I managed to put off editing part of my thesis until this morning. It didn't take me as long as I thought it would. So to reward my efforts, I decided to go to the river. I fished a section of the South Platte that I haven't been to in years although I drive right by it almost every time I head out. It's hard to not venture down into Cheesman Canyon or head to Spinney Ranch every time I go out but fishing different water makes you better.

This is a sweetheart of a run that I have not fished before. Super deep. I put on a 12' leader and dropped 2 flies off it and still wasn't even close. I really think that this river is one of the toughest to work on in the area. The flows can fluctuate a lot, the fish are smart and strong, and the food sources are soooo small. This river isn't about luck. You gotta know what you're doing. Today, I stayed within a 1/4 mile downstream of the Wigwam Club. This is a private stretch of water right as the river flows out of Cheesman. Like a lot of the private water around here, it's owned by groups of lawyers, doctors, and politicians. Word has it that Dick Cheney was choppered in to this club a few years back. They stock what's known as a Kamloops Rainbow. This is rainbow trout that hails from British Columbia.

These trout can get extremely big. In the above run, there were probably 30 of them stacked up in the bottom of the pool. Some of those were easily in that 20-22 range. There was a nasty little hydraulic on the left side that had most of those fish actually facing downstream and it made getting a good drift impossible. They're big for a reason. The only way I was able to get close was to climb down that rock face on the right side and, even then, casting was creative.

Hey....look what got me to the river AND back home today.

I love this river. It was very tough today. Bitter cold temps and fairly low flows. I managed to get into a few bows but not the ones I came out for.