[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”70″ gal_title=”oct.8 florissant”]
Good Evening Everybody!
Wow, the mornings get cooler, the days get shorter, and the fish just seem to go with the flow! That’s good stuff there my friends, feel free to use that one, just mention my blog and we’re cool! Alright, let’s get to the current conditions I just observed a few moments ago. Being away from the river today, I only made a few observations when I came home. Flows here in Decker’s/Trumbull holding between 314/320 cfs, with good clarity and little debris, now that the wind has calmed down some. Biggest change I’ve seen in the last two evenings, was the presence of rising fish! This evening, after the sun went down over the ridge, the rise was on! For about ten minutes or so, the edges of the granite wall that meets the river and the adjacent river bank were ripe with rising fish, and at times, air-born trout! There were four anglers out behind my house this evening that I watched from the porch. They appeared to be doing pretty well nymphing early on, then one of them switched over to a dry fly and caught one on his third toss to what must have been a fish he saw rising. Also, speaking with my neighbor, who fished earlier this morning, shared with me his success with rubber-legs, trailing a double-egg pattern. It’s also getting to that time of year where the fish really seem to key in on streamers, and if you’ve been following me since June, no doubt you’ve heard me praise the “olive Wooley-Bugger” Get out there and cover lots of water! If you are like me at times and just want to move about and explore, this is the way to go! Generally speaking. and from MY experience only, I have consistently caught more fish in the 17-20 range when using a streamer. The mornings up here have been pretty cold, but warming up nicely by about 9:30/10:00. Sunday and Monday look beautiful, so get on up here and do some fish’n! For all your tackle and guide service needs, visit http://www.flies-n-lies.com and book a cabin and guided trip on the famous South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Today’s picture gallery is from today’s adventure, starting with the river conditions behind my house at 7 this morning. The other shots are from Forissant, Colorado, where I spent most of my day helping with the installation of a water filtration system! That’s all for now folks, take care and have a great evening! We’ll see you on the river soon!
Chris
Like this:
Like Loading...
October 9, 2016 Active Fish in Decker’s
fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”71″ gal_title=”October 9. swayback ranch day/broncos lost to atlanta”]
Hey Everyone!
Good evening and here we go with the update for today. It was another late summer day here in the South Platte River Valley, with temperatures reaching the low 70’s, with plenty of sunshine and calm winds. Flows remain consistent for a fifth day, with 314 below the dam at Cheesman, and 321 in Decker’s/Trumbull. On occasion, mostly during the run-off season and during heavy rain fall periods, the flow in Decker’s can, and does happen seasonally, be slightly or significantly different from the flow in Trumbull. I simply list the one reading from the USGS measuring station that happens to be about 1000 yards upstream from my place on the river. When we are receiving large amounts of rainfall that causes Horse Creek and Wigwam Creek to influence the immediate flow in the Decker’s area, I’m usually here to visually notice that and let you know! I got out this morning early to take a hike, check the conditions and see if I could get a shot of nice healthy fish from the Decker’s bridge area. Working my way upstream from Trumbull, I was able to sight quite a few fish along the way, all actively feeding both above and below the surface. White mouths turning each way, fish darting up and down the water column, and the what sounded like a cannon ball being dropped in the water, but was really a trout going air-borne, was happening pretty consistently. The warmer weather definitely brought a variety of bugs to the buffet, but I personally didn’t get out and fish today. Most of the fish that I did see get put in the net were caught with nymph rigs, where one nice fella offered up that he caught the beast you see in today’s gallery with a Hare’s Ear. The weather looks great for the week, so expect to see a few more people than usual for a Monday. Keep in mind there is plenty of great fishing opportunities downstream from Decker’s and Trumbull. That’s all for now folks. Have a great evening and I hope to see you on the river soon.
Chris
Share this:
Like this:
Oct.8, 2016 Daily Decker’s
Fishing Conditions, fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”70″ gal_title=”oct.8 florissant”]
Good Evening Everybody!
