South Platte River Eleven Mile Canyon April 14, 2024

General Information:

The Eleven Mile Canyon stretch of the South Platte River flows out of Eleven Mile Reservoir before flowing through the town of Lake George, Colorado. It’s a very picturesque canyon with a lot of fishing pressure in the gold medal stretch. There seems to be a countless number of trout here where the average size is 12-14” with trout into the mid 20s but rare.

Fishing Today:

As air temperatures increase so does the bug activity. After bumping the flows into the 150 on March 1, the flows have settled into the low 130s. The fish are enjoying the increase of water and moving around. For this time of year, the flows are good. They won’t increase until they finish up the removal of the lower damn this month. Still be careful when approaching fish, because they can still be a little spooky. The BWO are starting to come off, but not quite in the numbers of a full hatch, but that means there are a lot of subsurface nymphing opportunities.

With the increase in flows and air temperatures the river is starting to get busy, so expect to see other anglers even on the weekdays.

Flows: 132 CFS Colorado Department of Natural Resources 11 Mile Canyon Water Gauge

Weather: 75 for the high Lake George Weather

Hatches: BWO, Midges, and Scuds

Methods: Be prepared to fish all life cycles of midges, BWO subsurface (with the occasional dry opportunity) and scuds are also prevalent especially around and below the vegetated areas.

In the morning the more productive areas will be the water below the pocket water and riffles. Try using dry droppers to avoid the plop of an indicator and spooking fish. In the deeper slower water use a standard euro rig. As the water temperature increases so will the fish’s activity and they will move more into those moving water feeding lanes in the pocket water and riffles. In these water types go to a euro rig and cover the water thoroughly until you can hone in on their preferred water speed and depth.

Flies: Mayflies size 16-22, Midges size 18-26, Scuds size 12-18

RS2 Gray Foam Wing RS2 - Chocolate Foam Wing RS2 - Black Brown Quill Perdigons Olive Quill Perdigon Barbless Duracell Olive Sexy Walt’s  Worm Natural Sexy Walt’s Worm Bucky's Klinkhammer - Baetis Carlson's Purple Haze Mayfly Emerger Disco Midges Juan’s Money Midge Rainbow Warrior