South Platte River below 11 Mile Canyon, Colorado - My work brought me to Colorado Springs so I researched good streams less than 2 hr drive and it brought me to 11 Mile Canyon. The guys at Angler's Covey Fly Shop also recommended this river. This tailwater river (I would call a stream) is gorgeous. There are huge rock croppings, consistent flows/temperatures, and a variety of trout species. The 1 lane tunnels along the stream road were very unique as well. I wish I would have taken more pictures but I was primarily focused on catching trout. I got to the stream at around 3 pm and drove all the way up to the dam and talked to a guy fishing a good looking spot. He gave me some good information and I noticed some subtle rises near where he was fishing. He moved downstream so I got the waders on and started fishing where I saw the rises. I fished the same 50 yard stretch of stream until pitch dark. My primary goal was to catch a cutthroat since I never have but I caught all browns and rainbows. The size on the bows were 14-17" while the browns were a little smaller. I missed 2 trout that were around the 20" mark. I landed over a dozen trout with most being on dries. Most people informed me that I would have to nymph if I wanted to catch trout but the trout were taking emergers all day and especially the last hour of fishing. At one point, I had 2 nymphs below an emerger which produced results. The most common hatch I saw was caddis so obviously, a tan cdc caddis emerger was the best fly of the day but it was hard to see after sunset so I switch to a 16 light cahill and still caught fish. The strange thing of the day was how many fish hit my fly and I missed. I'd estimate I missed around 30 takes. Why? Sometimes I set the hook too soon and others I think the trout actually missed their mark but for the majority of the times I have no clue why I missed so many as I normally have a good hookup rate %.
Pohopoco Creek - I fished the last 2 hours of daylight on the Po last week. Stream temp was low 60's and the fish were active. I caught over a dozen browns but nothing of size. CDC caddis emerger was the ticket here as well. All fish were caught in "slower riffles". I also caught a couple of fall fish that fought well.
Brodhead Creek - There are still trout in the BHC that survived our hot July. I've fished the creek 2 times in the past week and I have had several hits and a couple of hookups but I can't land them. Again, no clue why I'm missing so many trout but at least I'm getting action. Yesterday there was a small (18) BWO hatch as it was drizzly and overcast. I missed roughly a dozen "fish" in a 1 1/2 hour span (3-430 pm). I know some of the hits were smallmouth bass but I positively id'd some trout as well. I had to keep changing flies to regain the fish interest. It seemed the larger (14-16) Iso and March brown catskill style patters worked best as long as they were drifted properly. Last Sunday, a black slumpbuster also got into some nice fish that I think were bass but I didn't land them. Frustrating! Hopefully this doesn't continue but it could be worse. Misses are better than nothing at all.
Below are some pictures I dumped from my camera.
Pocono Creek near Martz Road - Bartonsville
Pocono Creek - Wayyyy headwaters
11 Mile Canyon Dam - South Platte River, CO
Same
South Platte River
