Time: 11:00AM – 3:30PM
Locatoin: Eleven Mile Canyon
South Platte River 10/05/2017 Photo Album
An outstanding day of fishing on September 23 and nearly a week of waiting for the weather to improve had me anxious for an October fishing trip. Finally the prognosticators suggested high temperatures in the seventies for Thursday, October 5, and I concluded that this translated to pleasant weather on the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon.
As the days grow shorter, the early morning temperatures linger in the forties, so I took my time and departed the house by 8:15 on Thursday morning. This enabled me to pull into a dirt parking lot along the South Platte River by 10:30, and after I gathered my gear and assembled my Sage four weight, I was on the water casting a dry/dropper configuration by 11AM. The flows were nearly ideal, as they tumbled along at 85 CFS. I adorned my line with a tan pool toy, beadhead hares ear nymph and ultra zug bug; and I lobbed the three flies in all the likely pockets and deep runs.
Great Pocket Water Ahead
The section that served as my launch point was very much to my liking with numerous deep pockets and runs, and the fish appeared in the expected places. By the time I broke for lunch at 1PM, the fish counter climbed to eleven. Most of the morning and early afternoon fly eaters snatched the hairs ear, although a couple relished the ultra zug bug. Two of the trout that rested in my net were small rainbows, and the remainder represented the brown trout species. All were in the six to ten inch size range, and this was indicative of my day on the river.
One of the Better Trout on the Day
Prior to lunch the thread on the hares ear unraveled behind the eye of the hook, and since I was forced to reconfigure my line, I inserted a salvation nymph as my end of line offering. Between 1PM and 2:30 I added five more trout to my count, but the catch rate slowed measurably, and the size of the fish remained in the small range cited earlier. Several periods of tiny blue winged olive emergence occurred, and during an early hatch I witnessed a handful of rises. This prompted me to remove the dry/dropper arrangement, and I knotted a size 24 CDC blue winged olive to my line. After a couple casts, the riser along the right bank ceased to feed, but another sporadic feeder along the left bank appeared. I positioned myself quite a distance downstream and false cast off to the side and then dropped a twenty-five foot cast above the point of the rise. The tiny olive slowly crept downstream, until it was in the vicinity of the fish that revealed itself, and then a bulge appeared. I immediately reacted with a hook set, and I felt the weight of a fish for less than a second, before it slipped free. That was the extent of my success with the small dry fly.
Best of the Day Was a Rainbow Trout
I moved up the river to another long smooth pool, but I could not locate rising fish. I climbed the bank and returned to the car and drove upstream for .5 mile, where I parked. For the remainder of the afternoon I explored some delicious deep runs and pocket water, where I enjoyed quite a bit of success catching decent rainbow trout on a previous visit. That would not be the case on Thursday. I reconfigured my line with a size 8 Chernobyl ant, beadhead hares ear, and salvation nymph; and I resumed the tactic of pocket hopping. One of my sixteen fish resulted from this period. The sky cleared, and the wind abated, and I enjoyed the nicest weather of the day; but apparently it was not favorable for the South Platte River underwater residents. Several waves of small blue winged olives appeared, and I tested a RS2 and soft hackle emerger behind the hares ear, but none of these ploys changed my fortunes.
During the last half hour I removed the dry/dropper flies and tied a cheech leech to my line. I stayed with my floating line, as I was too lazy to change out my reel for the sink tip in my backpack. I stripped, tumbled, and danced the orange and brown creation with dumbbell eyes through three or four delicious deep runs and pools, but I never observed a flash or follow. Fall and brown trout and streamers are supposed to go together, but I have yet to experience this phenomenon.
Did Not Attract Fish However
For ten minutes before I returned to the car to quit, I flicked a Jake’s gulp beetle in some pockets along the bank and at the tail of a very attractive deep run, but once again I merely exercised my arm. The last hour of my day was rather unproductive.
After over a week of cool and wet weather, it was nice to get out in some sunshine on Thursday. Sixteen fish is respectable, but I never landed a fish in excess of eleven inches, and the action was disappointingly slow for the last couple hours. Winter seems to be advancing faster in 2017 than was the case in 2016, but last year was probably the exception. I will continue to look for pleasant days to create a few more memories in the 2017 season.
Fish Landed: 16