Waterton Canyon

I haven't fished Waterton Canyon once last year after it reopened, so I thought I would check it out today and see if all the bad news of no fish, bad conditions etc. is true. Waterton Canyon is a part of the South Platte system, arguably the last stretch of this river that can sustain a year-round trout fishery (yes, there are trout caught occasionally below Chatfield Reservoir but I doubt the flow of 0cfs during summer is helping the few trout that escape Chatfield much).

Waterton Canyon is part of the Colorado Trail (end or beginning depending on your view) and access to it is either by foot or by bike. No motorized vehicles are allowed. It is apx. 6 miles from the parking lot in Kassler to the dam of Strontia Springs Reservoir (the 6th reservois of 7 before the river hits Denver). I am not much of a walker, especially if I want to start fishing below the dam and 6 miles would take me a while in my waders. With my "tenkara bike", this is much more manageable. And I get a good cardiac workout, too.

The Tenkara Mobile and Tenkara Bike

tube attached to frame to transport collapsed rod (MUCH easier than with a fly rod!)

The reason why I drive all 6 miles up to just below the dam is that the fishing - and fish stock - is significantly better. The flow is typically higher out of Strontia Springs than below the Marston Diversion Dam which is about halfway up. Regulations for the upper stretch are artificial and flies with a 2 bag limit of 16"+. Below the Marston Diversion, regular Colorado regulations and bag limit apply.

Strontia Springs Dam

The weather was nice, lower 60ies as a high, a bit chillier in the morning and the shade of course. At times a bit windy but nothing that would spoil your casting for long. Flow was 32cfs below Strontia Springs and 15cfs below Marston.

I thought this would be more of a scouting trip, not having heard really good news about the fishing last year. Luckily, I am happy to report that at least in the upper section trout are still around, spooky, yes, and typical South Platte residents - focused on the small stuff. I still managed to to land 5 nice browns, the biggest around 13" or so (longer than the handle of the Iwana 12' I was fishing with yet. A few more got away, as always.

looks almost like parr marks of a juvenile rainbow... never saw those on a brown before

spots....!

BWO's were coming off and fish were feeding on the emergers. All fish were caught on a gray RS2, fished as a trailer behind a beadhead little black stone fly sakasa kebari and a generic green sakasa kebari. Go figure.

South Platte 2012 10 13

Yesterday was a BWO day if there ever was one. Not your usual Colorado weather (sunny) but cold, overcast, drizzly, windy and rain. The sun tried hard to get through the cloud cover but it never happened.

My new friend Phil Echelman and hit the river hoping, in vain, it would warm up at least a little bit. With the wind setting in early afternoon, windchill set in to make things worse.

Fishing began a bit slow, I started with a Copperbari and teased a fish to flash but that was it. I decided to add my a small purple something from a tenkara fly swap and promptly hooked up with a acrobatic rainbow that I lost to bad know. Since it looked like they were into the small stuff, I tied on my old friend the RS2 as a dropper and things got a bit more interesting, hooking another fish or two. 

We moved downstream around the bend and started working some interesting looking runs and pockets I knew were holding fish. Remember I mentioned it was BWO kinda day? Bingo, around noon I started seeing noses of some nice fish come up and picking up little sailboat like BWO duns off the surface. I watched a few them floating through the seam just to be picked up leisurely by a trout. I cast my Copperbari into the seem, kept a tight line to drift the kebari as high as possible in the column and promptly hooked up and realized that those were not the same trout I was catching during the Summer in various creeks, those were trout with shoulders from a quality tailwater; well fed and strong. 

Since the Copperbari was a bit too heavy, I tied on a green kebari tied with thread and some grizzly hackle that I found at the bottom of my fly box. This made it a bit easier to keep it riding on top and the trout surely approved. I hooked and landed a good number of feisty rainbows and brown trout and Phil joined into the action also. But as suddenly as the hatch started, it ended as quickly. 

Phil in action...

... but unfortunately my camera finger was too slow to capture the fish before it slipped back into the river

The rest of the day left us in search of more trout further downstream, hooking up here and there before the wind and rain had us pack up. 

I sure was glad having ventured back to the South Platte for some quality trout before "really" cold season.

Tight Lines, -K

PS: Jason - even you would have lost your South Platte skunk today.

Days on the water this yer: 28

Amago in Cheesman

Yesterday, I headed out for a full day's fishing the Cheesman Canyon of the South Platte. This section is rated a Gold Medal water by the CDOW and artificial lures and catch and release only is allowed.

I picked Cheesman Canyon because I finally wanted to give my Amago a shot at some bigger fish than those I have caught during the season with my Iwana 12ft. Because of the above mentioned regulations and the constant supply of food, particularly midges, the trout grow big and fat and are used to see a lot of anglers all year long. I believe an average fish in the Canyon is somewhere in the 18" range.

Cheesman Canyon's fishing is outstanding but very "technical". Most of the time, you will be limited to fishing nymphs and midges, small sizes of 18 or 20 and smaller. There are of course days when you can trick them into taking dries and bigger patterns, but those days seem to me to be far and between.

Yesterday was another of those Colorado blue sky days, not a cloud and high 60ies - not bad for mid October. I met my new friend and Tenkara fellow Jason Klass of BackpackFlyfishing.com just before 8am at the trailhead of the Gill Trail which is the only way to access the Canyon. When I got out of the car, I was greeted by chilly 26F which made the change into my waders not really a pleasure.

We hiked in a bit, past Cow's Crossing, had a little snack, waited for the sun to crest the canyon ridge and setup our Amagos. I rigged my Amago first with a no. 3 level fc line from Tenkarabum, a size 18 copper john and a size 20 mercury RS2 (my lazy version of it) as the point fly. When I nymph, I always fish two flies; an attractor and a smaller imitative fly. Later that day I switched to a furled line yellow hi-vis 13ft line of StreamsideLeaders.

My lazy version of the mercury RS2:

Fishing was initially somewhat slow and it took a while for the sun to do it's work. I got a few hits but wasn't able able to set the hook properly or lost them right away. Finally, after a while, I landed the day's first Cheesman Canyon brown trout. Smaller than average, but hey, a trout landed is a trout landed.

I fished all day with the same two flies, loosing one RS2 only to rainbow that I would guess to be 16-17" that I hooked in pocket water adjacent to a nice ripping current. I was initially able to keep her away from the fast current but there is only so much you can do with an Amago. Once she hit the current, it took only seconds for her to head downstream and around one of the huge boulders that are typical for the Canyon. She's got now a nice little lip piercing.

The highlight of the day though, at least for me, was a pocket of water that really did not look like much and I almost passed up. Only because Jason was fishing just a bit ahead of me and I didn't want to pass him, I decided to fish the pocket.

I cast into the head of the pocket and was surprised when I saw my indicator (yes, I do use an indicator even with Tenkara...) DART away. I was hooked into a very nice fish, in the 15-16" range but alas, the hook dislodged and all I could say was "see you later...".  I recast into the same pocket and hooked another fish which I never saw, but by the feel of it, definitively smaller than the first one. Being the optimist - or opportunist - I cast again into the same pocket, let it drift and hooked the third fish out of the same pocket. This one was right on the seem where the slow/still pocket water met the faster current. I was very surprised by the weight I felt and when I saw the fish's flash I knew I was in trouble. The biggest fish so far fishing Tenkara... She didn't go crazy or went for a run, but kept changing positions from the slow water to the faster water, staying deep. She then let herself drift downstream with the current, still not running. In the shallower water I finally realized what I had on.... a beautifully colored rainbow trout, her purple flank flashed brilliantly in the sun light. She was, in my eyes, well over 20", my "educated" guess would be in the 21-23" range (I caught on regular fly fishing gear a few in the 21" range, measured, and this one seemed to be bigger than those) . I called out to Jason that I might need some help netting her. His comments was, quite dry: "She will not fit your net...". She still did not go crazy nor did she go for a strong run, so when we moved her (and Jason) into position to net her, she gave a shake with her head and the fly came off... I was so excited having caught her and coming so close to netting her, that I initially wasn't even bummed that she got off. Only later I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get a mug shot of her and me.

I was very pleased and happy how I was able play her with the Amago, but I think that she also did not really give her full 100%, maybe just 50% or so. Those big trout in the Canyon have been hooked more than once during the years it took to grow so large and I just can't shake off the feeling that she knew that she'll be let go, once more.

I continued fishing, picking up a fish here and there but by no means was the fishing hot in terms of numbers. Each fish was hard earned by placing good dead drifts, line management and depth control. Your usual fare fishing what people call "technical".

Towards the end of the day, I helped Jason to shoot a quick video for a product that he was testing and shortly thereafter we started to hike out. I gave that "special" hole another shot, this time with no success. I hooked another small fish on my way out, then changed to a dry (Snowshoe & Elk Caddis) since I saw several size 16 grey caddis flutter around. No risers, no hookups (I couldn't even see a fish), but I decided to blame it on the wind that made it difficult to cast and place the dry appropriately, lol.