Wow, the mornings get cooler, the days get shorter, and the fish just seem to go with the flow! That’s good stuff there my friends, feel free to use that one, just mention my blog and we’re cool! Alright, let’s get to the current conditions I just observed a few moments ago. Being away from the river today, I only made a few observations when I came home. Flows here in Decker’s/Trumbull holding between 314/320 cfs, with good clarity and little debris, now that the wind has calmed down some. Biggest change I’ve seen in the last two evenings, was the presence of rising fish! This evening, after the sun went down over the ridge, the rise was on! For about ten minutes or so, the edges of the granite wall that meets the river and the adjacent river bank were ripe with rising fish, and at times, air-born trout! There were four anglers out behind my house this evening that I watched from the porch. They appeared to be doing pretty well nymphing early on, then one of them switched over to a dry fly and caught one on his third toss to what must have been a fish he saw rising. Also, speaking with my neighbor, who fished earlier this morning, shared with me his success with rubber-legs, trailing a double-egg pattern. It’s also getting to that time of year where the fish really seem to key in on streamers, and if you’ve been following me since June, no doubt you’ve heard me praise the “olive Wooley-Bugger” Get out there and cover lots of water! If you are like me at times and just want to move about and explore, this is the way to go! Generally speaking. and from MY experience only, I have consistently caught more fish in the 17-20 range when using a streamer. The mornings up here have been pretty cold, but warming up nicely by about 9:30/10:00. Sunday and Monday look beautiful, so get on up here and do some fish’n! For all your tackle and guide service needs, visit http://www.flies-n-lies.com and book a cabin and guided trip on the famous South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Today’s picture gallery is from today’s adventure, starting with the river conditions behind my house at 7 this morning. The other shots are from Forissant, Colorado, where I spent most of my day helping with the installation of a water filtration system! That’s all for now folks, take care and have a great evening! We’ll see you on the river soon!
Chris
Share this:
Like this:
Oct.7, Daily Update
Fishing Conditions, fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”69″ gal_title=”October 7, 2016″]
Hi there Folks!
Weather conditions are great, the fishing has been up and down for me the last couple of days. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time shooting pictures and watching fish, but not so much catching for me lately! I spent another day today in the Cheesman Canyon, this time taking the upper trail and hiking all the way down to the base of the dam. This was a pretty vigorous hike that takes about an hour to get you in, and about an hour and a half to get you out. With steep climbs and descents, I would say this is an easy 2,000-2,500 foot elevation climb, after both directions. For a beautiful Friday in the South Platte valley, there was not another soul on the trail or in the upper trail head parking lot. Decker’s has been seeing fewer Anglers during the early weekdays, with pretty good traffic on the weekends, as the weather has been fantastic. Clarity is good, not much moss, with flows in Decker’s/Trumbull at 321, with the flow below Cheesman Dam, at 311. The weekend forecast looks great, with temps in the low 60’s, and plenty of sunshine. Our day in the Canyon was pretty humbling, I must say. All I had as far as strike went, was two big bow’s that came up on a wooley-bugger, as I made one last attempt to get a fish to remotely show some interest in what I had to offer. After being denied the fish fruits of the three hours of hiking, we returned home to Trumbull, to be each rewarded with a fish within the first five minutes of fishing! We both were using a foam back, chocolate thunder.
With this being my first trip this far up to the dam itself, I was thankful and happy to finally be standing at the base of one of most pivotal and controversial environmental wonders of the west, which happens to be basically in my back yard! The Cheesman Reservoir and Dam. Please visit the website link here for more information on this truly wonderful feat of engineering. http://www.denverwater.org/Recreation/Cheesman/. I hope you enjoy the photos I took today and I look forward to seeing you on the river! Until next time, have a great evening!
