Stopped in there yesterday for an hour and not even a sight of trout anywhere. I must be getting old or something. I was below the power plant and didn't get bit at all. Where are the fish in this river? Where should I go when I head up there next week? The board at Sportsmans showed they were hitting caddis and mayfly surface flies ... presented both and not even a look.
Any help would be appreciated!
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Try going up in the canyon itself. All the lower stretches of the stream are too warm for trout anymore. Go to the first picninc pullout once inside the canyon, or any of the pullouts after that and you should find them.
You can also try small blade spinners in some of the deeper "holes"
But pretty much any little drop off where the water gets deeper than 10" will have trout in there. Not a ton per hole but you can make a fun afternoon of it.
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drive up about 15-20 minutes and you will find a deep, flat stretch of water right before you go past spruces campground. That is the best spot in the whole canyon (at least in this humble fisherman's opinion[
]) the aforementioned flies should work well (I always seem to do well on pmd patterns throughout the summer along with caddis patterns). And just like pookiebar said, try small spinners I would suggest a small gold panther martin. So don't give up on big cottonwood, it really is a fun little hole to fish once you've figured out how to fish it!
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I think the lower section where you fished still has fish around because I've caught them there many times this time of year. Many times I have gone there and fished and swore that the fish were gone and then right at dark, I'll catch a few. Often this time of year they just don't get active until it's almost dark. I've seen that on many rivers this time of year.
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