Dinner at The Trouthunter was ridiculously good, with bruschetta, meatballs and spare ribs. We fished the brown drake spinner fall of the South Platte that night. Fly fishermen lined up twenty yards apart, casting silently as sipped giant bugs from the glassy water. When the rare fish was landed, there was no whooping or cheering, the fisherman would quietly land the fish, maybe snap a picture, release the fish and return to casting. It was like church.
You can't fish for these fish. The best you can hope for is to melt into the dance between bugs and fish and give the fish the chance to choose your fly from the thousands of others on the water. I forgot to take pictures that night. I hope yall understand.
From the South Platte, we headed to Denver, grabbed a hotel and hit Cheesman after stopping by Blue Quill in Evergreen to absorb some local knowledge and purchase yet another license. The trailhead was surprisingly empty for 4th of July weekend, leaving plenty of water open to a couple of anglers willing to hike an extra mile or two. Unfortunately our 2 gallon reserve of water suffered a leak in the back of the drift boat so... we drank the rest of the beer.
Gill Trail: a mile of switch-backs leading to trout fishing paradise.
Map o' Cheesman- 99% of boulders not pictured
Cheesman has some Browns, as per the above picture.
And some big ass rainbows
That's the trip in a nutshell. The fishing was difficult, the weather was unpredictable and bitchy, and the fish were big for the most part. I've got some fly ideas that I need to tie, document and field test, so I'll periodically update the blog with tying and local fishing experiences. Thanks for reading.
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