[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”51″ gal_title=”september 4 2016″]
Good Morning Everyone!!
Let’s just begin with me saying that I’ve not seen the fish this active in quite awhile!! Each morning, I ride my road bike twenty miles along the South Platte River, from Decker’s to Trubull, and then back. Yesterday morning, as I was making the return leg of the trip, riding through the Scraggy View section of the River, which is about 6 miles downstream from Decker’s, I rode directly through a Trico hatch that was the size of a small cloud! Trying my best to look for rising fish while traveling at 25 miles an hour on a 1 inch tire can make things a little hairy at times, but I honestly saw fish rising the entire ten miles back from Nighthawk to Trumbull. After returning to Trubull, at about 10am, I made my way down to the river to find one of the guides from Trouts Fly-Shop, http://www.troutsflyfishing.com. The Tricos were still coming off, but nymphing seemed to be the way to go at this point. Today’s picture gallery has a few shots of the fish they caught yesterday. This morning, below Cheeseman, we’ve got a flow of 281 cfs, with a reading of 290 cfs at the Trumbull station. The dry-fly action really begins to pick up around dark, so if you’re brave enough to navigate the willows when it’s pitch black, and the nocturnal creatures don’t freak you out, try your hand at throwing a streamer to the bank when the evening feed is full swing! You may be surprised of how aggressive the big browns get during the moonlight feeding frenzy! The usual suspects have been producing, but we have been throwing a few different flies in the last couple days. You can’t seem to go wrong lately with the Sparkle wing, grey RS-2, Chocolate Thunder, Olive Split-case, pat’s rubber legs, and of course the ever popular red and black zebra midge. Some of the newer bugs we had success with yesterday were the Red fire midge, size 22-14, red Pheasant Tail size 20 as a middle bug, and the one that I watched take fish over and over again, was the Rainbow Warrior. More to come this evening, as we will be heading out to fish in just a little bit! In the meantime, have a great Labor Day Weekend and enjoy today’s picture gallery form the beautiful South Platte River Valley, Decker’s, Colorado!
Chris
September 6, 2016 Fishing Report
fishing reportGood Morning!
Well my friends, we have arrived at a very special time here in the Decker’s/Trumbull part of the South Platte. School is back in session and summer crowds are dwindling. Honestly my friends, this is the beginning of my favorite time of year in the South Platte River Valley. Looking like another beautiful September day with high temps expected to be in mid-80’s. The fishing continues to be great, with great flows, good clarity, and lots of active fish. The more aggressive fish seem to be feeding in the riffles, but don’t miss out on your chances to pull a beast that’s feeding along the banks and in the slower moving water. Trico’s in the morning, nymphing and dry-dropping through the day, and the evening’s are full of dry-fly opportunities! Around the time the local Owl starts to show up around the yard, we’ve been seeing huge blue-wing olive hatches that have produced a significant rise of fish along the river banks and granite wall by my house. This is also a fun time to break out the streamer and go after the big, territorial monsters that seem to go nuts when that streamer hits the water! Wednesday, I’ll be fishing the Dream Stream and hope to bring back some pictures to share on my blog. I’m trying a new plug-in, so I’ve added an RSS feed for the Trumbull station flow readings. This is coming directly from the official USGS website and will be on the blog daily. Along with this feed, I will also provide an estimation each day of the flow in Decker’s and the flow below Cheesman Dam. Today, it’s approximately 280 cfs. in Decker’s, with a measured flow of 281 cfs below Cheesman Dam. Have a great day and I hope to see you on the river!
Chris
Trumbull, below Brush Creek
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September 5, 2016 Fishing Report
camping, Fishing ConditionsGood Morning to everyone!
Wow, waking up to some pretty chilly temperatures this morning on this fine Labor Day Monday! Currently, it’s currently only 45 degrees here in Trumbull and feels like 30! The early morning dew, combined with the chilly temps have really made it feel like a fall morning here in the valley. Looking like were going to have a very nice sunny day, with a high temperature of 87 degrees. Alright, let’s get to some river updates, shall we? Flows below Cheesman are up just a bit from yesterday at 284 cfs, and 287 cfs in Trumbull. The fishing continues to produce as the Tricos dominate the morning dry action and the small nymphs and midges are pulling fish throughout the day! Last night was another great evening of throwing streamers and BWO’S to the banks, as the fish are really turned on around dark! On several occasions, my wooley-bugger was annihilated as soon as the impostor hit the water! As this was only the second or third time I’ve thrown fly’s in the dark, I wasn’t quite prepared to chase a trout around the Platte in the middle of the night! Needless to say, being ready for that strike was an understatement! Getting ready to go for a bike ride downstream to check out conditions and see what the fishy’s are up to this morning! As I have been riding the Platte River road each morning, I have noticed that there is still a few spots left in the campgrounds and the parking lots are not quite full at the fishing pull-outs! So, come on up, stop in to Flies and Lies http://www.flies-n-lies.com and pick up all you need for great day trout fishing on the beautiful South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Until later folks, have a great day and I hope to see you on the river!
Chris
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September 3, 2016 Fishing Report
fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”51″ gal_title=”september 4 2016″]
Good Morning Everyone!!
