South Platte River Eleven Mile Canyon June 11, 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:
The 11 Mile Stretch of the South Platte is finally on the rise after they completed the lower damn project. The flows went up to 192 CFS today and fishing was very good. As the flows rise there will be a bit of vegetation flowing down the river along with some cloudy water, but still quite clear. Clarity was still around 3-4’. As with any increase in flow, the trout are readjusting to the new water levels and will continue to do so as this section continue to increase in CFS to it’s normal summer levels. The vegetation that is getting dislodged definitely calls for you to prioritize scuds with a fly such as Sexy Walt’s Worm or your favorite pattern. I also had a lot of success on Prince Nymphs below the gold medal section. Both Brown and Olive Quill Perdigons were also quite successful at bringing fish to the net on both the bottom and the Gold Medal sections of water. Be mindful of the water temps and as they increase you will start to find the trout moving into the heavier water to feed as the insects increase their activity. The lower section of the canyon had a lot of cased caddis attached to drowned branches, I also saw a few adults, but not enough to warrant a caddis dry fly being tied on.
Flows: 192 CFS Colorado Department of Natural Resources 11 Mile Canyon Water Gauge
Weather: 83 for the high Lake George Weather
Hatches: BWO, Midges, Caddis and Scuds
Methods: Nymphing is your best bet, but be ready to switch to a dry fly or dry dropper if the opportunity presents itself. The increase in flows has been dislodging vegetation with a lot of scuds with it. A Sexy Walt’s Worm paired with a smaller mayfly or midge will bring fish to the net throughout the day.
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.
Flies: Mayflies size 16-20, Midges size 18-24, 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 Prince Nymph Jig Jig Hot Butt Hare - Olive
