Time: 10:45AM – 4:00PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 04/23/2025 Photo Album

I should have returned to the Eagle River. Well, not really, but Tuesday failed to meet my high expectations. I marked April 23 as an Eleven Mile Canyon day, after I noticed that the high temperature in Lake George was forecast to be 65 degrees with wind speeds in the upper single digits and fairly heavy cloud cover in the afternoon.

I arrived at my standard parking place a bit after 10:00AM, and the dashboard temperature displayed fifty degrees. I was wearing a long sleeve thermal undershirt, and I added my fleece hoodie and my rain jacket as a windbreaker. My Sage One five piece was once again chosen as my casting stick.

A Good Place to Start

As was the case during my last visit to Eleven Mile, I decided to focus my energies on the pockets and faster sections between the pools, until I observed consistent rising fish. In response to this strategy I began fly fishing with a size 8 gray-bodied chubby Chernobyl and trailed a 20 incher and olive perdigon. I prospected the deep pockets and runs around exposed boulders for the first 1.25 hour, but I failed to coax any action.

By noon I encountered another angler in the long smooth pool with a high vertical rock wall along the west bank, so I circled around him and found a nice rock to perch on, while I consumed my lunch.

This Area Yielded Two Trout

After lunch I decided to change up my flies, as I felt I was packing too much weight with the 20 incher and perdigon, and this was constraining the movement of my nymphs. I replaced the 20 incher with a size 16 beadhead hares ear nymph, and I retained the perdigon. After this change, I landed a rainbow and brown trout in the riffles leading into a nice pool. These fish were in the ten to eleven inch range, but they were much appreciated nonetheless.

Pretty

Next I moved upstream, and I traveled quite a distance with no fish to show for my persistence. I fished some pockets and then the entering runs in two attractive pools, but the fish were apparently suffering a case of lockjaw. The sky darkened at 1:00PM, and I was certain that the chaos of a hatch was imminent.

Produced the Best Fish of the Day

Not wishing to miss out on nymph activity prior to the hatch, I once again revised my lineup, and I switched the olive perdigon to the upper position and replaced the hares ear with a sparkle wing RS2 size 22. Finally in the long riffle section on the western braid above the bend pool, the chubby dipped, and I found myself linked with a hard fighting rainbow trout. I battled the pink striped warrior for a few minutes and eventually slid my net beneath a chunky specimen in the fifteen inch range. The RS2 was tucked in the outer cartilage of the mouth, and I felt very fortunate to land the fish of the day.

Very Pleased with This One

Early Release

My expectations elevated with this catch, but I proceeded to endure another long dry spell. The sky continued to alternate between brief periods of sunshine and longer spans of dense cloud cover. I was perplexed by the lack of baetis action in spite of the near ideal conditions for a mayfly hatch. I persisted with prospecting the dry/dropper arrangement in likely holding lies among the exposed boulders and pockets, and I managed to finally up the fish count to five with two twelve inch brown trout.

Once again, however, I suffered an extended drought, and the RS2 was not receiving attention, so I decided to test the waters with an orange scud. Why? Many years ago orange scuds worked on the South Platte during the late April and May time frame. Eleven Mile Canyon harbors dense aquatic growth, and scuds favor this type of environment. The flows recently increased, so this suggested scuds were dislodged. Although I did not witness any spawning rainbows on this trip, I did see some on April 11, and I theorized that the orange scud could also imitate a rainbow trout egg.

Not long after my fly change, the chubby dipped, and I set the hook, and I was connected to a very vigorous and hard fighting rainbow trout. It jumped several times, and during these aerial acrobatics, I could see that the orange scud was the food of choice! My thought process paid off, but unfortunately this would be the last trout that feasted on the orange scud.

Lowered

I continued drifting it below the olive perdigon, and the perdigon added another fish to boost the fish count to seven. Two anglers approached me from downstream, and another blocked my progression upstream, and it was 3:00PM, so I decided to call it quits. However, instead of mounting the bank with a very dangerous steep lip at the top, I followed the path along the river.

Long Run

In doing so, I revisited a nice long run that fed a deep pool. I skipped this location on my way upstream, since another angler that was working downstream had recently disturbed the area. I paused to observe and immediately spotted a few sporadic rises. I decided to invest more time in pursuit of the risers with dry flies.

