Sunday, February 26, 2006 - South Platte River, De

Sunday, February 26, 2006 - South Platte River, Deckers.
Flows about 160 cfs, clear water in the morning, soon after the water started rising and it became off color as thick as mud – capped out at 209 cfs (even higher below Muddy Creek). Weather was beautiful – bright blue sky, temps about 60 degrees.

Fished with Nate today – his first day out. Got down there a little after 11am. Fished down the dirt road first. Nate hooked a couple of small fish on a streamer/nymph rig. I went empty handed. We moved down to between the bridges. The water started to run a little off color and I thought it was because of Muddy Creek flowing in. I fished the far side of the island between the bridges. Right up above the lightning strike stump I was fishing a brown wooly bugger and wasn’t really paying attention when I got a slight strike and then a major pull. The fish slid down the river corridor a bit shaking its head furiously. I only had him on for maybe 15 seconds – the fish must have been over 22 inches long. I could see him as he shook his head. He broke me clear off – everything.

Some guy with a spin rod had hooked a nice rainbow on the other side of the island as I was standing there. A 10-inch rainbow that dragged him about 60 feet down the river. He said that there were two of them right up next to the bank – most likely spawning.

I fished up the island and back after that, then tried to go down to the bent log. The problem was that the water was getting darker and darker and it seemed to be getting slightly higher and harder. In one of the normal spots the water felt like it was going to sweep me away – which was pretty unusual. We decided to pack it in and leave. When I got home I looked up the cfs – 209 cfs and a bunch more for the run off from Muddy Creek.