Dayz On The Arkansas In Pueblo & The Pop Top Works 07Nov22-08Nov22

I took some more fall days on the Ark in Pueblo. Day 1 led me to Nature Center. Most of the cottonwoods have lost their leaves here ~ and I  spotted lots more evidence of nighttime brown spawning as the beds are more obvious now. It was a foggy and overcast morning, which was a little cold, but that led to a great mid-day mayfly hatch.. definitely #22 and greyish-brown. The fish especially loved the spinner fall but I hate fishing those things, so I stayed nymphing and things go slower for me. I caught a number of fish today but nothing too big... catches seemed to strangely to land mostly on even numbers this day, all cutbows - 12', 14", 16", but a 17". The rainbow warrior weight worked, Destiny's Child worked best during the hatch, the mercury midge worked and the new Pop Top midge worked! Visibility is a bit better than on my last outing, but not clear - I tied on a silver surfer thinking that'd work in the green haze but it didn't; other #22 BWO imitations were better. The RFT5 was a mighty and useful tool. I did loose my entire rig once on a seeming larger fish but alas...

Day 2 I was bound for town. I was the only fisherman car at the football stadium... but others park elsewhere I guess ~ even by 9am this day the run above 4th street was occupied, as was the walkbridge hole. Undaunted however, and wielding the lighter Rodfather Diamon Blaze 4 wt, I dropped in above 4th street and fished up to the bridge then skipped there to fish the weirs above it. Again I caught lots of fish, many ~12" rainbows looked like stockers to me, but a caught a couple better fish. Today again there was a #22 fall BWO hatch mid-day, and then the pesky spinner fall (note to self: "tie some drowned spinners"). I did scare a couple of big fish with a clunky approach, but did not catch any. Destiny's Child, mercury midge, Pop Top and rainbow warrior again did the work. The day was a gorgeous 70° in Pueblo but the town section is just trashy ~ why folks don't care for these fisheries I just don't know. I did catch an 18" sucker and a weed packet with 2 other guys' lines and flies in it.

With the Pop Top working well, I am out, and I need to find a more certain way to keep the attractor tuft in place; it migrated sometimes.. I'm guessing cyanoacrylate if that won't clump the thorax too badly.