Matt was eager to get back to the Yampa tailwater, and I knew why when we arrived. I had forgotten how much fun it was to fish this river. The river is full of 18-22 inch rainbows and they are all eager to take a well presented fly. We headed up to his favorite pool, up near the dam, and right away spotted a nice rainbow in the 21-22 inch range. I headed one pool down and within a couple of casts I had hooked and landed a nice 18 inch bow. Matt finally hooked up with his fish, which bolted downstream into the faster current. I chased downriver after it and after a long sprint down river, he guided the fish over into the net. We continued to work our way downriver, catching a fish or two out of every pool. We finally each settled down on two pools that were just loaded with fish. I spotted a bright red rainbow close to 20 inches and it took my fly after a couple of casts. After a short fight I had the fish landed and took a quick photo. I continued fishing the hole, hooking into fish every 4-5 casts. Out of nowhere, a huge fish swam through the hole and took a swipe at my fly. I missed it and it quickly bolted back under a ledge. The ledge had faster water coming over it and it would be impossible to get a fly down to where the fish was. I stayed in the same hole the rest of the night, hoping that the fish would come out again so I would have another chance at it.

We returned early the next day, just as the sun was coming up. We had the river pretty much to ourselves for the first few hours of the day. I headed back to the same hole hoping for a shot at the fish from the prior day, while Matt headed further upriver. I had landed a couple of nice rainbows in the 18-20 inch range, with a lot of smaller fish, when the fish again swam through the hole. He hunkered down on the bottom for maybe a minute or two before heading back under the ledge again. He took a look at my flies, but didn't seam real interested. I decided to give the hole a rest and we continued fishing downriver to the private section. We caught some real nice fish downriver, a lot of fish in the 20-22 inch range and Matt even managed a nice 23 inch female. I briefly hooked into what Matt said was a large brown before it took me down over a waterfall before coming off. Even further downriver I worked what I thought was a large bow, only to land it and find out it was a large whitefish. We came back up to the meadows section in the evening and saw a couple of fish rising. The fish were picky, but we managed to catch a fish or two off the top on a griffiths gnat.

We arrived early again the next morning and I again headed to the same hole, hoping for one last shot at the fish I had seen the prior two days. The fishing was hot and we were both catching nice fish every couple of casts. Matt hollered that he was hooked into a nice brown and I ran up with the net. It was a beautiful bright orange fish, with lots of spots and a bright yellow belly.

I headed back down to my spot and sure enough the big fish was back. This fish seemed to have a little more girth than the others we were catching and I watched as she swam over into some faster water. I decided to change flies and my first cast through I was hooked up... With the fish next to her. It was a nice male in the 20-21 inch range. I quickly landed him, keeping my eye on the female that was still holding in the current. I could tell she was feeding, but I would need another split shot to get down to her. A couple of casts later and I was hooked up again. The fish bolted into some weeds and after some coaxing it came up and rolled on the surface. It was the big female! I yelled at Matt to hurry downriver with the net. She buried herself in the weeds again, but I was able to get her out and turned over into some quieter water. She took a couple more short runs, trying to break the line on some boulders. She was finally getting tired and I was able to get her over the Matt with the net. She was a chunky fish in the 24-25 inch range, a heavily spotted cut-bow. We took a quick picture and then she took off downstream. It was a good fish to end on and a good time to end our trip, as I had finally caught the biggest fish of the trip.

The river was slightly lower than it had been in the spring and there didn't seem to be quite as many fish around. The fish were eager to take our flies, with black beauties, zebra midges, red midges, and trout crack working best. We used 5x all three days and didn't seem to have any trouble catching fish. We surprisingly didn't see or catch any brook trout this trip.