Time: 2:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Waterton Canyon

South Platte River 10/08/2005 Photo Album

Jane and I loaded our bikes on the RAV on October 8 and headed to the Waterton Canyon parking lot. It was a beautiful day with high temperatures expected to be 70 degrees, although nasty weather was forecast for Sunday. We biked the four or five miles up the dirt road in the canyon to the picnic table just beyond the first bridge above the lake.

More Bend

A guy was standing in the large pool that I fished with moderate success the previous Sunday. I tied four size 22 CDC BWO’s Saturday morning in case a BWO hatch once again materialized. I put on my waders and began working the next upstream pool above the large bend pool. Almost immediately I noticed some sporadic rises, so I tied on a gray Madam X and then added a yellow beadhead caddis pupa below it. When I spotted some emerging BWO’s, I tied another length of tippet below the yellow caddis pupa and then added a WD40. I encouraged a flash to the Madam X, but the flies were not producing, so I cut everything off and tied on one of the CDC BWO’s, that I produced earlier in the day. I made two with a BWO poly body and two with a lighter olive poly body. The darker body was not generating interest, so I switched to the lighter color.

Successful Fly

Almost immediately my fortunes improved, and I landed eight trout over the next several hours. Six of the netted fish were rainbows or cutbows, and two were small browns. One of the cutbows looked more like a cutthroat than a rainbow, as It displayed lots of speckles and a slash under its mouth. The success required numerous casts, and the sporadic nature of the rises caused me to spray casts to many food lanes. After I landed five or so, the gentleman in the prime pool below me approached to learn what I was using. He had a box full of olives of varying sizes, and said he was using them with fish rising all over the place, but he did not indicate any success. I gave him a CDC olive in exchange for a trico. I do not think he gained any luck, so I concluded that presentation skills were the key.

Last Bow of the Day

Toward the end, I decided to work upstream more and landed two more rainbows where the river came back close to the road. By 5PM Jane grew impatient, so after releasing the last trout, I clambered up the bank, shed my waders, packed everything in the backpack, and biked back down the canyon. The foliage on the cottonwoods was brilliant, as we drove back to Stapleton.

Fish Landed: 8

Nice Foliage

Time: 12:00PM – 4:30PM

Location: Waterton Canyon

South Platte River 10/02/2005 Photo Album

It was a warm day with temperatures in the 70’s, and I decided to bike up Waterton Canyon. I had not been to this stream in over a month, and I did not want to travel far to fish. As I was biking, a man pulled up beside me on his bike and began talking to me. He said he fished Waterton Canyon quite a bit and seemed to be rather knowledgeable about what worked. He said he mainly nymphed and had much success with very small flies. He invited me to accompany him to where he generally starts, and he would share some flies with me. We parked our bikes at the picnic table beyond the first bridge in the upper special regulation water, and he gave me his version of an RS2, a black pheasant tail and a “Barrett Special”, a nymph with a green floss body. His name was Ken Barrett and he was a radio voice for concert ads in the 80’s and 90’s.

Approaching Nice Pool

I retreated downstream a bit, stashed my bike, put on my waders, took some photos, and began fishing back up to the bridge. I put on a size 12 parahopper and trailed a beadhead prince nymph. I caught five small trout on the prince nymph, four browns and one rainbow. I was experiencing success, but it was admittedly small stuff. I worked under the bridge and then approached a beautiful bend pool, where the main current deflected off a vertical rock wall. I could see six or seven trout lined up in the current below where it deflected off the rock. I also observed some BWO’s, so I concluded baetis were the preferred menu option. I tied on a CDC olive, but then I experienced an abundance of refusals and no luck. A change in tactics was in order, so I moved up to the head of the pool where the water had more riffles. Here I managed to take two rainbows. The rises occurred in waves. A flurry of activity transpired, and that was followed by a lull in feeding, before the rises reappeared. I noticed a couple fish rising about a foot from the far bank during one of the dead interludes. I decided to tie on a black ant with an orange poly indicator. I cast in the current that ran a foot from the bank, and a fish rose and engulfed my ant. The netted fish was a small brown, and then I spotted another fish rising 5 to 10 feet further downstream also a foot from the far bank. I provoked this brown to rise to the ant as well. However in the main runs at the head of the pool, they showed minimal interest in the ant.

Another Rainbow on BWO

While I was catching the trout on the ant, Ken worked back downstream with his nymphs. He was on the other side and made the comment, “it’s really been dead for the last hour”. I asked if he had seen the subtle rises, and he said he had not. I advised him to try a BWO dry. He appeared to change flies, but eventually reverted back to nymphs. Meanwhile another wave of rises took place at the head of the pool, and I changed back to a CDC olive. I was able to catch and land two decent rainbows on the olive. I packed everything up around 4:30. As I biked back down the canyon, I spotted quite a few trout sipping in the slower moving pools, and I decided I needed to tie some smaller CDC olives and return in late afternoon in the near future.

Fish Landed: 9

Black Ant

Time: 12:30PM – 5:00PM

Location: Waterton Canyon

South Platte River 09/04/2005 Photo Album

Downstream from Start

I decided to fish the South Platte River in Waterton Canyon to avoid gasoline consumption. Jane, Amy, Max and Kirk agreed to bike the canyon, but I left before them. I reached the spot I planned to fish in the special regulation area above the diversion dam by noon. I ate my lunch, and then I put on my waders and began fishing upstream. When I checked the stream flows, the chart displayed around 67 cfs. I knotted a yellow Letort hopper and beadhead prince nymph to my line. I chose the prince because the water was just a bit off color, and I guessed that it would be more visible.

