Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Eleven Mile Canyon

South Platte River 04/22/2021 Photo Album

After a string of cold April days I looked for a window of fishing opportunity on April 22, 2021. I adopted the practice of checking air temperatures on Weather Underground ahead of stream flows on the DWR web site. Most of my  normal destinations predicted highs in the forties, but the Arkansas River at Salida and the South Platte River by Lake George displayed highs in the fifties. High winds on the Arkansas River ruled out my preferred option, and I settled for the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon. I visited this section of the South Platte on two previous occasions with decent success, and I was fairly certain to interact with the dependable blue winged olive hatch.

I delayed my start from north Denver until 8:30, as I did not wish to arrive too early, when the temperatures were adverse. My strategy worked fairly well, as I arrived at my chosen destination by 10:45AM. The temperature was in the low forties, but the sky was clear blue, and the sun dominated, so I was certain the thermometer would rise to at least the upper forties. Nevertheless, I wore my UnderArmour long sleeved insulated undershirt, my fleece hoodie, my raincoat and my Northface light down coat. For head gear I donned my billed New Zealand hat with ear flaps, and I pulled my raincoat hood over the hat for extra protection against the chilly morning wind. I stuffed handwarmers in my Northface pockets, and I opened a pack of foot warmers for my feet.

Boulder Garden

I approached the stream and rigged my line with a dry/dropper and was prepared to make my initial cast by 11:30AM. My lineup consisted of a fat Albert, iron sally and classic RS2. I prospected the first nice pool that I approached, but the trout were not cooperating, so I paused on a wide flat rock and consumed my lunch.

After lunch I continued my progression up the river by searching some nice pocket water, but once again the fish contracted a case of lockjaw. One of my favorite pools was next, but it was occupied by another angler, so I circled around and dropped into another short series of pockets. I exchanged the RS2 for an orange scud, but the exchange failed to change my angling fortunes. Another nice pool appeared above the pocket water, and I began to fish this section with my dry/dropper, but I exchanged the iron sally for an emerald caddis pupa and reverted to a sparkle wing RS2 as my point fly. Again the trout gave me a resounding thumbs down.

I could see the spectacular bend pool ahead of me, but is was populated by three fishermen. Fortunately, as I was about to by-pass the trio, I began to spot some sporadic rises from the pool that I was occupying. I tried a few dry/dropper casts with lifting and swinging action to simulate the RS2 as emerging blue winged olives, but this ploy did not arouse interest, so I converted to a single dry fly approach. I knotted a CDC BWO to my line, but whether using an upstream cast or across and down, the trout were having none of it. I tried a Klinkhammer emerger and then trailed a beadless soft hackle emerger, and I nicked the lip of one trout with the Klinkhammer, but overall my flies were rudely ignored.

I surrendered to the highly educated trout and moved above the Steve Supple bend pool that was occupied and arrived at the next fine pool above the island and braids. Once again quite a few trout were rising, but in spite of my optimism my efforts were futile. I tried a BWO cripple, that I tied the previous afternoon, but it was shunned, and the size 20 fly appeared to be too large. Eventually I gave up on the selective feeders and moved to the heart of the pool, where a huge vertical wall bordered the east side. I positioned myself across from five or six visible risers, but once again my flies were treated like covid positive specks. The lighting was difficult in the prevalent partial shadows and sun glare, and tracking the drab colored olive imitations was a challenge.

Respectable

I gave up and moved to the top of the pool, where a pair of feeder runs split around an exposed boulder and then rejoined creating a deep single run and pool. In order to better track the flies, I resorted to a triple dry system with a silver body hippie stomper followed by a size 24 CDC BWO on a six inch leader and then a soft hackle emerger on another six inch tippet. I began feeding downstream casts to a glutinous gulper at the tail of the run, and miraculously on the fifth cast a rainbow snatched the soft hackle emerger. I made a swift hook set and eventually coaxed the respectable trout into my net. I was certain that an embarrassing skunking was in my future in spite of wave upon wave of blue winged olives fluttering up from the river, but fortunately I was now on the scoreboard with an almost embarrassing total of one fish.

Handsome

I continued upstream to the next wide pool, but by now the sun appeared, and the hatch dwindled to occasional rises. I paused and mostly observed in this area, but the signs of feeding fish were reduced, and I decided to return to the shadowed area armed with the advantage of a three dry fly set up for better visibility. The revisit worked, and I landed two rainbows of fourteen and fifteen inches in the pool with the high vertical wall. The added visibility of the hippie stomper was a huge plus, and it enabled me to see or approximate where my tiny trailers were at any point in time. Both of the late day catches grabbed the size 24 CDC BWO.

Spread Out

Site of the Last Fish Landed

I quit at 4:00PM and talked to another fisherman from Pennsylvania at Steve’s pool for awhile on my return hike. Thursday was a subpar day from a numbers perspective, but the three landed fish were excellent quality. I also hooked but failed to land three additional fish during my four hours on the river. I could not complain about the weather other than the intermittent gusts of wind. The temperature actually spiked above fifty, and for that I was thankful. The hatch was everything I could have hoped for. Every time a cloud blocked the sun, the wind kicked up, and the rings of rising trout appeared throughout the river. I simply did not have the right imitation for the situation. My theory is that strong wind blows the emerging mayflies off the water quickly, but many of the baetis get dumped back on the surface in a crumpled state, and the fish key on movement from their targeted food source. I am now contemplating tying some size 22 dry flies in the Catskill style with hackle wound around the hook. A fly dancing on hackle tips on the surface of the river may better approximate the clumsy movement of the mayflies, as they attempt to lift off and combat the strong wind.

Fish Landed: 3