Time: 12:00PM – 4:00PM
Location: Wildcat Canyon
Fish Landed: 3
South Platte River 10/17/2012 Photo Album
Normally these fishing reports are about catching fish, but my experience on October 17 was more about overcoming difficult obstacles to experience a day of fishing. Dan called on Sunday and asked if I was interested in going fishing if he took a day off. He indicated that Tuesday and Wednesday were his best options, but he preferred Wednesday so we made tentative plans. I suggested hiking into Wildcat Canyon to fish the South Platte River as we enjoyed some decent fishing in 2010 and 2011 during October on this stream.
As Wednesday approached I frequently checked the streamflows and weather, and the flows of 124 were reasonable and actually favorable since they were higher than our trip in September when the fish were a bit skittish, but lower than my trip in August when it was difficult to cross the river. Unfortunately I couldn’t say the same thing about the weather as highs were forecast to be mid-50’s and lows around freezing. I fished the Arkansas River the previous Friday with a high of 57 and steady rain, so I felt these temperatures were tolerable. We hoped to eliminate the two plus hour drive on Wednesday morning by camping at Happy Meadows Campground near the trailhead on Tuesday night, so I was a bit concerned about the low temperature.
Dan arrived at my house by 7PM on Tuesday and we made the drive and watched the thermometer drop as we traveled south through Colorado Springs and then west over Ute Pass. By the time we reached the campground the air temperature was 45 degrees and there was one other camper at Happy Meadows. Dan and I put up the tent but didn’t stake out the rain fly as there was minimal chance of rain. Dan had his down sleeping bag as well as a second sleeping bag and a small quilt. I had my down sleeping bag and two thick quilts. We put one quilt on the floor of the tent, then placed our pads on top of that, and then our sleeping bags, and then in my case a thick blue quilt was used as a top layer.
Happy Meadows Campsite
We climbed into our cozy quarters by 10:30 and within a half hour I felt a mist hitting my face. Much to our surprise it rained briefly and I had neglected to zip the rain fly. Once I zipped it down, I no longer felt moisture, but I fell asleep to the sound of the light pitter patter of rain hitting the tent. The factor we had not anticipated was the strong wind that blasted the tent all night long. Since the rain fly was not staked to the ground it continually slapped against the side of the tent, and several times I awoke as the tent itself was pushed relentlessly down against my face from the force of the wind. I placed my flip flops on the ground outside my tent door in case I needed to get up during the night, and when I looked for them in the morning, only one was where I left it and the other was forty feet away near the pay station.
Dan found some ice on the tent so apparently the temperature had dropped below freezing, although I was quite comfortable in our cozy tent from a temperature perspective. As we threw all our layers back in the car and prepared a light breakfast using Dan’s backpacking stove the wind continued to howl and I checked the temperature at 9:30 and it was 42 degrees. Evindently a cold front had blown in during the night, and the high of 55 degrees was looking optimistic.
After breakfast we stuffed our backpacks and I put on my waders and wading boots and we drove a mile or two to the trailhead. Fortunately I removed all my top layers except for my long sleeved undershirt and fishing shirt for the three mile hike as we generated quite a bit of body heat. When we reached the river it was flowing higher than September but clear and we were encouraged and hoping for another decent late fall day of fishing. I was a bit concerned about the wind and I’ve never done well the day after a cold front arrives, but we planned to overcome these concerns.
Dan Assembles His Rod
We deposited our packs at the campsite that we used in September and assembled our rods and then hiked further down the path to a point where the canyon narrows and the velocity of the water increases. Here we cut over to the river and while Dan tied on his flies, I began casting along the bank closest to the path. I covered twenty yards of water while Dan knotted on a Charlie Boy hopper and beadhead hares ear. After twenty yards we reached a spot where the river became wider and Dan could wade to the far bank. I began fishing with a gray parachute hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that the fishing was going to be difficult compared to my previous trips in 2012. I was casting to water that yielded nice brown trout during my earlier visits, but during the first half hour these drifts were producing nothing but arm exercise. The same was true of Dan’s casts along the far side of the river.
Dan Ready to Begin Fishing
As I moved upstream I reached a point where a small side channel of water merged with the main river. As I gazed at the junction I spotted several fish moving in the shallow water with their upper fins out of the water. It became pretty clear what was going on; three or four browns were in spawning mode. This probably explained the absence of browns from the lies that had produced fish in August and September.
I continued upstream and after 45 minutes or so my hopper dipped at the tail of a run in front of a large submerged rock and I set the hook and played an eleven inch rainbow in to my net. In short order I landed a second rainbow that was a bit larger on the beadhead hares ear. Meanwhile Dan finally connected on a brown along the opposite bank. The wind continued to blast down the valley and our hands began to ache after releasing fish due to the cooling effect of evaporation. At 1:15 I suggested that we take a break, return to our base camp, eat our lunches and warm our hands.
Casting in Nice Pool Before Lunch
After lunch I decided to change my approach and rigged my line in the manner demonstrated by Taylor Edrington of Royal Gorge Anglers. This involved a thingamabobber, and four foot section of 3X, a split shot, a twenty incher as my top fly, and a beadhead hares ear as my point fly. Dan continued fishing with the hopper/dropper combination that he used in the morning. We hiked back down the path to the area where we had finished as there was a long pool that I wanted to run the nymphs through. Unfortunately the change in method didn’t really improve my fortunes to any great degree. Over the remaining two hours of fishing I worked the nymphs through some juicy deep runs and pools and landed one more rainbow. After a half hour or so I noticed some tiny mayflies floating on the surface and fluttering up into the air, so I swapped the hares ear for a beadhead Craven soft hackle emerger.
I should point out that I had four or five momentary hook ups in the afternoon that I did not land. I’m guessing these fish were taking the soft hackle emerger, but for some reason I wasn’t doing very well with setting the size 22 hook in a manner that allowed me to net the fish. Dan meanwhile landed a nice brown trout in excess of 12 inches on a beadhead pheasant tail at around 3PM. He converted from the Charlie Boy hopper to a Chernobyl ant and trailed the beadhead pheasant tail and soft hackle emerger. I was impressed with his willingness to fish three flies in the cold windy environment. Just before we quit for the day he landed a small brown.
Nicest Fish of the Day
By 4PM the shadows covered most of the water and the air temperature was plummeting, and combined with the consistently annoying wind created quite a bit of fishing hardship, so we decided to pack things up for the day. We stuffed our packs with our gear and made the three mile return hike in an hour. Once we stowed everything in the car, we fired up the heater and turned on the heated seats and pulled out the snacks. We stopped at Front Range BBQ in Old Colorado City on the outskirts of Colorado Springs for a warm enjoyable dinner.
The fishing was difficult on October 17, but we took pride in camping during sub-freezing temperatures and overcoming the wind and cold to catch a few fish. Wildcat Canyon was as always a beautiful place to be with no other human beings to interfere with our enjoyment of the gorgeous Colorado outdoor environment.