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.