Grape Ck Outing 04Jun24

With the freestones mostly raging, the decent flowing tailwaters too crowded, and the alpine trails snowy and muddy, I chose to hit Grape Ck. I dropped in via the West Bear Gorge access; it's always an adventure. With #115 under construction it was 1 hr to Canon City; it was an additional 40min out to the West Bear turn; it was 30 min (1 album worth) down the 8mi 4WD path to the creek. I donned my Chota ultralight hip waders and Astral ultralight boots.

I was on the water 30 min or so later after rigging and walking 1.4 mi downstream to begin my pass back up. I moved past the barbed wire through fisherman access another 1/4 mile or so downstream and the wended my way back upstream to the car via the "upper" access point to the Crusher Too. Grape Ck is a quasi-tailwater tributary of the Ark available when other streams are in snowmelt runoff conditions.

Actually the ~60cfs here today was decently high (though I did cross in strategic spots) and the water was off color a bit. I kicked up plenty of yellow hoppers on the access gulch so went with a hopper dropper rig led by a #14 electric yellow chubby (I sense some of the wiser fish rejected it, especially on slower water). Given it's a trib of the Ark I rigged the Rodfather Endless Wisdom (ERN 2.8) like the Ark with trailer of chartreuse CDC caddis and rainbow warrior, to pierce the off-color water. I changed to BHFBPT during the meager mayfly hatch. My rigs worked decently well but nearly all the fish were in pockets along the banks. I caught nothing in typically great runs (I am a smidge early here) and tongues. The fish are NOT spread out yet at these flows.. they are bank-hugging. I nabbed ~20 fish but only landed about a dozen over 4 hours; 75% were on the chubby (read ~ fun AF). All were 10"-12" browns basically like those shown. I dropped quite a few with my landing technique today of flying them to hand mostly... I rarely used the net. No rainbows, which is a bit off for me on this stretch. The day was overcast but very warm and near hook-ups did leave me with a couple of tree rig losses behind me. Dang it.

Wildflowers are "on" here but few cactus had bloomed; I saw one. It was a blast being on Grape Ck as the only guy in the area all day. It's a beautiful spot. Downside was that no mates were able to join on the "investment" down West Bear.

Decent Outing But High Flows & Turbid Water @ Grape Ck 07Jun23

I arrived at the bottom of West Bear gulch @ 11:30am after the 11.6 mi drive on the 30mph washboard dirt road followed by the 3.2 mi on 3mph 4wd  trail. No incidents but the flows were pretty high @ ~150cfs and the water was muddy from a bunch of recent rain. I caught a couple dozen small German browns in a two hours on Grape Ck. I hiked down 3/4 mile and fished back upstream to the car. It was a nice 65° day in partial sun and there were plenty of new flowers blooming in the canyon, though I spied only one cactus blossom. The rig included the fun 2.5wt 8'6" Rodfather Endless Wisdom in purple and #14 UV cream chubby with Perdigon and then a tungsten BHFBPT. Everybody played but the bulk of fish came on the pheasant tail or chubby. The creek was very swollen and muddy and conditions were not ideal... NP; it was great getting out to this remote and beautiful spot ~ I was the only fisherman. Thunder came and I did not want to drive these roads during a storm, so I left earlier than planned.

Ragin'...

Bloomin'...

Here's the map...

50 Fish Day On Grape Ck 16Jun22

It's June and Greg was right, Grape Ck was hot and hot. It was over 90° as I left on the still-really-shitty 4WD road out, but fishing was fire. The fish are not big here, I'm showing the better ~15"ers, but they seem eager for almost anything (though I did get some rejections on the dry) and the flows were a smidge low but great for wet wading in the Astrals. Wet wading made it pretty comfortable. I used a tan UV Chubby and BHPT dropper all day and scored 2/3 on the dropper and 1/3 on the floater. I hiked downstream from the end of the road in West Bear Gulch at 10:30am for about 3/4 mile and was scoring ~15/hr on my way back to the car. There were a lot more rainbows caught on this outing than in prior years for me here; over half were 'bows. I wielded the Rodfather Lightning Rod 8'2" fast 3wt - it seemed perfect and shot 30 ft well but only snagged in one tree. Fun day, brutal drive. I guess 50 fish days can still be had in the Arkansas River Canyon, just not on the Ark itself, at least not by me.

Fremont Co Rod & Ride ~ One Weight Fun On Grape Ck & Cholla Attack On Temple Canyon Trails 24Jun21

Yoho and I headed to Grape Ck today for some fishing for mostly small browns on this fine Arkansas River tributary. We first hit the creek after plunging down the West Bear gulch access. The Crusher Too navigated the 4WD road with skill. Fortunately we both caught gobs of fish, mostly browns yet some rainbows too, but we also attracted many little brown gnats seeking every orifice.  Some deet offered a bit of respite but you still knew they were there. Flows of ~85cfs seemed perfect for this stretch, which we hit when other rivers are raging from runoff. We were wading light today and we were both wielding ultralight 1 wt Rodfather gear for extra fun - rigged dry dropper with a cream UV chubby Chernobyl on top and various caddis or mayfly BH droppers. I did manage one larger stronger 14" Scottish brown which took me 200ft downstream on the 1 wt - I finally landed him right near Jim who snapped the pic.

 

After lunch we chose to try another section of Grape Ck of which I knew, which was closer to some new MTB trails in Temple Canyon Park we intended to try. The bridge over Grape Ck at the west end of the park had good parking and easy access to the creek but it was more overgrown with willows here than @ West Bear ~ same damn brown gnats though. We again caught many fish on the same rigs, mostly browns. The 1st field trial of the Rodfather SB1, an 8'4" 4pc 1wt, was successful ~ I quickly learned I needed less leader in order to load the rod properly on a smallish stream. The rod is a lot like the Sage and is a lot lighter and less powerful than the Rodfather #1.

We wrapped up fishing at 5pm or so and headed over to the upper parking lot of the Temple Canyon MTB trails. We took Great Escape, Hard Times, Shivs, Redemption and the Road. Great ride but for the attack of an unseen cholla which rendered my right leg and butt numb for a bit... I'm still removing the needles.

 

Grape Ck Outing With Two Weight Field Trial 23Jun20

Jim, Scott and I headed down to Grape Ck today. It was a mostly a very nice day though we did unfurl the canopy on the Crusher during lunchtime rains. I caught a number of browns including a couple nicer ~14"ers like the one shown where Jim took the pic of me (it was just before lunch and I was at the agreed meeting spot and hooked up basically just as they arrived) and several other ~10"ers like those shown. It was a decent day for me but the rest of the team were not as lucky - except to say we were all in a very cool and very remote spot. The 4WD road down was as brutal as ever and was even littered with longhorns on the way back out.

The wildflowers were strange and gorgeous.

 

This outing also saw the first field test for the drc #1, a 9ft 2wt rod. The blank and parts were pretty inexpensive but the rod was fine. It does not deliver as refined and accurate a cast as my factory rods - there is a smidge of left-right error introduced on the shot but the cast, feel, and balance are excellent. Sure landing decent fish with it, especially since we left the nets at the car, was a bit challenging, but fun.