Sleek

I removed the dry/dropper paraphernalia, and I tied on a size 20 soft hackle emerger and applied floatant to the body. On the second cast a twelve inch brown trout smash the emerger, and I thought I was in the money. That proved not to be the case. The remaining sporadic risers refused the emerger style fly, so I made yet another change. I added a size 14 peacock hippie stomper and added an eighteen inch 5X leader to the bend and knotted on a size 22 CDC blue wing olive. The ploy worked, and I landed another small trout from the long run, and then I moved downstream to the next extensive pool and fooled two more trout in the entering riffle area. What an ending to my day!

I managed to land eleven trout on the day, and this included a fat fifteen inch rainbow, a feisty fourteen inch rainbow that ate an orange scud, and three respectable brown trout in the twelve inch range. A late and very sparse blue wing olive hatch finally generated some surface feeding, but it was very spotty, although I did manage to capitalize with four trout on a dry fly. The weather was rather nice for the normally icebox-like canyon, and I covered quite a bit of river real estate. It was a slow day, and the expected dense baetis hatch never materialized, but I made the best of it.

Fish Landed: 11

Time: 10:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 04/11/2025 Photo Album

I had my eye on Eleven Mile Canyon with the anticipation of intersecting with a decent blue wing olive hatch. In past Aprils I enjoyed some excellent days on this river with the benefit of abundant quantities of the diminutive mayflies. Early in the week the weather suggested highs in the low seventies with partly cloudy skies for most of the afternoon. The temperature aspect of this forecast remained in place; however, the cloudiness was replaced with bright sunshine and clear skies. I decided to follow through with my commitment, and I made the drive to Eleven Mile Canyon on Friday, April 11, 2025.

Next to the Rocks

I arrived at my usual pullout by 10:00AM, and the dashboard temperature displayed at 51 degrees. In response to the chill, I pulled on my Under Armour long sleeved thermal undershirt, and then I added my fleece cardigan and my raincoat as a windbreaker. It is always windy in the spring in Colorado. For a casting tool I chose my Sage One five weight.

Love the Deep Water Next to the Large Rock

Given the weather forecast and the absence of clouds, I expected very little surface feeding; however, I surmised that baetis nymphs would be active. In response to this thought I began my day with a size 8 chubby Chernobyl trailing a size 16 olive perdigon and a size 22 classic RS2. I also adopted a strategy of skipping the pools in favor of pocket water, moderate riffles and deep current seams.

Perfect Water for My Tastes

In the 1.5 hours until lunch at noon, I managed to land three rainbow trout in the ten to eleven inch range. I also connected momentarily with several fish, and I foul hooked a rainbow that was my best fish of the morning. I might have hooked it in its mouth, but in its efforts to escape, the fish may have shed the upper nymph and been snagged by the trailer.

Melon Color

I adhered to my strategy and skipped around five pools, before I paused for lunch on a nice large and flat rock at noon. After lunch I progressed up the river and skipped around  three additional pools, and several were occupied by other anglers, so that worked out nicely. The other fishermen favored the pools, and they left the intervening pockets for my prospecting.

Humpback Brown

At one o’clock  the drifts that were previously ignored suddenly began to attract attention. Trout began to attack the nymphs especially on the lift and swing. I continued migrating up the river, and I landed an additional seventeen trout to boost my fish count from three to twenty. I would not characterize the action as intense, but it was steady. Three of the landed trout were rainbows in the thirteen inch to sixteen inch range, and I was quite pleased with these catches. Another four were respectable browns of twelve to thirteen inches, and the remainder were beneath the twelve inch threshold.

Seam Produced

Both the perdigon and RS2 delivered results, but the RS2 probably accounted for a higher ratio of netted fish, and that split could have been even greater had the tiny fly held on more temporary hook ups.

Number 19, Best of the Day

I moved at a fairly fast clip and did not dwell in any particular location. In most cases I executed five casts with several being a dead drift and an equal number activated with lifts and swings. The dead drift seemed to work on a directly upstream cast, while the swing and lift were effective on casts across and down.

Angling Competitors

In spite of the lack of clouds, Friday was a splendid day. I hit a new high for a day of fly fishing at twenty landed. The quality of the fish was satisfactory, although the average size was less than Wednesday’s haul, and it fell short of spring trips to the South Platte in previous seasons. I covered .8 mile of the river and adhered to fishing the faster water, and it paid off with solid results. I will continue to look for cloudy, cool days in Eleven Mile Canyon in order to experience the frenzy of a dense hatch and hot dry fly fishing.

