Early October, 2010 Colorado Trout Hunters 3 day Fly Fishing Trip Report
Date: Early October 2010 3 days of fishing
Location: Day 1 The Dream Stream Public Water
Day 2-3 South Platte River Private Water Call 303-325-5515 for guide trip bookings
Number of Anglers: 3
Guide: Tad Howard
Weather: Cool in mornings; bluebird day; temps high 60’s to low 70’s.
River Condition: Dream Stream day 1: clear water, flow 80 cfs South Platte River private water day 2-3: clear water, flow high 430 cfs
Report:
The anglers on this 3-day trip were Dave, Holt and Bufkin, up for some Rocky Mountain relaxation from Mississippi. Trips don’t always
work out this good, but these 3 days are a great example of the kind of extraordinary fly fishing Colorado can offer if the stars line up and
the fish gods smile on you.
Day 1: We fished the Dream Stream in South Park, Colorado. The wind was not a factor, and as luck would have it we avoided other
anglers most all of the day –although there was a good number of people fishing. Holt started out the trip in style with an 18-inch
beautiful cutthroat on the 2nd cast of the morning. This set the tone for an incredible next few days of fishing. Everyone caught lots of
fish throughout the day. Bufkin managed to land a couple big brown trout, and Holt not only landed the South Park Super Slam (Brown
Trout, Rainbow Trout, Cut-Bow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, and Kokanee Salmon, all over 16 inches) he also landed a 6th species–the rubber lipped hard pulling kissabley cute sucker. The big brown pictured to the left was the last fish of the day and put up an incredible fight.
Day 2: After a fulfilling first day we decided to fish day 2 on a very nice private ranch. The fish put up some incredible battles in the high water. Heavy tippet and good fish fighting skills were necessary to put the fish in the net. We were into quality fish all day. Nymph fishing was the most productive. For every fish that came to hand we waved goodbye to many more due to the small barbless hooks we were using and the high water flows. All in all, it was still a spectacular day of fishing in Colorado.
Day 3: We fished another private area on the South Platte. Water conditions were the same as day 2, but we were more prepared to
do battle with the big fish in high water and day 3 saw the percentage of fish landed go up dramatically. There was also a 1 hour spell mid-day when we started spotting monster fish along the banks feeding. We crawled on hand and knees and managed to hook 5 monsters in a row! Three behemoths came to hand and are pictured below. The biggest was a 29-inch monster landed by Dave. This was probably the best back to back big fish run I have seen in my guide career! The rest of the day saw great action with all anglers landing many quality fish.
