The Hopper Juan: fishing the arkansas river

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

BWO Time!!

After spending some time on the water the last few weeks, now is the time to get moving and make sure you have those patterns you rely on. Right now, it's BWO time. You have to make sure you have the lifecycle of this bug, from nymph to emerge to dun. I've had a couple days with fish looking and feeding on duns on the Arkansas River. They were also feeding well on nymphs and emergers too, so don't ignore that stage of the lifecycle. I've attached a video of the CDC Sparkle Dun. It's a go to pattern for me on top and it's an easy fly to tie. I used a TMC 2488 hook on this video, but you can certainly use a standard TMC 100 or 101 hook. Get out and have fun!
CDC Sparkle Dun from Juan Ramirez-Hopper Juan on Vimeo.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Arkansas River 04/08/11

Arkansas River, CO

I was finally able to get out yesterday, the first time this year. I used to be able to get out more, but right now my free days are filled with laundry, grocery shopping trips, kids and fly tying demos. My time on the river has been replaced with the time behind the vice.
I hit the Arkansas River with a couple of friends and it was pretty good. The fish were eager to eat and there were even some BWOs coming off despite clear skies. The wind wasn't as bad as I thought it would be although it was blowing all day. The set up was a Hopper Juan on top, followed by a #14 Golden Stone and a #16 Royal Gorgeous Caddis (RGC). The RGC was the early favorite with many fish eating it. In a different stretch of water, the Golden Stone was the favorite. As the day went on, I switched to an Ice Emerger as the last fly. A few fish came on it, but the caddis was still the preferred fly, although my friends had success with a Barr Emerger.

The Three Amigos

The set up I used worked great on the water I was fishing. I was usually running through knee deep water and both my bottom flies had tungsten beads to get deep. I think this is the best way to fish the Arkansas River or any fast pocket water stream. It's a lot of fun and I thought of switching to dries or a bugger yesterday, but they way I was fishing was producing so why not stay with it. As summer rolls around, I hope to be able to provide more fish pictures and stories. Today will be laundry day and grocery shopping day mixed in with some fly tying. I am already planning the next trip!