Is the Fishing Still Good In Eleven Mile Canyon?

A struggling farmer works his crops for years. One day his horse runs away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors come and sympathetically say, “Such bad luck”. The farmer replies, “Maybe”. The next morning the horse returned bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “Maybe”, replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg. Again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “maybe”,  answered the farmer. The day after, the military tried to draft young men into the army but seeing the boys leg broken, they passed by. The neighbors praised the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe” said the farmer. 

When I guide folks in Eleven Mile Canyon this time of year sometimes the client will say, “I heard Fall is the best time of year to fish so the fishing should be good right”? I usually answer, “Maybe”. This was the case of the last two weekends when I guided some groups into 11 mile canyon.

I have learned that when it comes to fly fishing many things are a “Maybe” because rarely can life be so simple and predictable. And thank God, life is this way. Fishing and the spiritual life are unpredictable, wild and untamed; beyond our control.

Sometimes while guiding and I do my usual demo casts to teach the clients proper technique, I will catch a fish on the very first cast. The clients who witness such a feat will sometimes respond, “The fishing is going to be great. This looks easy”.  Of course, I know better but I will politely reply, “Maybe”. (and, I really have seen this go either way, in terms of how good the fishing is for the clients).

Over the years I think I have experienced both the fortunate and the unfortunate of just about every possible event when it comes to fly fishing. Here are only a few of those situations.

I might be guiding and the fishing is fair and then a hatch starts to take place. The fish go crazy. The clients seeing this say, “The fishing is really going to get good now”. Once again, I  know I have to respond to such a statement with a “Perhaps”. This is because I know when the fish respond to a hatch and switch to dry flies the fishing can be way more challenging even though we see the fish gorging on the surface.

Weather conditions can go either way also. A couple of years ago I had an early morning guide trip. We were heading up the pass and it was one of those rare mornings where instead of clear blue skies it was overcast and raining. My client, did not make any assumptions but rather humbly asked how the rainy conditions would impact the fishing. Once again, from past experience, I had no choice but to respond with a set of “Maybes” , “Maybe it can shut down the trico hatch but maybe it can  turn on the blue winged mayfly hatch” ( I have found that tricos love sunshine while BWO’s love overcast). I have had great fishing on BWO’s during intense rainstorms and even snowstorms but have also seen certain types of weather shut the fishing down. I have seen wind help and not help. I have seen the fishing be both great and terrible early in the morning and or in the afternoon.

We also need to not jump to hasty conclusions even when we lose a fish. More than one time while battling a large fish and the hooked pulled out and I even heard several observers sigh, “Oh too bad, that was a big fish”. But a moment after the hook pulled out I sighted an even bigger fish, casted to it, hooked it and landed it.

One time while guiding a young person at Deckers and he was battling a 22 inch rainbow that he hooked on a brown San Juan Worm. We were stuck in a stalemate. The boy could not go further downstream due to the heavy current. I was downstream of both the boy and the fish standing there with my long handled net trying to figure out what to do. The boy put some pressure on the fish bringing it to the surface where it then started to slash its body and head back and forth. The tippet broke. The Dad who was video taping the whole thing saw the leader fly back toward the boy and his rod no longer bent yelled with disappointment, “Ah, It got away”!  The boy yelled, “I lost it” The Dad put the video recorder down.  Meanwhile, I kept my eyes on the fish that was still slashing at the surface with the San Juan worm in its jaw. The current was pushing the big fish downstream toward me as it instinctively kept trying to shake the hook. If I could have shouted something back to the boy and the father’s comment of the fish having gotten away it would have been, “Maybe or maybe not”. There was no time for yelling anything. I lunged forward and scooped up the large fish!.

I have grown to appreciate the “maybe’s” in life and I have learned to question arrogant certainties.

As far as how well the fishing has been in 11 mile canyon this Fall is a bit mixed. It can be good; Maybe.  I am still finding spots in the quality section that are having good BWO and even trico hatches. The hatches are not everywhere. They are a “maybe”. But I will say this, If you do find a hatch this time of year, maybe it will last longer into the afternoon. Or at least that is what I have seen.