Fish Landed: 20

Time: 11:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 03/26/2025 Photo Album

With weather on Wednesday projected to be similar if not nicer than Monday, I booked another fly fishing trip. For this outing I selected the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon. Even the renowned icebox in a canyon was expected to reach high temperatures in the low sixties.

I arrived at my favorite pullout at 11:00AM, and after my usual preparation and a short hike, I was perched along the edge of the river ready to cast by 11:30AM. Because of the shadows and the nine mile per hour wind, I slipped on my Under Armour long-sleeve thermal undershirt, and I added my fleece hoodie along with my rain shell as a windbreaker. I was comfortable for the morning and early afternoon, but I was forced to remove my raincoat and unzipped my fleece during the warmest part of the day from 1:30PM until 2:30PM. My rod choice was my Sage One five weight in the event that I hooked up with a larger than average trout.

Good Start

The flows were quite low at 64 CFS, so I expected technical fishing, but I selected a size 8 amber ice dub chubby Chernobyl nonetheless. I knew that the heavy foam fly would create a splash, when it landed in the river, but I planned to counter that concern by fishing the edges of faster and deeper water. For subsurface offerings I knotted a 20 incher as the top nymph and an olive perdigon as the anchor fly.

Home of Number One

In the hour before I broke for lunch at 12:30PM, I landed two very respectable rainbow trout in the thirteen inch range. Both nabbed the perdigon, and one emerged from a deep pocket, and the other came from a long deep run near the left bank.

Rather Fine

I arrived at the long slow-moving pool with a huge vertical rock wall along the western edge by 12:30PM, and that is where I consumed my lunch. I carefully observed the pool for fish activity, but it remained still and devoid of action. After lunch I waded into the midsection, and I fanned casts to the entering runs and along the fast water seams, but to no avail.

Home of Number Two

A pair of fishermen appeared above me in the next smaller pool, so I crossed below them and walked along the opposite bank. I had my sights set on the large bend pool, but another angler preceded me, and he was stationed along the opposite bank, where one of the braids that bordered a small island reentered the main river. I thought about asking if he would mind if I fished the entering riffle, but I decided to keep moving, as I knew there was much productive water ahead.

I fished the west braid around the small island and then crossed to the flats next to the steep bank below the tunnel. I spotted a few fish in the flats, but without the benefit of hatching insects, I knew catching a fish with the low river levels was a long shot. I attempted a few casts from the right bank above the flats, but in the process I snapped off my olive perdigon. Needless to say, I was not happy about losing another fly with an expensive tungsten bead. I replaced the perdigon with a beadhead hares ear and combined it with an emerald caddis pupa. I moved on and skipped by the narrow area with a high rock wall and crossed the river at the ninety degree bend.

Next I approached another long smooth pool that featured some very attractive entering runs that flowed around several large exposed boulders. I covered this section quite thoroughly, but the fish failed to cooperate. The sun was bright, and no clouds appeared in the bluebird sky, and the temperature hit its peak. This was the time frame, when I removed my raincoat and unzipped my fleece. I looked at my watch and noted that it was 2:30PM, so I endured two hours without any action whatsoever.

Another Fish Count

I decided it was time for a change, so I swapped the chubby for a peacock hippie stomper and then combined it with the olive perdigon and a classic RS2 size 22. I began working my way through the pocket water above the large pool, after I circled around another pair of fishermen. Some large clouds slid above me and blocked the sun, and the wind kicked up a bit. I spotted one lonely blue wing olive, and suddenly trout began attacking my nymphs. The next three fish were beneath twelve inches, but I was pleased with the action. All three attacked the perdigon, as the slender olive nymph resumed its position, as the hot fly in my arsenal.

Perfect for Trout

I moved farther up the river and ended my day with two fine rainbow trout in the thirteen inch range. One nipped the perdigon, and the other chomped the RS2. I also experienced momentary hookups with three other trout, but they managed to twist free after a very brief connection. I suspect that the three escapees grabbed the tiny RS2.

I would by lying, if I said I was satisfied with my day. After a fifteen fish day on Monday on the Arkansas River, my expectations soared. Nevertheless, seven fish on March 26 is quite satisfactory for early in the season. Four of the landed trout were rainbows in the twelve to fourteen inch range, and three were below twelve inches. The weather was very favorable for March in the Colorado Rockies, and that was another positive. I am rolling into the 2025 season with a bit of momentum.

Fish Landed: 7