South Platte, 11 Mile Canyon, Colorado

Catch-up: This event occurred in the Spring of 2011

Date: Friday April 22 and  Saturday May 7, 2011

Weather: Sunny, beautiful

Insect/Activity: Small amount of midge and baetis activity

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge Pupa

Flows: 52

Fortune smiled upon Ben and I as we took to the river a couple of times in a two week period! I can't remember what stopped Michelle from coming, but I think it had to do with bridal showers, or baby showers!@?! Needless to say, upon hearing my tales after fishing, Michelle rued the day she was born a woman and "showers" became a required event for her gender.

That's a really long way of saying: Ben and I had two amazing days. The weather was amazing—sunny, calm winds, low flows, clear water and cool enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt—and the icing on the cake was the ridiculous amounts of fish we caught!

One of the beauties of late winter/early spring is the low flows and lack of fishermen on the water. It's a great time to get out there and catch fish that, in my opinion, are feeding recklessly because they are hungry from low metabolism in the winter and haven't been pressured for a few months.

With really low flows, it's easy to see fish too, and you can get away with fishing nymphs that aren't too weighted. It's one of the best times that nymph fishing feels like dry-fly fishing.

Here are some great photos that Ben and I got of the course of two days. Make sure to check out the rainbow with the spots on his eyes! I had never seen it before (in person). Really cool looking (though it's possible he took my fly because his eyesight isn't so good :)

Enjoy!

-Jeff Allen

Beautiful, dark colored rainbow. Notice the how his spots are covering his eyes! Amazing!

South Platte, Cheeseman Canyon, Co

Here's another blast from the past!


Date: Saturday April 2, 2011

Weather: Sunny in the mid 50's

Insect/Activity: Very little

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge Pupa

Flows: 75

Michelle strikes again! Really, a flawless brown ... amazing.

I've got a pretty good stock of these back-logged posts I need to catch up on, so you'll definitely see these popping into my blog from time to time :-) To make it easy on the reader, and my memory, they'll probably be photo heavy. Enjoy!

After the learning from my "upstream" mistakes of the past on the Cheeseman Canyon, Michelle and I were faced with the prospect of another late winter/early spring day with great weather. We took it. This time we stayed in the lower water of the Canyon and it paid off.

We had one of those glorious days where somehow the wind wasn't howling in April, and the temps allowed us to strip down to a light long sleeve shirt. The bug activity was lacking, but in Cheeseman Canyon there are always fish feeding on baetis and midge that are idling down the river. So, we fished one of my favorite low water rigs: 7x, micro indicator, micro splitshot and a #24 grey midge or #20 blacktail baetis.

-Tight Lines!

This rainbow also happened to be one of the most pristine, beautifully colored fish I've ever caught. Then again, I think I've said that about a lot of trout!

Another great photo of the same rainbow!

South Platte, 11 Mile Canyon, Colorado

Date: Sunday October 30, 2011

Weather: Mostly Sunny

Insect/Activity: None in the morning. Baetis hatch started around noon and became moderately heavy by 1:30 PM

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Midge Pupa, Poly-Wing Baetis, Adams

Flows: 63

Fantastic day on the river! My buddy Chris and I rolled up at about 8:30 AM, a little too early. There was not much happening in the morning, the air was still about 28 degrees and the light was low.

Chris with a great looking rainbow.

We spent the first hour or so fishing a standard riffle/run that normally produces very well, but there didn't seem to be too much activity. Later on, when the light was higher, along with visibility into the gin-clear water was better, I would discover that there really weren't that many fish in that spot. 

That discovery is one good reason why I like to fish with my eyes as much as with my rod! No doubt, you can become overly dependent on needing to see fish, but I see a lot of fishermen out there hunkered down in one spot because it fished well for them in the past. Fish move bases on so many different factors. It's good to be aware of that and move with them.

I love the fall, late fall and winter fishing so much because trout push up into the shallows for a number of reasons. Once Chris and I got some sun on the water and had a bit better visibility we were seeing fish moving in VERY skinny water! This hefty rainbow came out of a 6" deep wide gravel riffle. He was holding tight to a seam of faster, deeper water and I wouldn't have known he was there but for a keen eye! It's fish like this that instill a deep sense of love for this sport!

A larger rainbow for the 11 Mile Canyon. More importantly, she took a #20 Blacktail Baetis out of 6" of water!

As the day progressed we moved into another riffle/run, this time the fish had moved back in - in force. The baetis hatch was on and there were 6 steady risers within casting distance. Fighting back the jitters from giddiness, Chris and I spent the next two hours casting dry flies at steadily rising trout. It was one of the best hatches I have hit in a while! Most of the fish were slightly smaller, but we picked up the occasional 14" brown or rainbow. I did great with the Poly-wing Baetis and Chris did equally well with an Adams pattern.

We had to leave early, around 2 PM, and that was the only sad moment of the day. Chris and Ben got out the next weekend and had the same experience - needless to say, I'm hoping to make the journey to 11 Mile again soon!

The sun and the clear water made for some cool underwater shots!

One note: the brown trout have moved up into the shallows. It looked to me like they were in pre-spawn mode, fanning out there redds. But keep in mind that if the gravel looks really clean that is there redd (aka - nest/bed). At all costs avoid wading through them! Walking through one trout redds can kill hundreds of eggs - not a good scenario. We want to keep those guys coming back year after year!

Have fun out there ... if you're willing to brave the cold!

-Jeff Allen

South Platte, Cheeseman Canyon, Colorado

Catch Up: This event occurred in the not to distant past ...

Date: Monday February 21, 2011

Weather: Sunny, High's in the 40's

Insect/Activity: Few midge in the air

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge Pupa

Flows: Low, can't remember, but probably well below 100 CFS


Michelle and I were chomping at the bit to get a break from the Arkansas River in Pueblo. So, the first day we had off that the temps were looking nice we headed to Cheeseman.

I actually made a mistake that I won't be duplicating anytime soon ... we went pretty far upstream and got bamboozled! Don't get me wrong, Cheeseman has fish all up that canyon, but the further you go the tighter the canyon gets. The tighter the canyon gets the more you are faces with deep holes and weird currents. That makes nymphing particularly tough since you can't get your flies down to where the fish are (sometimes 8 feet deep, sitting backward, facing a rock, because that's where the current is bringing them food), and even if you do the amount of weight used tends to make your drift pretty heinous.

All that to say, we had a FUN day, but it wasn't too productive. I did some seining for fun because I had just made a new seine net (I'll post the instructions soon!) and picked up a few fish on midge patterns. Had a couple of good hookups too!

The Longest Road ...

No doubt you can guess at a lack of posts in this blog from the first photo in my previous entry.

My son, Winston James Allen was born on July 20th at 1:06 AM. He was 6 lbs. 11 oz. at 20" long. What an amazing experience, and it wasn't half as hard as everyone kept telling me! :-) Oh yea ... Michelle did really well too!

Somehow, back in June, I envisioned catching up on blogging since I knew I wouldn't be on the water for a while ... that didn't really happen.

I hope to get on the river soon. I need to figure out where to put my gear since Winston will be taking up all my chest space in a Baby Bjorn. Looks like it's time for one of those hip packs.

For now, I'll just say ... Welcome to the world Winston, I can't wait to share one of my greatest passions with you son.

-Jeff