Tight Lines
Senior Member
That's right for sure...hard to beat a #10-14 Stimmy!Yeah, it's been extremely rare that I've encountered fish that were so picky I've had to play the micro game.
The morning we absolutely tore them up, I started out with a big bushy Stimmy, #10 or maybe even #8 with a dropper. (Steve, you know the dropper I'm talking about) When they started attacking the Stimmy more than the dropper, I clipped it off and went straight dry fly. Just like here, #12 or #14 in a generic attractor pattern will generally wear them out.
In my experience, two things amaze people who've never fished out West before...one is the quantity, size and color of the fish which you stated, and the other is the size of the flies that produce large, even monster trout. That is certainly not a prerequisite...but it is one consistent observation over the last 30 years of fishing out there with new folks...they always comment on that...
It just all depends on the time of year, stream/river/creek, and what they tend to be eating...
Up at higher elevations in the freestones where they have to work for their food (where you were), they are way less picky than the tailwaters, which is the majority of the consistent rivers out West like the Taylor, Yampa, Cheeseman, Dream Stream, San Juan, Blue, Frying Pan, etc...while some tailwaters like the Piney are consistent, they almost fish like a spring creek with small flies and very technical approaches...similar to the Tarryall meandering through South Park, which is also technically a tailwater, but also fishes more like a spring creek at times...the Colorado is all three depending on where you are and what time of year you hit it...
The true spring creeks like DePuy's or Armstrong's are super technical, small flies, and extremely spooky fish...#18-20 on 6X or 7X...if you net a half a dozen in a day there, you probably killed it! It's a test of your skill with those uppity trout...
On the Henry's Fork I've used everything from a #4 white clouser to a #18 mosquito, while on the Green last summer where we missed the big bug hatches, we were fishing #18 parachutes behind a #12 Stimmy and absolutely killed the browns, probably 95% hit the #18...on 6X...
Mix it up and get north to Labrador, you can fish huge bugs on 4X with a 6 wt. and kill the monster brookies in freestones between lakes...they hit like bass on the mouse patterns...
All part of what makes fly fishing so fun and interesting to me...there are lots of different beautiful places, and all have their nuances...and I love that!