Scott Payne, Rick Doerr, Jim Craig and Matt McClure recently embarked on a Colorado fishing expedition to the South Park area. South Park is home to the Gold Medal waters of the South Platte River. Our trip began Oct. 1 where we all flew out to Denver and rented cars to drive into the high desert mountain area near Divide where our lodging was located. This was a perfect location to be able to fish many sections of the South Platte with minimal drive time. We had the opportunity to fish Eleven Mile Canyon, Dream Stream, Deckers, Cheesman Canyon, Arkansas and Antero Reservoir.
The weather was fantastic as night time temps were in the mid to low 30’s and 40’s but the day time temps averaged in the mid 60’s to low 70’s. The South Platte is known for being more technical and therefore it can be tough fishing. They say if you can catch fish on the South Platte, you can catch fish anywhere. Our group was able to catch fish on all stretches of the stream however we did have to work hard for them.
We all had an opportunity to fish with Landon Mayer. Due to drought conditions it was difficult to fish the Dream Stream because the flow was low and continuing to drop. The Dream was crowded! Nevertheless Landon was still able to get us on some quality fish. Jim caught his largest brown(s) trout to date with him and Matt had a couple big bows on but they got away. One of the highlights of our day on the Dream with Landon is Jim & Matt caught their first Kokanee Salmon. These are some of the only land locked Salmon in the US which reside in Eleven Mile Reservoir and travel up the stream in the fall to spawn and then die. I have to admit they are very ugly. Scott and Tim had success catching some fish on the Dream by themselves. Additional days with Landon were at Antero Reservoir (still water). There was some success pulling out some quality browns however the Dept. of Conservation decided to do their bi-annual netting of fish while we were there and it totally disrupted our outings with him. Unfortunately the state has a contract to harvest eggs and sell them to other hatcheries in the US. It’s a real eye opener to see this occur and remains very controversial.
All in all it was a great trip even though we had some flow issues. Everyone put some quality fish in the net. Our lodging was exceptional and the scenery is spectacular, especially in the Canyons. For those that haven’t been out to this area I would suggest putting it on your bucket list and setting up a group FATC trip. There are several members of FATC that have put together trips in this area and would be more than happy to share their knowledge and help you with coordinating a trip to CO.
Matt McClure
