South Platte River Eleven Mile Canyon June 15, 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 have remained low, right around the mid 80s CFS, which is about 1/2 the historical average of 162 cfs. The fishing is still good, but fish are not as spread out as they typically are during this time of year and for the current water temp range of 58 at 9:00 and 63 at 2:30. I fished a number of different sections, and I concentrated on the deepest water in each pool where there was still a nice seam and did well. One thing I noticed is that in sections that are typically home to too heavy of water in channelized sections actually held a decent numbers of fish. I caught a lot of fish off the drop offs at the head of the pool and in the deepest part of the pool where there was a nice riffle/enough current to keep the food flowing. Unfortunately, most of the great pocket water in areas dubbed in between water are currently too low and I only picked up fish in the deepest of these pockets.

I used a variety of flies, but did best with an Olive Quill Perdigon, Brown Duracell, Blowtorch and a Purple Haze Dry Fly.

Flows: 84 CFS Colorado Department of Natural Resources 11 Mile Canyon Water Gauge

Weather: 75 with an afternoon thunderstorm Lake George Weather

Hatches: BWO, Midges, Cased Caddis and scuds.

Methods: As far as rigging, I caught a number of fish euro nymphing, but also did well with a dry dropper on edges of the main current. Even went to a single dry fly at one point. Nymphing is going to be your best bet for steady action, but be ready to switch to a dry fly or dry dropper if the opportunity presents itself or you want to fish the whole section. A smaller Brown Duracell or Blowtorch 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 Brown Duracell or Blowtorch on the point.

Flies: Mayflies size 16-18, Midges size 18-22, Cased Caddis 12-16, Soft Hackles 14-16 and 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