Let’s just begin with me saying that I’ve not seen the fish this active in quite awhile!! Each morning, I ride my road bike twenty miles along the South Platte River, from Decker’s to Trubull, and then back. Yesterday morning, as I was making the return leg of the trip, riding through the Scraggy View section of the River, which is about 6 miles downstream from Decker’s, I rode directly through a Trico hatch that was the size of a small cloud! Trying my best to look for rising fish while traveling at 25 miles an hour on a 1 inch tire can make things a little hairy at times, but I honestly saw fish rising the entire ten miles back from Nighthawk to Trumbull. After returning to Trubull, at about 10am, I made my way down to the river to find one of the guides from Trouts Fly-Shop, http://www.troutsflyfishing.com. The Tricos were still coming off, but nymphing seemed to be the way to go at this point. Today’s picture gallery has a few shots of the fish they caught yesterday. This morning, below Cheeseman, we’ve got a flow of 281 cfs, with a reading of 290 cfs at the Trumbull station. The dry-fly action really begins to pick up around dark, so if you’re brave enough to navigate the willows when it’s pitch black, and the nocturnal creatures don’t freak you out, try your hand at throwing a streamer to the bank when the evening feed is full swing! You may be surprised of how aggressive the big browns get during the moonlight feeding frenzy! The usual suspects have been producing, but we have been throwing a few different flies in the last couple days. You can’t seem to go wrong lately with the Sparkle wing, grey RS-2, Chocolate Thunder, Olive Split-case, pat’s rubber legs, and of course the ever popular red and black zebra midge. Some of the newer bugs we had success with yesterday were the Red fire midge, size 22-14, red Pheasant Tail size 20 as a middle bug, and the one that I watched take fish over and over again, was the Rainbow Warrior. More to come this evening, as we will be heading out to fish in just a little bit! In the meantime, have a great Labor Day Weekend and enjoy today’s picture gallery form the beautiful South Platte River Valley, Decker’s, Colorado!
Chris
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September 2, 2016 Evening Report
camping, fishing reportHello Everyone!
Well, we’ve made it to the last big holiday weekend of the summer season! The weather is looking great, the campgrounds are filling up, and the fishing has been fantastic! This morning started off sunny, but then we got a few spots of rain in the valley, but nothing to really speak of. On the fishing side of things, Oh my! It’s has been really good for the last couple of days. In the morning, you can’t go wrong with the Trico’s. Doubling up on dry flies with an indicator bug and a smaller dry has been working well after the Tricos are finished, and underneath, the fish have been going crazy over the grey/RS-2 Sparkle-wing, size 22-24. Bugs such as the grey pheasant tail, pat’s rubber legs, copper john, all trailing a variety of emergers and midges have been extremely productive between noon throughout the day! This morning I watched a guide on the river assist an Angler as she hooked up on a nice 19/20 inch Brown on a small Baetis. Not sure exactly what it was, but Baetis for sure. Last night, as it’s really just about too dark to see, the BWO’s are coming off big time! The fish are jumping out of the air along the banks and the granite walls, eager to risk it all in hopes of a tasty morsel! The friendly, knowledgeable staff at Flies-n-lies will certainly send you off with everything you could possibly need for a day on the Platte, so stop in and gear up for the day. Be sure to check them out at http://www.flies-n-lies.com. The current flow below Cheesman Dam is 281 cfs and 290 in Trumbull. Clarity is improving, but moss is still in the picture! It’s going to be a busy weekend fishing the Platte, so get up here early and remember that there is much more open areas to fish downstream from Decker’s. Word of advice, If you are not expecting to have someone fishing no further than 20 yards away from you, heed the warning and head on down river!!
On the camping and cabin side of things, we’re filling up fast and most the cabins are booked for the holiday weekend! Both Flies and Lies and the Decker’s Country Store both have cabins to rent. Please visit http://www.southplatterivercabins.com for more information and current availability. In the Decker’s area, we basically have 4 campgrounds. Three of the campgrounds are on Hwy.67, the other being on Jefferson County Rd.126. The only campground that takes reservations is the Lone Rock Campground. You can make your reservation here at http://www.reserveamerica.com. At about 5 o’clock this afternoon, they were filling up fast. So, if you aren’t up here yet, don’t expect to get a site at any of these campgrounds, sorry! Good news on the Fire Bans! Jefferson County has lifted their stage one fire ban and their are no current fire restrictions. Douglas County still has stage one in place, visit http://www.dcsheriff.net/sheriffs-office/divisions/emergency-management/fire-restrictions/ for the details. Please have a safe holiday weekend and I will see you back here tomorrow with an updated fishing report.
Chris
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September 1, 2016 Labor day weekend!
campingGood evening friends!
Well, we’ve come to another end of the busy summer season here in Decker’s, but we’re gearing up for one more weekend before the kids return to school full time and all that PTO goes to waste! For those of you that are planning to camp at one of the three first come first serve campgrounds along Platte River Road, there’s good news! When I road my bike down past Nighthawk this morning, I passed all three campgrounds along the way. The only campground that appeared to have anyone camping was Osprey. Leaving Decker’s and heading down stream, you’re first choice of campgrounds would be the Platte River Campground. It sits above the Platte on a nice stretch of land that is covered with Pine and Spruce, mixed in are some Aspens, but plenty of shade for those warm afternoons. The campsites are nicely spread out, giving you a little more privacy then some of the others. This is also a good area to fish due to the fact that it’s also a “Day Use” area, which means there is a fee to simply park and fish. Most regular anglers to our area don’t like to pay to park! When you camp it’s mostly your group and other campers that fish this section regularly. There’s not much free parking close, so not many just walk in. Heading about six miles downstream from Decker’s, the second campground is Ouzel. This campground is also along the river is one centrally located campsite. You tend to be a little too close to your neighbor, in my opinion, but it’s right off the road and has easy river access for tubing. The last campground you will have the option to visit would be Osprey. This campground is ten miles from the Decker’s resort, is located on the river, but doesn’t have much cover. If you are fortunate enough to come across a cancellation, you can also book a campsite at the only campground in Decker’s that takes reservations. Just click here, http://www.reserveamerica.com/camping/lone-rock-campground-co.
Have a great evening!
Chris
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