Time: 9:30AM – 11:30AM

Location: Waterton Canyon

South Platte River 02/16/2017 Photo Album

My friend Danny Ryan convinced me to get out of the house and fish. The high temperature in Denver was forecast to spike in the mid-seventies, and I needed to focus my mind on something other than the injury I sustained while skiing at Breckenridge on February 6. I slapped an elastic knee brace on my left knee and packed the new Santa Fe and departed for southwest Denver and Waterton Canyon.

In anticipation of my second fishing outing of 2017 I spent Wednesday afternoon transferring my flies from my old streamer wallet to a new one, that I received as a Christmas gift. I pruned quite a few ancient flies from my collection and vastly improved the organization of my streamer and nymph container. I should probably devote an afternoon to this every year prior to fishing early in the season.

Done. New Streamer Wallet Populated.

When I arrived in the parking lot near the lower end of Waterton Canyon, the temperature was hovering around fifty degrees, so I wore my light REI down jacket. This proved to be a mistake. My first order of business was to find Danny, so I embarked on a crude path along the southeast side of the river, but after fifteen minutes of whacking through brush, he was no where to be found. I reversed my direction and crossed the road at the bridge, and then I continued on a twisting fisherman path for another twenty minutes. I passed two older fishermen near the bridge, and then I wandered a long distance without meeting another person. Where could he be? I noticed his truck was parked in the lot when I arrived, so he had to be in the vicinity.

Once again I reversed my direction and increased my pace until I returned to the bridge. By now the air temperature warmed into the upper fifties, and the extensive hiking kindled my body temperature to an overheated range. I checked the parking lot, and Danny’s truck was still in place, so I reconsidered my search options. I concluded that he must have waded downstream, so I crossed the bridge and then followed a faint path to an area where the river widened quite a bit. Two spin fishermen occupied the bank in this area, but there was no sign of Danny.

Between the Bridge and Lake

I reversed my course one final time, and as I approached the bridge, I spotted a fisherman who resembled Danny in stature. Sure enough it was him, so I shouted, and he returned a greeting. Once we connected, we progressed upstream toward the bridge and then beyond. Much to our amazement the popular deep run above the bridge was vacant, so we paused to prospect our nymph rigs in the clear deep run and pool. I spotted some movement toward the upper end of the pool, so I dropped my pine squirrel leech and salad spinner in the entry riffle. On the second drift near the heart of the pool, the small clear thingamabobber paused, and I executed a sudden hook set. For a split second I felt weight and observed the flash of a rainbow trout, but then the elusive prize escaped, and I was left to continue my pursuit of the first fish of 2017.

Attractive Hole

After some additional half-hearted casts to the pool, Danny and I abandoned the prime location and migrated farther upstream. In short order we encountered another nice deep run, so we paused and made some additional prospecting drifts, but this area was not productive. Again we reeled up our lines and continued our upstream progress to an area with an abundance of brush and fallen logs next to a deep narrow pool. Four fishermen were above us, and we did not spot any fish near our approach, so we began to circle around the other fishermen on a nice defined trail. After five minutes of walking, however, Danny decided that he needed to call it quits in order to return to work by a reasonable time.

We turned around and hiked back to the parking lot, where we said our goodbyes and promised to meet again in the near future. I enjoyed my time outdoors in the mild February weather, but the fishing was extremely slow. The low water translated to very few deep holding spots, and the fish seemed to be in scarce supply. At least I experienced my first connection of the new year.

Fish Landed: 0