June 7, 2017 Fishing Report
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Hello my Friends!
Well, I’m all settled into my new job and have been cooking and fishing non-stop, from May 17th-today! No kidding folks, been in Cheesman Canyon, sometimes three times a day! I’ve done this so I could get a pretty good understanding of the flows and how the fish tend to behave on the lower section of the South Platte River, here in the canyon. Since I’ll be working quite a bit this summer as a private Chef, I’ll most likely be keeping my fishing reports to 3 to 4 a week. Don’t fret my friends, that’s why I call it “live” deckerscolorado.com! You’ll always have the current weather and USGS river flows availble 24/7, via RSS feeds! Ok, let’s get to the current canyon situation, along with the Decker’s area too! Big news is that the flows are no where near where they were this time last year. Currently, below Cheesman Dam, we’ve got a flow of 136 (cfs), with a similar flow through Decker’s/Trumbull. Not much moisture fell in the Valley today, some passing thunder, but no real rain to speak of. In the last week, we’ve gone from a flow of almost 300, back down to this meandering trickle of 136! As a typical reaction, the fish during this adjustment period tend to get a little spooky and don’t seem be be feeding as consistent as they do when the flows are not interrupted or altered. This, however, does not keep me from trying, so I was out on the river during this entire period, throwing multiple combinations of flies, in hopes of changing the minds of a few opportunistic trout. During this period, depth was key, as the fish were holding close to the bottom and not straying far in any direction in an attempt to get my fly. I did seem to get into a few fish during this period with the red midge larva and the buckskin midge. After the flow balanced back out, around late evening yesterday, the fish were back to aggressively feeding on emergers and dry midges. The one bug I would have to say was the “hands down” go to bug, was the size #22 blue jujubee midge. I caught at least 8 fish this evening, along with the buckskin taking about 4 of those 8 fish. When I wasn’t using the nymphing pole, I was set up with a double dry-dropper rig, consisting of a “hare’s ear” simply followed with alternating, grey and black RS-2’s, and even through the olive “Wooley Bugger” at a few big pigs that were cruising some deeper water further up the canyon. No luck thought, they just turned their noses up and went about their business. I have also spent few afternoons and evening sessions down in the Decker’s/Trumbull area as well, over the last three weeks, and I’ve had similar results with the same bugs! Not too much different fishing the Canyon vs. the Decker’s area, in my opinion. However, I have shortened up the amount of line I generally nymph with, along with paying much more attention to my weight and strike indicator, as the depth and flow can change dramatically from hole to hole throughout the canyon. Well, that should get you up to speed on things here in the canyon and around Decker’s/Trumbull. Today’s gallery is made up of some shots from the last two or three weeks. Hope to see you out there on the river soon!
Chris
