March 6, 2017 South Platte River, Decker’s fishing report
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”133″ gal_title=”March 6, 2017 three solid days, drys are back, bwo]
Good Afternoon Everyone!
Welcome back! Been a couple of days of solid fishing, up here on the South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Currently, it’s pretty blustery, with 4o mph wind gusts and temperatures in the lower 40’s! A mix of clouds, sun, and even a snow flurry or two have been seen throughout the morning hours and into this early afternoon! There are a few dedicated folks out on the river, too cold for this guy, but I did see a few cars parked along Platte River Road, on my way to Decker’s from Trumbull. Alright, right now we’ve got flows below Cheesman Dam at 90 (cfs), with a slightly higher flow of 95 (cfs) through Decker’s and Trumbull. Last week we finally saw a bump in the flow, which really got the fish going! Combined with the warm temperatures and the BWO hatches, it really felt like Spring a couple of days last week. Well, if you’ve spent anytime at all in Colorado, you know that the weather can change at a moments notice, especially during the spring time, when we sometimes see a 30 degree temperature difference from one day to the next. This does some interesting things to the fish as well. Last week, I believe it was Tuesday into Wednesday, we saw a cold front approach and the barometer dropped like a bomb! After living on this river for a couple of years, and observing the behaviors of the fish, it’s pretty obvious that this is an excellent time to be out on the river. For whatever reason, the hours leading up to the impending precipitation always get the trout feeding rather aggressively. After the front came through, so did the warm up! Thursday and Friday were also very productive days, as we have begun to see the emergence of the BWO hatch, along with some dry midge hatches occurring around 11:30 to 1:00pm, then again around 4pm. Thursday afternoon, with the wind blowing about 30 mph, I went out to a rise I haven’t seen yet this year. Quickly tying on a single BWO, I caught fish after fish, cast after cast, by throwing my fly upstream and into the current. By the count of three on most drifts, I was hooked up on a fish, almost guaranteed! This continued for a solid fifteen minutes or so, with the majority of the fish being small brown trout, in the 12-14 inch range. Friday was more of the same, with a focus this time on the “slump buster” a small streamer like bug, really just a small leech pattern, but proved deadly over the three day weekend of fishing! At first, on Saturday morning, I tied on the black leech, added a single BB split shot about 4 inches above the leech and presented the bug on a shelf that drops into a 4 foot hole rather abruptly. After just a few tosses of this leech, I picked up a rainbow making a b-line for the leech! Fish on! This was the fish I was trying to get the attention of, as the bigger bows and browns tend to hang off of this shelf, waiting for the impending meal. Mornings have been productive nymphing with lead bugs like the leech, Pat’s Rubber Leg’s, Egg patterns (rainbow’s are pairing up to spawn), and San Juan Worms. Middle bugs that I have been using and catching fish with have been predominately the Copper Johh (with blue and green middle flash, and plain), Pheasant tails, RS-2’s (tan and grey), WD-40’s(olive and grey), Barr’s emerger, and the Rainbow Warrior. A few of my favorite bottom bugs have been the buckskin midge, purple and blue juju midge, red zebra and red fire midge, and the grey RS-2 when the rise is occurring.
This will be my fourth season living on the South Platte River here in Decker’s/Trumbull, and I must say that based upon the amount of people that I’ve seen on the river daily this past fall and winter, I believe it’s going to be a busy season! Be sure to check out the rest of livedeckercolorado, as the SERVICES & THINGS TO DO pages are packed with tons of information about the Decker’s and surrounding areas. Where to camp, hike, tube, raft, rock climb, or rent a cabin. You can find it all right here! That’s all for today folks! Have a great day an I hope to see you on the river soon!
Chris
