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