Today, I’m going down to the Eleven Mile Marina and purchase my fishing license. We notice a sign on the door about some services not being offered because of “staffing issues”. This was a reoccurring issue everywhere we went. Services being cut, closed early, closed certain days…where is the work force??
Anyway, I asked Marina Dude for a fishing license, we got to talking and he informed me he had put in over 40 hours in the last three days and he was tired. I’m just hoping to leave here with something that resembles a Colorado fishing license. I purchase the 5 day tag and add 2 additional days. He then explains that I have to have cash OR spend at least $15 on other items in the store. Which wasn’t hard, since everything there was double compared to prices back at the hood.
Then he goes to print the tag. He has trouble, printer doesn’t want to work. It printed some of the “tag” off, but a lot of the text wasn’t there. So, he advised me to go speak to the Park’s and Wildlife Agent out in the parking lot inspecting boats for invasive critters.
I track her down and she isn’t comfortable with the print job. She directs me to the Park Office, says she’ll radio the lady there and have her print me off a new one. Head to the office, get the re-print, I’m Legal!!
The “Dream Stream” ON THE SOUTH PLATTE RIVER
“With a nickname like the Dream Stream With a nickname like the Dream Stream, you know it has potential. This three-mile long Colorado tailwater section of the South Platte River is nestled in the windswept high mountain plain of South Park. Flowing out of Spinney Mountain Reservoir, meandering through prime big trout habitat, the river eventually flows into Eleven Mile Reservoir.
The Dream Stream portion of The South Platte River is public and has easy bank access making this section a very popular destination for Colorado fly fisherman. These trout that can grow to gargantuan proportions have learned how to avoid detection and humble even the most skilled anglers. That is not to say that they can’t be caught . . .
Although unpredictable wind and weather combined with sometimes fussy fish scare many an angler away from The Dream Stream, the dedicated fly fisherman can experience some of the best days of trout fishing imaginable, catching multiple Spinney Mountain Ranch trophies in a single day!!!!”
From Colorado Trout Hunters Website
As the excerpt says above, the fish were VERY fussy and very scared! I fished for several hours with NO action what so ever! Then I remembered what the neighbor camper had told us about the traffic leaving this place on Labor Day. They had come in the Easy way I described in an earlier post. They told us that there was a line of traffic 7 miles long on Hwy 24 headed back to Colorado Springs. These fish were scared and hiding. I’m sure they had every fly know to man kind flung at them from every angle for days!
I also remembered something a wise old Fly Fisherman told me once, “dark water, dark colors…clear water, bright colors”. Just the opposite of what you would think!
So I had to change tactics! I had nothing bright in the fly box, so I dug deep and pulled out a heavy, white Crappy Jig. I’ve caught a lot of trout in the Missouri trout parks with a Marabou Jig (pretty similar) so maybe this will work. I’ll go deep, fish the banks where they can hide and see what happens.
4th cast something very large right next to the bank. It sounded like and felt like I hooked a 6 foot alligator! And just like that, the line went limp…broke my line! Lesson #2, don’t use 4lb test leader on the Dream Stream.
I couldn’t believe it. I might be on to something here. Luckily, I had another white crappy jig just like that, so I tied it on. 4 casts later I land a large Rainbow hiding under a log! NO one is gonna believe this! I go on to land 2 more very large Rainbows before it gets to dark to make it back to the truck…I had wandered a little farther up stream that I had realized.
These fish fought hard, the were VERY strong!
In between fish, I had to stop and admire the sunset…awesome!
No one else on the stream that night that I could see. Just me, the fish, the mountains and a beautiful sunset!