Prince and Letort Hopper Used

The visibility strategy worked rather well, and I landed 16 trout on the day. I caught rainbows and browns in a 50-50 mix, and half the trout slurped the Letort hopper, and the other half preferred the prince nymph. In one long smooth pool I spotted a solitary rise, so I cast the hopper a couple times, but the riser showed no interest. I decided to try a fur ant, and I selected one with a small white poly wing post for visibility. I cast above where I spotted the rise, and a rainbow rose and sipped the ant. I went back to the hopper and prince after this incident and continued catching trout. I stopped fishing when I reached the first bridge that crossed over the river.

Fish Landed: 16

Rainbow Landed

Time: 12:00PM – 5:00PM

Location: Cheesman Canyon

South Platte River 08/13/2005 Photo Album

Dan Concentrating

Dan and I headed to the South Platte under overcast skies and rain. Flows on the South Platte were supposed to be in the mid-250’s, but I did not know water clarity when we departed. Of course when we reached the river at the base of Nighthawk hill, it was very murky. But we continued toward Deckers hoping the water would be clearer above Horse Creek. It was not, so we drove farther to the Wigwan parking area, and we hiked into the canyon and then down the path to the water just above the Wigwan Club, and the water remained murky.

Delicate Flower

We bumped into David Gaige, who was fishing with a guide and client. He mentioned success with a yellow fly, probably an egg fly. We headed upstream above Icebox pool and ate our lunch and stashed our lunch containers and clothes. I rigged Dan up for nymphing with a pink San Juan worm and copper john. I elected to begin with a pink San Juan worm as well, and I combined it with a beadhead hares ear. We worked upstream through likely slots and runs, but there were quite a few fishermen, and we circled above many using the trail. We stopped occasionally to take photos, but we had no success. We tried orange scuds and beadhead pheasant tails to no avail.

Finally around 3PM we decided to head back to our packs and leave. We hiked back down the trail to where our things were stashed, but as we began, I glanced at the river and noticed a lot of rising fish. I told Dan I needed to take a shot at them. Dan caught a midge on his rod and showed it to me. I had seen a lot of very small BWO’s earlier, so I tied on a CDC comparadun. I waded 7 or 8 feet into the river and cast over some rises, but no takes were forthcoming. I looked more closely at the water and noticed larger mayflies emerging. These had to be PMD’s, so I tied on a PMD comparadun. I noticed the hook bends in my fly box had some rust on them. Fairly quickly I hooked up on a nice brown, and played it in, and Dan photographed it.

Icebox Pool Brown

When I resumed fishing, I elicited several rejections, and numerous rising trout ignored my offering. I spotted a very long trout rising consistently around 10-15 feet out from where I was standing. I switched to a different comparadun, and finally I induced the large brown to rise to my fly. I set the hook, and the trout shook its head from side to side, and then swam to the left and upstream a bit. I put pressure on the fish, and my fly released from the jaw. I was very disappointed, but I continued to fish and eventually enticed another trout to rise to my comparadun. I set the hook, and again I felt a momentary hook up, but once again I lost the fish. Finally I ran out of patience and decided to leave as the frequency of rises was decreasing. When I reeled up my fly to remove it, I noticed the hook point was broken at the bend. Needless to say, the PMD comparaduns with rust on them will be introduced to the trash can, and I will tie a fresh batch.

Fish Landed: 1

Lizard

Location: Nighthawk Hill intersection with South Platte River up to Osprey Campground

Time: 9:00AM – 4:00PM

Fish Landed: 10

Nice day, high around 75 degrees. Rain and cloudy in late afternoon. Caught 10 trout altogether. Caught brown below small island below Osprey on tan San Juan worm. Caught rainbow on San Juan worm just below where brown was caught. Caught two rainbows on San Juan worm below rocks in current seams half way down to first pullout. After lunch caught large rainbow on orange scud by high bank below long island. Caught two browns in run below long island on orange scud. Finally caught 3 beautiful browns on light pink San Juan worm in current seam below island 2 directly across from Nighthawk Hill road.

Time: 9:30AM – 4:30PM

Location: Nighthawk hill road upstream to campground

Landed: 15

Nice day. Temperature in high 70’s and sunny most of day. Somewhat windy at times. Caught 15 trout. Fished from Nighthawk hill road upstream to campground. Caught 2 nice browns on tan San Juan worm in run where river comes near road up from Nighthawk Hill road. Caught several nice rainbows at bend by campground before lunch. Caught a nice brown on worm in shallow run below island below campground. Caught most of the remainder of trout in riffles and runs along roadside bank by large evergreen trees downstream from campground. Caught one rainbow on orange scud among this bunch. All other trout were caught on tan San Juan worm.

Time: 12:30PM – 4:00PM

Location: Deckers area.

I fished just above Scraggy View picnic ground and landed 7 trout in total; 3 browns and 4 rainbows. One brown was fooled by a size 20 olive nymph, and the other two browns gulped a tan San Juan worm. Two of the rainbows were caught on a tan San Juan worm and the remaining two grabbed an orange scud. It was an overcast cool day with a high in the upper 50’s.

Fish Landed: 7

Time: 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Location: Deckers area.

I fished the bend above Trumbull on a nice day with the temperature reaching the upper 50’s. I caught one brown on an orange scud by a large rock outcropping on left side of stream. A very sparse hatch of blue wing olives occurred, but it only brought up a few rises.

Fish Landed: 1