South Platte River Eleven Mile Canyon May 09, 2025

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:

Flows had been steadily rising from the beginning of the month getting as high as the low 110s and were above historical averages for a number of days. They have since dropped to the low 90s and upper 80s (May 12th). On Friday the 9th I fished a number of sections and all fished well, but fish were spooky if you rushed into their holding water. The water at 10:30 was only 47 degrees and at 53 by 1:45. The fish were holding appropriately for the water temperatures. Earlier in the day I was pulling them out of the deeper soft riffles, middle of pools and around the side eddies. As the water warmed up, I was also pulling some out of the sides of the heavier water and in pocket water as long as there was at least 2’ of depth. In general, the fish are definitely not in their summer lies, but keep your eyes on your thermometers and follow the fish throughout the day accordingly. Water clarity was around 5’ or more, so be mindful of your approach. I noticed a number of light olive colored mayfly adults in the air size 16-18, but didn’t see much surface feeding, but I also only fished from 10:30 - 2:30. So that is not saying a hatch didn’t eventually bring the trout to the surface. It’s worth to mention, I did see a number of trout suspended in soft riffles freely feeding.

I had equal success on both the gold medal water and the water below the gold medal section. You will find success with Mayfly patterns sizes 16-20 sticking to the olive and golden olive colors, midges in a variety of colors sizes 18-24 and medium sized olive scud patterns like a Sexy Walt’s Worm. I personally had a lot of success with perdigons on both a euro rig and dry dropper with a klinkhammer and parachute style dry fly. I also did very well with Olive Sexy Walt’s Worms #14 and Olive and Golden Olive soft hackles.

Flows: 92 CFS Colorado Department of Natural Resources 11 Mile Canyon Water Gauge

Weather: 70 for the high and partly cloudy Lake George Weather

Hatches: BWO, Midges, and Scuds are available

Methods: Nymphing is your best bet but be ready to switch to a dry fly or dry dropper if the opportunity presents itself. A medium sized Walt’s Worm paired with a smaller mayfly or midge pattern will bring fish to the net throughout the day. I had the most success long line euro nymphing using a Custom Tungsten Olive Quill Perdigon or Custom Tied Tungsten Soft Hackle Quill Nymph on the tag and a Custom Tungsten Olive Sexy Walt’s or Custom Tungsten Tag Olive Quill Perdigon. Early afternoon I caught a number of trout on a dry dropper rig catching trout equally on the dry and the nymph below.

Flies: Mayflies size 16-20, Midges size 18-24, Scuds size 16-18

RS2 Gray Foam Wing RS2 - Chocolate Foam Wing RS2 - Black Brown Quill Perdigons Custom Tungsten Olive Quill Perdigon Barbless Duracell Natural Sexy Walt’s Worm Bucky's Klinkhammer - Baetis Carlson's Purple Haze Mayfly Emerger Disco Midges Juan’s Money Midge Rainbow Warrior Jig Hot Butt Hare - Olive Custom Tied Tungsten Soft Hackle Quill Nymph Custom Tungsten Tag Olive Quill Perdigon Custom Tungsten Olive Sexy Walt’s Worm