On the River: 11 Mile Canyon, South Platte, Lake George, CO

September 5, 2010

It was high time I got Michelle on the river all to myself! The summer had been crazy from moving, adjusting to new jobs, getting together with friends. I certainly got out to the river my fair share, but all too often Michelle couldn't come along for one reason or another.

So, on our first full day off in a while, we headed up to 11 MC. The day was great, water was running a little high, so it made for fishing hanging out in some difficult-to-drift locations, but we managed to find pockets here and there of fish hanging out on gravel bars, taking midges like it was their job.

We ended up at one spot that I have found to be a consistent gravel run where the fish can hide, almost invisibly, and a depression in the gravel. To paint the picture, we were looking at a 30 foot wide gravel run, with moderately fast water, and it appeared to be a uniform depth of 14". As we slowly advanced upstream we would see a 14" trout dart out from it's invisible location. After a few more steps we realized that there were micro-pockets where the gravel bottom went from 14" deep to 18" deep. This "break in the current" was enough to allow 2 - 3 fish to hold.

Why we couldn't see them ... I don't know, but sure enough we started spotting the depressions, fished to them, and started hooking up in numbers. It has been a while since I've encountered such an awesome fishing scenario. I was taken back to spring creek fishing in the east. It made me smile!

Sadly, with the increased flows our landing rates were about 1 in 5, but we had a great time.

I ended out the day by spotting a 17" brown, hooking and fighting for a solid 5 minutes until he pulled out. Another day, another day.

Tight Lines,

-Jeff