would guess the fishing during the heat of the day is going to be tough for a while until we get some rain and clouds.  The fish just don't really want to come up on the surface with the sun beating down on them.  But the evenings are great, they just don't last that long!  

Perfect looking water.  

The boys having a ball!

Just chillin'

MFC Godzilla Sculpin.  The same as a Sculpzilla.  This was money in the evening.  

Caught some on Turk's Tarantula

This one turned down the Turk's and ate a CDC Caddis.