HONEY HOLE

One look at the raging chocolate shake that is the Uncompahgre River right now and it would seem that fishing in the region is a total loss. Not so.

Even with that muddy water pushing a line into Ridgway Reservoir the fishing is great for both browns and rainbows in various portions of the reservoir. From what Jerry at the Ridgway Conoco has been hearing, Boat Dock Bay is producing plenty of good-sized rainbows for those using bait (worms and PowerBait) and dark-colored lures including Kastmasters, Rapalas and spinners.

If Boat Dock Bay gets a little crowded this weekend, take your rigs on over to Cheater’s Gate where fishing the mud line has been working well. Remember, if using spinners, dark colors (copper, gold) are working the best.

And for those who have the means of trolling across Ridgway Reservoir by boat, Jerry recommends jigging Kastmasters and Rapalas. Apparently, that method has produced some big browns for anglers in the past few weeks.

If you are looking to wet a fly this weekend, the rivers in the area are just out of the question (except maybe Pa-Co-Chu-Puk) so do what one of my jobless fly-fishing cohorts did last week and head over to Chipeta State Park just south of Montrose for an adventure in pond fly-fishing.

He admitted to me he wasn’t sure if his caddis was going to compare to the salmon eggs and night crawlers most anglers were using that day, but as it turned out, the dry-fly was a nice change for the small rainbows and bass. Now neither he nor I have ever been real fans of fly-fishing still water but he had a pretty damn good time that day. Every cast was a surprise with different species of fish going after the fly.

Chipeta State Park is the perfect place to take anyone who is looking to learn to fly-fish during this season. Casting the fly to setting the hook will become second-hand for beginners here as strikes right now happen often. Skills such as stripping your line for fly movement are also fun to learn here. What Chipeta State Park won’t teach is dead drifting and mending the line, but hey, if the hook-set is learned, what else do you need?

Have a good weekend in the areas state parks and be cautious near the banks of rivers during these peak flow times. Cheers.