Cheesman Canyon, quite possibly the most beautiful place to fish on the South Platte...2/2/12

You wanna hike how far? That's how we started our Thursday morning....

Starting from the upper Cheeseman Canyon trailhead, we made our way into the canyon. The weather was forecasted otherwise, but the day was perfect for fishing.  A mild day in the low 30s with partial cloud cover...Although the upper part of the canyon is farther away and more advanced to travel, the fish seem less pressured and a little more hungry.  Denver Water dropped the flow on us from 130 to 105cfs that day but it didn't stop us from catching fish!

Hooking up to several fish and landing a handful between us, Doug Garvey and myself can say we had a good day.

You can expect to use the same typical winter patterns in the upper part of Cheeseman Canyon as the lower part. Attractor patterns like the Pycho Prince, Hotwire Prince and smaller Golden Stone flys worked. We double trailed behind using a combination of red and black zebra midges in size 22 as well as mecury midges and grey RS2's in size 22. Not to say nothing else would have worked, we just found these patterns and our combinations to produce fish.

But it's not just the fly's that help you catch fish in Cheeseman during a low flow in the winter; Your leader and setup has a lot to do with it. 5x Flouro Carbon leaders were likely our advantage. Using small indicators and even using no indicator is a great idea. If you use a heavy, lead wrapped/tungsten attractor fly, you may not have to use split shot to get your rig down. In theory giving fish more to look at and less to shy away from.

***If you decide to hike in from the top of Cheeseman Canyon, please ensure you're physically able because the terrain can be demanding. Bring plenty of water and be ready for a long hike with technical decents and accents. Take your time and enjoy this beautiful place***