South Platte River

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I had the opportunity to fish with client Jim Noone today.  We had a great day together and caught several fish.  The river is in great shape.  The water temps are finally nice and cool and the river is back to normal.   This means small flies and light tippets are once again the norm.  Tan worms and small black zebra midges and black beauties fooled most of the fish early in the morning.  There was a noticeable Trico hatch, and I assume that is why they were on small and black, but the fish never really looked up at the dries.

Jim did very well for fishing the South Platte for the first time.  He learned the basics on where the fish hold, what they eat and how to approach them.  He sucked it all up lick a natural!  Above was the better fish he landed for the day, this was the only pick I was able to get because it jumped right out of the net!

We continued to nymph most of the day.  We later switched to a small Pheasant Tail once the BWOs began to become active.  I encouraged Jim to climb down a steep hill to approach a big fish, which he eager to do.  He ran a drift to the big fish and a little bow came out of no where and took his bug!  This spooked the big boy, but one small fish is still better than no fish.  Check out the video below and my rock sliding skills too!

As the day progressed, clouds began to roll in.  This triggered the BWOs to hatch.  The hatch was short lived, but worth tying on a #24 Parachute Adams.  These were the smallest BWOs or “Baetis” I have ever seen.  A #24 was pushing it, they were more like #32!  But the fish fell for it.  I was able to get some video of Jim getting a nice brown on his Parachute Adams. Check out the video below.

Bottom line is to get out there.  The river is fishing well and the fish are once again healthy!  Bring some Tan and Red Worms, #18-20 Zebra Midges, #18-22 Black Beauties, #22-26 Parachute Adams, #18-22 BH Pheasant Tails.