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3. South Platte

Effective flies:
Mercury RS2 #20 - #22, Pheasent tails #18, Mercury Black Beauty #24, Griffith's Gnat #22 - #24, #14 - #16 Yellow Sallies, Barr's Emerger BWO #20, Tan Elk Hair Caddis #18.
With flows that low it fairly easy to figure out where the fish were holding. I focused on the deep tailouts, any small pools, deeper riffles, and any well oxygenated water. The temps were perfect mid 70's and was overcast from the early afternoon on. The flows were low but with the temperature where it was at and the constant insect activity it made for the perfect day. From about 10a - 12p I was only catching smaller fish and began to wonder if the only way I was going to catch a decent fish is if I hooked a "minnow" and then that would attract a decent fish. Finally when the clouds rolled in I started hooking better fish. I really had to watch the indicator and set the hook fast because the takes were very fast and I missed several fish by not setting the hook quick enough. I ended the day with the one who got away, hence no picture of the 18"+ (I really think it was around 20" but I have no proof do I) rainbow I mentioned above. I noticed what I thought was a small rise on the opposite bank behind a rock about the size of a bowling ball. I had it in my head that I was going to tie on a Elk Hair Caddis because they were starting to come into the riffles to lay their eggs. So i tied it on made a cast to the rising fish and missed it about about 8" to it's right. I finished my drift and layed down another cast right over it's head, BLAM!!!! The fish came half way out of the water and took the caddis like it was its last big meal before winter. I started hooting and hollering as it jumped no less than 6 times, one of the jumps was pefectly horizontal with the water about 7' from me it seemed like it was is slow motion. It tried to make a run upstream into a near by pool so I gave it line, I started tugging on the thing it had no intention of coming up for air. I followed it upstream and all of a sudden it shot down stream tword the bank where of course there was no shortage of tree limbs and and to make things more in it's favor there was a concrete pillar in the same area. It found it self a spot under the debris and needless to say wrapped my leader around some of it, then shot under the pillar. I lost sight of it, and my only option was to try and untangle my line just as I freed my line I regained tension as it made another run at freedom...no picture!!! Oh well it was fantastic to play a fish like that and if I had it to do over I would have increased the drag more than I did, but the pure addrenaline was great the way it took the fly, the battle and just having it on the line was great but man I wanted a picture.

Congratulations on hooking that beauty! The ones that get away are sometimes more memorable than the ones we catch, especially when we get a good look at them like that.

One of my most memorable trout was nothing more than a thump on the end of my rod. But, man, what a thump.