October 5, 2016 Cheesman Canyon
[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
