Wedding Celebrated - Heading North

As I have lingered here in Golden, Colorado waiting for the temperatures to warm in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, it has been fun to have closest family nearby and to have the occasional visits from son, daughter and my brother's family -- a few fishing trips to Clear Creek canyon and the South Platte at Deckers filled the other empty days.

The trip to Deckers by myself harkened back to times more than 50 years ago when my parents were still alive and I tried to find the spot in my mind where I remembered us last fishing there -- downstream from a large boulder with a nice pool to one side where we cast numerous time in hopes of catching some fine trout.  That area now is another "Gold Medal Stream" and had been closed (because of a forest fire) during my visit last July to Denver.  This year, I found some wonderful and productive spots to fish both the north and south forks of the South Platte River.

South fork -- pools await you

I caught and released a few nice Rainbows in the section I thought was the "Gold Medal Stream" but, I had forgotten my Colorado fishing regulations and found out later that I probably could have kept them all -- one I did keep because it didn't survive swallowing the lure (a Panther Martin with a red and orange tail).

My trip to Deckers was a scenic drive down Route 285 for about 25 miles to County Rd. 126 (Pine Valley Rd.) and another 20 plus miles -- some of the remnants of the fire last year were the barren mountains with dead tree trunks sticking up.  Now that I know the area, I would skip this depressing section of road on 126 and cut off to the east on County Rd. 96 which follows the north fork of the South Platte through Foxton -- if you cross over the north fork by way of the bridge on 126 then, you have gone about a half mile too far.  This section of the north fork cuts through a canyon below Foxton and there are narrow little pullouts for parking by the asphalt road -- just a hop down the banks to bouldered pools and stretches of white water (not so good for lures).  My first cast on this stretch had a nice Rainbow on but, he quickly rolled and jumped on the surface and spit out the lure.  I only managed to catch (and released) two additional small browns but, the sun was nearly down and I needed to head back as I had come in the long way -- from the other side of Deckers.

north fork of South Platte river

On my way to the north fork, I fished the south fork with little success until I found some bouldered sections with pools where I could see the fish laying in the deepest parts with their heads pointed upstream.  Most of the flat water sections were made for fly fishings as the lures only seemed to gather globs of a gooey, grassy mess -- no fish.

Huge boulders on south fork

Some of the bouldered sections were absolutely mind boggling as some of the boulders were as big as houses -- on one the north fork seemed to resemble my RV in size and shape with one third of it in the water and the road went around the other end.

If you prefer floating flies, the "Gold Medal" section may reward you with a trophy fish or two (they have to be 16 inches or more to keep and only 2 is the limit) but, for me, I would focus on the section downstream from the "Scraggy View Picnic" areas where you can keep as many as 4 fish less than 16 inches (or over).  And I saw those big boys in those pools near the boulders.

Where the dirt road (I think it is the Platte River road) crosses the bridge at South Platte (marked by the deserted old hotel and the joining of the two forks), continue on toward Foxton until you reach the asphalt section of road and the canyon with those boulders and pools -- so fun to fish and so scenic (watch your footing as you scramble down to the water).