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Private Waters

There are many advantages to fly fishing private waters over public waters. Most notably, the lack of other anglers. This feeling of privacy while fly fishing is worth a great deal to anglers who have had to put up with the elbow to elbow fly fishing experience at their favorite stream or lake. Private waters can be a very pleasant introduction to beginners who have never experienced the solitude of fly fishing on a secluded stream or lake. While solitude is often the case when fly fishing at any one of the Boulder Mountain ‘s remote lakes or streams, it is never guaranteed on public waters. There is much more control over the number of anglers and solitude is a certainty on private waters.

The possibility of hooking a real trophy size wild brown or rainbow trout is quite good when you fish at this beautiful private lake in Boulder. These fish are not stocked in this lake. They are all wild trout that have been born in this lake and subsist naturally. They is no supplemental feeding here. We cast barb-less flies to these wild trout and as always, all fish that are hooked and landed are gently released.

The wild rainbow trout above was born in the stream that flows into this small but deep lake. This fish has the vivid coloration typical of wild rainbows. There is an obvious contrast between this wild trout and the stocked rainbow trout that most anglers are used to catching where they normally fish. The difference is apparent in the way these fish will fight compared to their domestic cousins. Wild rainbow trout are known for their leaping when hooked on the fly. It is common for one of these large trout to leap as many as six times, often shaking the hook on the last leap! While it is always very gratifying to bring a huge wild trout to the net, losing one this way is just as rewarding.

There are very large wild brown and brook trout inhabiting this small lake as well. When you are making long casts with a sink tip line or just a weighted fly and making a slow retrieve, you never know what is going to grab your fly. Your next fish could be a wild brown trout so big that even if you are able to bring him to the net, he may not fit, like the large brown in the image above.

Many of the wild rainbow in this lake will exhibit some cutthroat characteristics due to the fact that there are cutthroat trout in the higher reaches of the small wild trout stream that supplies the water and the brood stock for this lake. Anglers occasionally catch very large “cuttbows” like the fish above. There is the obvious slight orange slash under the jaw as well as orange spots on the underside. The fins on some cuttbows are also pale orange with little or no spotting.

Another advantage to private waters is the close proximity to local lodging facilities. This small lake and the adjoining stream are just minutes away from your hotel room in Boulder. You can leave the comfort of your hotel room and be seated in a comfortable chair on the water such as a floattube. Using a floattube is a very effective method for catching the large trout in a small but deep lake like this.

Anglers in floattubes are able to employ sink tip lines and leech patterns to reach big trout that lurk near the bottom structure. It is not uncommon for floattube anglers to feel that the trout is pulling them around as they fight the fish!

The wild trout in these private waters feed on most of the same invertebrates and terrestrial insects as the trout in the lakes of Boulder Mountain. Calibaetis mayfly spinners are on the water here every morning during the summer months. Big trout will cruise very closely along the shoreline in the early morning gently slurping the helpless mayflies as they lay spent on the calm surface.

Whenever clouds come up throughout the day, Calibaetis mayfly duns will suddenly appear on the surface of the water. There is nothing more exiting than watching a huge wild brown trout in excess of eight pounds slowly working his way down the shoreline taking calibaetis duns as he goes and the next one on the surface, twitching in front of him is your size 14 Adams! A good false casting technique and a very delicate presentation is crucial here if you want to hook one of these monsters.

Swarms of midge constantly hovering over the water indicate that these tiny insects are an important food source for the big trout that inhabit these waters. Midge can account for a big portion of stillwater trout diet most of the year. It is not necessarily the adult midge that the trout are interested in but rather the emerging midge and the midge larva that the trout are feeding on constantly.

Damselflies are also ever present on this small lake from May through September. A variety of damselfly nymph patterns are very effective fished just under the surface with a slow jerky retrieve. Emerging damselflies swim from all points in the lake towards shoreline cover where they eventually crawl out and complete their emergence.

At this stage, damselflies like the one above are not exhibiting their familiar blue color. These insects are a drab olive to green color while they are in the nymph stage. It is only after they have emerged and are out of the water for one or two days that they attain their familiar bright blue color. You can see these drab colored newly emerged insects crawling about on the reeds, drying their wings in readiness for their first clumsy flight out over the water where many of them end up again, blown by a gust of wind, right into the mouths of the waiting trout like the mature Northern Bluet Damselfly on the water below. This insect is fair game for a fast trout.

Leeches definitely inhabit this lake and trout will show how much they appreciate them by smashing your wooly bugger as you wind drift in your floattube! There are large patches of reeds that line the banks. Trout will frequent these reed banks picking of the emerging damsels. A floattube or pontoon boat will allow an angler to drift along, a short distance from these reed banks casting to rising trout with a dry, a damselfly nymph or even trolling a leech pattern.

Call Steve Stoner at 1- 435-335-7306 Your call will always be returned

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