Cheesman Canyon Challenge: Fishing Edges

While my client Bob and I were walking the gill trail to drop into Cheesman Canyon he said, “It is worth it just to come here and walk this trail and see the river below”.  It was a beautiful image indeed; Walking on the narrow trail along the edge of the canyon with the boulder spewed river below glistening in the morning light. 

I was somewhat relieved by Bob’s comment thinking in my mind, “Well, if we don’t do very well fishing at least he is enjoying the scenery”,  knowing that Cheesman Canyon can be tough and  a bit less predictable in terms of success. I have had good fly fishing buddies of mine get skunked in the canyon or sometimes just  get a fish or two in the net. I had no idea how Bob and I were going to do.

Bob had fished the South Platte before. He had fished 11 mile quite often and done well. He was looking for a greater challenge. “I would like a chance at some bigger fish. I would like to try Cheesman”, he said. . He wanted the Cheesman challenge and was willing to take the risk.  

I knew I couldn’t back down from the challenge. We were committed.  

As I often do when I venture into Cheeseman I tried to prep Bob saying,  “These fish are as wild as trout get in the West. No stocking is done here. The Canyon has a self sustaining population of rainbows and browns that have survived for decades. These are fish that have survived the fires and mudslides, floods and droughts, and thousands upon thousands of fishermen trying to hook them.  They are wary. They are tough. They are educated. They have seen it all. We will have to work for them.”

When I think of what makes Cheesman trout so tough to catch is how they live on the edges. It seems these fish live on the edges even more so than trout in other places. These fish love to hide and feed on seam lines. They love those edges where two different current speeds and often two different depths lay side by side and form a “line”, a “seam line, an edge.   It seems to me that I  just don’t catch that many fish right in the middle of the main runs. They want to be on an edge and so I knew Bob would have to find good natural drifts on those seam lines.

We started working in the upper “ice box” hole. Then quickly, a rare event for Cheesman Canyon; Bob hooked a large Rainbow on his third cast. The fish was right where we knew it would be; on a seam line. The fish went catapulting down river before throwing the size 24 sparkle wing RS2. Bob asked, “What did I do wrong? What could I have done”?  I said, “Nothing, this is what makes this place so wonderful and challenging”.  And it was.

We worked both sides of the “Ice box” hole moving up and down, across and back again. We rested fish and came back to them. We worked on good drifts and good high stick nymphing techniques. We hit those seem lines hard and were rewarded with a good number of fish hooked, fought and landed and just as many lost. We fished the edges and also at times dared to add more weight to get the fly down. I explained how that is another “edge” one has to approach in the canyon. You have to be willing to take a chance and risk hanging up in order to hook fish. And it seemed that every time we added a tiny bit more of weight we hooked up.

The rainbows and Browns took mainly the RS2 but we also took 3 fish on the brown San Juan worm. We also took a few on a black midge that was probably taken as a trico as there were fish actively feeding on tricos. At times the fishing seemed to go dead only to turn on again.

It was a wonderful day and I was thankful for being able to take the chance with Bob to fish the edges of Cheesman canyon.