Chris
Share this:
Like this:
October 6, 2016 Let it snow
Fishing Conditions, fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”68″ gal_title=”october 6,2016″]
Good evening my friends!
Wow, all kinds of conditions up here today! Woke up to snow as the front moved in overnight, bring us a dusting down here in the valley, with a little bit more at higher elevations. We then moved into the afternoon with sunshine and passing clouds, light wind, and temps in the low 60’s. Flows in Trumbull/Decker’s is at 321, with 314 below the dam at Cheesman. The fish were rather active throughout the day, feeding aggressively both above and below the surface. After some morning errands and doing some photo-editing, I got out on the river at 4:30pm, with my neighbor who lives up the hill. Started out with small, flash-back rubber-legs, follow with zebra midge and trailing a grey, RS-2. I took two fish on this rig, while my buddy zero’ed in on the browns hitting a Chocolate Thunder, but wasn’t sure what the rest of his set-up was. The weather is looking good for the weekend, so look for increased pressure in the Decker’s Resort area, but consider heading downstream towards the confluence ,where’s there’s much more open space to try your luck! A bit of fall excitement taking place tomorrow night at the Decker’s Corner Cafe! http://www.deckerscorner.com Band starts at 7pm! That’s all for now folks! Hope to see you on the river soon.
Chris
Share this:
Like this:
October 5, 2016 Cheesman Canyon
camping, Fishing Conditions[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”67″ gal_title=”october 5, cheesman canyon hike”]
Good Evening folks!
Wow, covered some ground today and hiked the Gill Trail along the South Platte River, Cheesman Canyon. I didn’t fish, but I’ll get the conditions I observed in just a bit. Let’s get you up to speed on what’s happening currently in Decker’s/Trumbull. It was a beautiful day up here today, with mild temperatures in the low 60’s, after some pretty darn chilly morning temps in the low 30’s. The forecast for the weekend keeps improving each day, as we inch closer to Friday. We saw a drop in the flow from the Dam today, with current flows below the dam at 314 and 318 in Trumbull. The river coming through my back yard has cleared up considerably since the winds blew through over the last two days, even more clear up in the canyon. I didn’t fish today, just took pictures as I hiked the Gill Trail nearly to the dam. For more information on this trail, visit http://www.trailheadfinder.com As hard as it is to go into the canyon without taking my gear, I took this opportunity to take some great photos of this historical landmark area, as well as watch the behavior patterns of some pretty big Rainbow and Brown trout. Doing my best not to disturb any Anglers that were enjoying the serenity and peacefulness of their surroundings, I was careful not to get too close to anyone enjoying their time on the river. As the Gill trail traverses the river, 100 feet up the canyon wall and high above the gin clear South Platte, I was able to use my telephoto lens to observe the feeding activity of the trout. With the decrease in the flow today, the trout that had been previously been feeding much closer to the bottom, as this tends to happen here when the flows are higher, were aggressively feeding up and down the water column and occasionally breaking the surface during a midge hatch. The clarity of the water allowed me to spot, what I would say, are pretty solid numbers of fish congregated in most of the pools I observed. When I arrived in the parking lot, there were only a small number of vehicles parked, guessing 12-15, and spotted only about 6-8 Anglers the entire time. I did take the time to introduce myself to a few guys that were hiking along the trail and explained that I was writing a blog about the fishing conditions. They offered up to me their thoughts on how the canyon was fishing, as I was happy to listen. By the first hour in the river, they both claimed to have bagged 5 fish each, with the average fish being about 18 inches. Egg patterns were working early, with a worm and emerger in the afternoon. I’ll be back on the river tomorrow, as I’m planning to fish the Lone Rock campground, back to Decker’s bridge. For camping information and to make a reservation at this campground, visit http://www.reserveamerica.com. Hoping the cloud cover and cold front are going to get the fish active tomorrow. That’s it for now folks! Have a great evening and I hope to see you on the river soon!
Chris
Share this:
Like this: