Memorial Day: Windy with some Trout

Today I went fishing with Lyle, the dad of my daughter's best friend. Our families were supposed to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park this Memorial Day weekend and camp, but the weather forecast was not really favorable for us camping newbies - and with 3 kids in tow, you really want the first camping trip to be a success and dry. 3 days and nights with kids in a tent when it is cold and wet... it would have not been a relaxing weekend.

Anyway, Lyle and I decided to pay a visit to the South Platte below Deckers. The flows came down from over 400cfs early in the week to a very nice flow of 97cfs. That is almost unheard of during Spring runoff. Word is that Cheesman reservoir still has to fill and Denver Water went back to draw water from the North Fork so the flows were reduced.

The South Platte below Deckers, in my eyes, fishes best at around 150cfs. Today's flow was gin clear, trout were spooky. The river looked the same but at the same time different, there were new sand bars, depressions and it looked as if even some of the boulders were moved around a bit.

Lyle has not ventured to Tenkara yet, so he fished with his "Western" fly outfit; I rigged his rod with a new leader and a set of flies, I took my 12 Iwana and fishing began. I still had Chris Stewart's (Tenkarabum) hand-tied fluor carbon line with a Killer Bug on and the 2nd cast yielded a little rainbow trout right off the parking lot. I always get a little worried if the first few casts produce a fish; too many times this turned out to be the only fish caught.

First fish of the day

Fishing was definitively tough today, sunny skies, gin clear water, lower than normal flows and wind that made casting at times impossible. I just now checked the forecast and it says it's currently blowing at around 45mph and gusts to 55mph. The wind was of course blowing downstream, so upstream presentations were only possible when you timed your cast and drift when the wind was calming down. Otherwise, your upstream cast would land somewhere downstream of you. Sometimes I had to fish down and across since I had really no other choice. That being said though, the hand-tied fluor carbon line performed very well with "normal" and light wind. This line is on its way to become my favorite, combining the castability and turnover of a furled line with the low profile and density of level fc lines.

We fished from about 8.15am, it was already 60F on the river. The wind was getting worse by the hour and we decided to leave around 2.30pm when it was 70F. I caught maybe a dozen with a few very nice sized fish - I forgot how strong they can be compared to the trout I was fishing for lately on Bear Creek.