South Platte River below Chatfield

Today I hit up the South Platter River below Chatfield. This part of the river is so close to my house, but the reputation as a warm water trashy river completely turned me off to it. Not knowing if this reputation was deserved or not, I finally decided to give it a chance. Unfortunately the reputation is well deserved.

Yes, the flows below Chatfield are historically low right now (not sure why - I guess trying to fill up Chatty), but no matter how you view it, the place is just a nightmare. However, the parks department has put a parking area/ranger station/park office right behind Aspen Grove mall on Santa Fe in Littleton. I had no idea it was there and stumbled upon it. I went inside and talked to a nice guy about the area and he explained the river and the surrounding areas. Inside the office there is a greeting area with all kinds of stuff animals that are in this area - from snakes to foxes to hawks to weasels to coyotes to beavers. Pretty cool little exhibit.

I decided to grab my gear and hike in there right at Ken Caryl. As I was walking in I dropped down to the river and scared a cool colored lizard - he was a limey green color, but I only saw him for a second. The river is horrible colored with nasty algea growing on the bottom, and it was terribly off color - which makes no sense since the flows were so low. I kept moving up river towards Chatfield, hoping to find some fish moving. I did not even string up the rod - just hiked along the rivers edge. There are a couple nice runs, but the water is ugly, no way any trout are in there. I took the temp and it said 60 degrees, which is way too warm for that river in mid May.

There are some restored areas with riffles and waterfalls, but I saw nothing. I even threw in some rocks to see if I could see something scatter - nothing. I moved all the way up to first small pond - there on a fallen little tree I saw a black snake all stretched out on the branch - pretty cool position - he was just sunning himself. I saw tons and tons of different birds as well - flitting in and out of the brush and singing to each other. Of course the bike path follows the river - so lots of bikers, runners and walkers going down the path giving me dirty looks.

The little pond that connects to the river was full of shadowy figures sitting up on top of the water sunning themselves - huge carp, some I'd guess hit 30 lbs or so. I tried my best to cast to them with my carp flies, spooked a bunch of them, had a few laugh at my flies and ended up getting skunked. At least I know where they are now!!

I headed back to the truck - my 3 hour excursion was over - I was not disappointed with the adventure - I saw lots of different animals, tons of fox and raccoon footprints, listened to the birds and saw some fish. Not a bad afternoon only 4 miles from my house!

I know TU is thinking about fixing this section of the Platte, but until Denver Water promises consistent flows out of Chatty, this would be a waste of time. That section needs to be blown out for 6 months straight, and then consistent flows in the 1,000cfs range - which will never happen.

I'm just glad I got out.

Almost famous and some Carpin' at Chatfield

This morning I headed over to the local discount fly shop and bought myself a rubber basket boat net for my D's trip on Tuesday. While I was there the guy at the counter said - "hey, do you have a blog?", I said yes. He said - "yeah, it's called Catching My Fair Share - right?" I again said yes. I told him, "wow, I'm famous, I get recognized anywhere now", to which he comment, "nah, I recognized your little girl".

SON OF A BITCH! The frickin 5 year old one up'd me AGAIN! Anyways, it was kind of cool to get recognized, even if it was my daughter that is the famous one. It was kind of cool just knowing someone besides the guys I bribe with flies, beer and gas money actually read this thing.

Anyways, I did head over to Chatfield this afternoon to see how the carp were doing. And they weren't doing nothing. The water was about 8-12 inches too high and I didn't see a damn thing. The Army Corps website says it is slightly under 5,432 feet - which I guess is a foot higher than I wanted it. I may have missed my window of opportunity to get into carp this year at Chatfield. Cabo was swimming in all the areas she can normally hang out in - which is bad news. I didn't even string up the rod. I only saw a few fish jumping out of the water - although I did meet a couple of nice walleye spin fishermen.

The water was way off color and it was warm. Not sure I will get another chance to hook up with the carps.

No fish, but still a happy dog.

Dreaming about Chatfield

I've been seeing all the posts with everyone carp fishing lately - now that all the rivers are blown out - and I am starting to think about carp fishing at Chatfield again this year. The second week of June is a good time to start stalking them - it was June 15, 2008 that they were getting their groove on and I hooked into a bunch of them there.

I looked up the past history of the water levels Chatfield has - last year it was at 5,434 ft - which was flood levels and about 2 ft over ideal conditions.

I just checked the US Army Corps of Engineers site (type in CHFI) for water level and it seems to be at a normal level of 5,431.56 ft. That is right in line with two years ago - so I am thinking I need to go check it out.

I am thinking about heading over there on Saturday for a look - it is going to be some crappy weather, but I don't think the fish will much care. I'll break out the big rod and reel and have some fun.