About 3 years ago I was heading home from fishing the Dream Stream when I noticed a sign that read turn right towards 11 Mile Canyon. I got curious and took a right turn not knowing what to expect. Upon arrival there were signs that read to enter you must pay a fee. This was not going to work for me as I didn’t have money to even get into Spinney Mountain earlier that day, I had to go to a local general store and the store employee named Rob was kind enough to give me $7 to be able to pay my fee into the lake. I was bummed out that I couldn’t get into the canyon so I told my self I’d be back at some point with money and see what it’s all about. Lets fast forward two year later and I must be the only fly fisherman that has not set foot into the canyon and fished the South Platter river in that stretch.
A few weeks ago me and my fishing buddy decided we were going to fish the Dream Stream all day. Few weeks later we arrived to the Dream Stream. We started off a bit rough not knowing what flies the fish were wanting to eat. We moved around when we noticed a group of trout swimming in the same area. We decided to start casting our nymph rigs and what do you know we started getting into browns left and right. Eventually once it tapered off we thought we’d give 11 Mile Canyon a try. I’ve never been to that stretch of the South Platter, but Nate assured it was a great place to fish from what he remembered 11 years ago. We packed up, had some lunch and headed towards the canyon. We stopped at the General Store to get some money out and continued our drive towards the entrance. Once we paid we started our drive. The next 13 miles were the most majestic I’ve seen in our beautiful state of Colorado, call me naive but I thought it was the most scenic canyon I’ve ever laid my eyes upon. The beautiful big boulders spread through the river and beautiful green spruce trees made it a very enchanting place. I must have said “WOW” 25 to 30 times.
I assume fishing here wouldn’t be as good as it was at the Dream Stream, my assumption tells me a place this beautiful I’m sure is full of pressure with big crowds through out the year, no way there’s any size to these fish. I like to think and assume before I try things if you haven’t been able to tell by now. We proceeded to drive all the way to the spillway because of a few fisherman suggesting we try the area first for best chances of getting into trout. We rigged up after talking to a few fly fisherman about what patterns have been working. As we step into the river groups of trout can be seen swimming and feeding across the river, I’ve never seen fish in a river so free to swim around with fisherman at their nose. It was the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. It took no more than 2 minutes before I hooked into my first fish on a Zebra midge, I always use this fly when I try a new river. It was a decent size brown trout. Two minutes later I hook into a cutbow and lose him after a 3 to 4 minute battle. For the next 3 hours me and Nate were catching browns, cutthroats, rainbows and cutbows, I couldn’t remember the last time I had this much fun fly fishing a river. I loved it so much that I went back twice over the next 5 days because I wanted to learn more of the river and find where the big trout are hiding. Each trip was a big success and I will definitely be back to 11 Mile Canyon any chance I get. I can’t wait for the fall season with all the color changes and the brown trout spawn. Thanks Nate for showing such a beautiful Colorado gem.
