Winter Fishing by Brad

Decided to fish with Cousin Ricky today and headed to an old stand by, the Deckers section of the South Platte River. Temps were great, near 60 but the wind was howling. We drove by the Gill Trail parking lot for Cheesman Canyon but it was already packed so headed down to Deckers and The Flats. Deckers was a tad icy but The Flats were looking good. Fished for about 2 hours then gave up. Two hours of strong winds and picky fish were enough plus the river was getting crowded with other anglers. Water was gin clear and numerous feeding fish were visible.



We opted to head down to Elevenmile Canyon and try our luck there. This was my fist trip to the canyon and I did not know what to expect.





The views were great but the river was frozen solid nearly three quarters of the way through the canyon. Only the last couple of miles were fishable given the warmer water spilling through the dam. Again, plenty of feeding fish were visible but getting them to bite what we were throwing was frustrating. Finally a tip from a nearby angler was the key, a small olive woolly bugger. The fish ate this thing up like crazy. Was a great trip to a new section of water.