Happy and exhausted I completed the hike out of the Canyon, drove back to home & family and a few cool ones.

I am extremely happy with the Amago, knowing what size of fish she can handle, with the day, the fishing and the company I had. This was a GREAT day of fishing.

Tight Lines, K


First trout of the day:

Jason at work:

Cheesman in October:

Snowshoe & Elk Caddis

Amago

I was able to get my hands on an Amago which is at 13'6" the longest Tenkara rod offered by TenkaraUSA. My wife is telling me it's part of my anniversary present - the other part was my solo trip to RMNP, see previous post Heaven. Love my wife!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get out on the water since my trip to RMNP, family and work schedules are crazy and I will be heading for a business trip to NYC for the entire next week.

Anyway, my first impression is that it is compared to the Iwana 12ft noticeably heavier which it is, but not by much: 2.7oz (76.5grams) vs 3.5oz (100grams). I like the slightly longer cork grip that allows to adjust how and where you can hold the rod depending on the situation on the water. It casts nicely on the lawn with a furled lined, but the real test will show Amago's true identity on the water. The cork grip seems to be of good quality with few fillings, bug given the experience I had with the Iwana (some of the cork filling dissolved or became loose) I decided to seal the the cork with cork sealer that I had left from my previous fly rod building projects. The cork sealer is easy to apply with a brush and the cork is afterwards slightly darker, a more dark honey color which I personally like better than the original look of the cork. 

The reason why I added the Amago to my arsenal is that I felt I needed a longer rod for the South Platte which is considerable bigger than the small creeks of RMNP where the Iwana is perfect. Also the trout in the South Platte are somewhat bigger and beefier, depending on the section a 18" fish is average with much bigger fish present.


I might be sneaking out tomorrow for a bit of fishing and will then post my first practical impressions of the Amago.

Stay tuned & Tight Lines, -K

Oh yes, someone else was excited too!

A Day on the South Platte

Today I decided to take out my Iwana on the South Platte and see how how the it fishes at 150cfs, which is perfect for dries.

Took off early, heading towards the foot hills of the Front Range.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Leaving the house, the temperature was 60F. Arriving at the stream 40 mins later, it was brrrrrrrrrr 37F. I guess packing the fleece was a very good idea this time.

However, it was a beautiful Colorado day, blue sky everywhere you looked. I rigged up a new line I was tinkering with (7 ft no 4 fluor carbon, 5 ft no 3 fluor carbon plus 5 ft tippet) and tied on a rainbow warrior and a RS2. Realized I forgot my stick-on strike indicators, so I had to go back to the car and see if there was anywhere a strike indicator I could use. I was lucky enough to find a small size "thingy". Soon enough, I hooked up with nice 'bow that fell for the rainbow warrior and was reminded that those South Platte 'bows are quite spunky. I realized that I still have to work on my fish fighting technique with a Tenkara rod... sometimes I do miss that reel!

I switched to a sakasa kebari and but couldn't buy a strike - not sure if it was lack of technique of just wrong fly for the river. The South Platte is a tailwater fishery with small nymphs being typically the ticket but right now I would like to blame lack of success to lack of technique, lol. I also tried to fish with the fly only, no weight, no indicator, but again, years and years of using strike indicators left me a bit doubtful whether I do have the technique to fish without. This is certainly an area I will be focusing on more in the future and try to learn better and simpler fishing techniques.

As it was warming up, I switched to a yellow CDC & Elk, size 16. I figured it would be a good pattern to imitate both Caddis and Yellow Sallies. I also switched lines, using initially a "tapered" fluoro level line (yeah, tapered and level, what was I thinking?) and moving to the Tenkara USA furled tapered line. Had issues casting with that line at first, I was wondering if the fly was too fluffy, the leader too long (5ft) or just, again, lack of technique. It took only a few cast's though to "get" it, the line being wet and having more mass helped also a lot. The wind however did NOT help.

Had to move around quite a bit to find good water for dries since this is mostly a nymph fishing river, but I was able to coax 4 more beautiful bows into taking my flies, all fish were in the 13-15 inch range. This one was a particular beauty!

A few shots of the river today, before to rubber hatch started - I am so glad that Summer is over with no more float tubers on the river...

Fly of the Day: CDC & Elk, yellow, size 16:

Oh, one more thing. Did I mention that it was 90F by the time I got home?