Saturday, March 29, 2008 - South Platte River - Cheesman Canyon
Flows 101 cfs - water was crystal clear. Weather was bright deep blue sky with puffy clouds - 30 degrees in the morning and over 60 degrees by the afternoon - just a perfect weather day.
Cabo and I met Chad and his buddy Michael at Cheesman at around 7am. If you can believe it - I was the first car in the lot - this is a first. Usually there is always someone in there early, and 7am is hardly early for that place. I was feeling kind of sick, so I didn't really want to go - but I thought it would make me feel better. I started losing steam around noontime and was headed back to the truck around 1pm. I managed to catch one brown - very colorful, about 16 inches long, but snake skinny. I really couldn't find the fish and I am turned off to Cheesman - the place just doesn't fish the way it used to.
I got back to the truck and headed to Deckers - where I'm more familiar with where the fish are. The water was offcolored because the weather was so nice and Muddy Creek was flowing in at the bridge in Deckers. I did manage one tiny rainbow on a SJW. Then the wind started getting to me and we left. I was home by 3:15pm. Now I feel like crap and need to sleep.
Just a couple of other thoughts - it was amazing to see so many grasshoppers out for March. They were everywhere, but obviously the water wasn't high enough to see any kind of "hatch". I did see a ton of caddis as well that were flying all over the place.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008 - South Platte River above Chatfield
Saturday, March 15, 2008 - South Platte River above Chatfield
Cold morning - around 28 degrees at 7am, 50 by noontime. Flows were about 41 cfs and the water was slightly off color.
I'm not going to write much because it was a waste of our time. The river was frozen, the water was very low (from what we heard it was much much higher the week before and fishing great). Looking at the chart it was flowing at 120 cfs last weekend - so 3X what it was today. Nate and I hit the river and decided to fish our way from the bridge in Chatfield to the mouth of the reservior. We had heard that the fishing was great the weekend before with a friend of mine pulling our a 22 inch rainbow. I have never had success on this stretch as it seems stagnant and smells aweful. We fished a nice looking stretch early - then I worked my way down river to the delta - only to see the thing completely frozen all the way down - no where to fish.
We fished back down under the bridge, and I snapped off in a bush overhanging the water and reeled in - I was done. We were home by 11:15am. It was nice to fish so close to home - but we didn't even SEE a fish! It was nice to check this stretch out though - so I'm looking forward to tossing streamers at the delta for walleyes and trout. There were a lot of people out there today - most of them cursing Charlie Meyers for writing that article in the Post a couple of weekends ago!
Cold morning - around 28 degrees at 7am, 50 by noontime. Flows were about 41 cfs and the water was slightly off color.
I'm not going to write much because it was a waste of our time. The river was frozen, the water was very low (from what we heard it was much much higher the week before and fishing great). Looking at the chart it was flowing at 120 cfs last weekend - so 3X what it was today. Nate and I hit the river and decided to fish our way from the bridge in Chatfield to the mouth of the reservior. We had heard that the fishing was great the weekend before with a friend of mine pulling our a 22 inch rainbow. I have never had success on this stretch as it seems stagnant and smells aweful. We fished a nice looking stretch early - then I worked my way down river to the delta - only to see the thing completely frozen all the way down - no where to fish.
We fished back down under the bridge, and I snapped off in a bush overhanging the water and reeled in - I was done. We were home by 11:15am. It was nice to fish so close to home - but we didn't even SEE a fish! It was nice to check this stretch out though - so I'm looking forward to tossing streamers at the delta for walleyes and trout. There were a lot of people out there today - most of them cursing Charlie Meyers for writing that article in the Post a couple of weekends ago!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008 - South Platte River - Deckers
Saturday, March 1, 2008 - South Platte River - Deckers
Beautiful day, 60 degrees, partly cloudy, windy, 37.8 cfs and water was slightly off color.
Finally got a chance to get out, and I picked a fantastic weather day to do it. It was cool in the morning, but it warmed up by late morning. The water is deathly low down there on the Platte. Sad to see that there is an ice shelf above the water line, the entire shelf is sloped towards the water maybe 6 inches above it - a sign that the water level was higher at one time. The ice shelf was easily 8 inches thick. With such low flows, there was a lot more shore line than expected - you could walk up and down the river without being on the "bank". Cabo and I fished between the two bridges - starting at the pull out just below the bridge at Deckers. I got down there at 7:30, jumped in and headed for the long island upstream. I fished the far side of the island - seeing a couple of smaller fish further up, but they were already spooked. I fished right to the bridge and then headed down the other side of the island. Almost all the way down I hooked into a nice fish - he pulled me into some faster water, but I managed to pull him to the side and landed him. He was a nice think 14 inch rainbow. I hooked him on a tiny green body and black head midge - which I tied on after I got a snag and pulled up a stick - tons of husks were attached to the stick and I squeezed one to see what was inside. Out popped a nymph that had a neon green body with a black head and black legs. So I tied on a similar midge.
I moved down the river hitting all the usual spots with no luck - I even tried a streamer to no avail. A lot of the places were very skinny due to the low water and there was a lot of sandy areas that previously held rocks or fishy looking spots. I moved all the way down to the lower bridge right next to the huge rock. I hooked a handful of small rainbows - I knew they were there and went after them on purpose. I landed only a couple - not really worried about bringing them to hand because they were pretty fiesty and just as small! I promised the wife I'd be home by around 1pm so she could go for a bike ride - so I left at about 11:45. I was just glad to get out, and it was a good morning.
Beautiful day, 60 degrees, partly cloudy, windy, 37.8 cfs and water was slightly off color.
Finally got a chance to get out, and I picked a fantastic weather day to do it. It was cool in the morning, but it warmed up by late morning. The water is deathly low down there on the Platte. Sad to see that there is an ice shelf above the water line, the entire shelf is sloped towards the water maybe 6 inches above it - a sign that the water level was higher at one time. The ice shelf was easily 8 inches thick. With such low flows, there was a lot more shore line than expected - you could walk up and down the river without being on the "bank". Cabo and I fished between the two bridges - starting at the pull out just below the bridge at Deckers. I got down there at 7:30, jumped in and headed for the long island upstream. I fished the far side of the island - seeing a couple of smaller fish further up, but they were already spooked. I fished right to the bridge and then headed down the other side of the island. Almost all the way down I hooked into a nice fish - he pulled me into some faster water, but I managed to pull him to the side and landed him. He was a nice think 14 inch rainbow. I hooked him on a tiny green body and black head midge - which I tied on after I got a snag and pulled up a stick - tons of husks were attached to the stick and I squeezed one to see what was inside. Out popped a nymph that had a neon green body with a black head and black legs. So I tied on a similar midge.
I moved down the river hitting all the usual spots with no luck - I even tried a streamer to no avail. A lot of the places were very skinny due to the low water and there was a lot of sandy areas that previously held rocks or fishy looking spots. I moved all the way down to the lower bridge right next to the huge rock. I hooked a handful of small rainbows - I knew they were there and went after them on purpose. I landed only a couple - not really worried about bringing them to hand because they were pretty fiesty and just as small! I promised the wife I'd be home by around 1pm so she could go for a bike ride - so I left at about 11:45. I was just glad to get out, and it was a good morning.
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