FLY FISHING THE SOUTH PLATTE RIVER (DREAM STREAM)!

This past weekend my dad and I went fishing on a stretch of the South Platte River called the Dream Stream. We left our house at 3:30 AM and got to the river at about 7:00 AM. The reason for getting up so early was so that we could be the first ones on the river but obviously we didn't leave early enough. We ended up being the 7th and 8th anglers on the water. Once my dad pulled up in the parking lot and parked we made world record time getting our gear on. (The temperature at the time was twenty-nine degrees Fahrenheit.) Once we were geared up we headed out to the river. While we were walking I rigged up my rod with a Red Copper John and an egg pattern. The second I reached the river I started scanning for fish. In a couple of minutes I had found a nice Kokanee salmon and started to fish to him but after the end of my first drift my dad called to me and told me to come to him. Once I got to where he was I saw what he was hollering about. There in front of me was a large Kokanee salmon and on my first cast I hooked and landed the fish! The fish weighed about 4 lbs. My dad took a few pictures then I released the fish back to the river, then we headed up stream to find new water. A few pockets later I found a nice deep run that looked very fishy. On my second or third cast I hooked and landed a beautiful 5 lb. cut-bow (a cross between a rainbow trout and a cutthroat trout). After a few pictures of my biggest cut-bow ever I released it. Once I released that fish everything slowed down. My dad caught a few more large browns and we did some underwater photography with my little point and shoot camera. I also caught a few browns that were no more than seven inches long! Towards the end of the day my dad spotted a brown that was very large and let me fish to him. After maybe fifteen casts I hooked upon the fish. At that point the fish freaked out and gave me one of the coolest fights I ever had with a river fish. For about three minutes he ran me up and down the run. When I finally landed him I saw that he was a twenty-five inch 6-6.5 lb. brown trout which was my biggest brown trout ever! Since it was my largest brown we had to take pictures and I did some underwater photography. By then the fish was pretty tuckered out so I released him back into the river. That fish ended our day on the Dream Stream.

I have made three trips to the Dream Stream with my dad and that was by far the best trip yet. Here are a few photos from the day. Enjoy!

The Dream Stream as the sun was just coming up.

Just landed a nice kokanee salmon.

Kokanee are one of my favorite fish because they have some big teeth and crazy colors.

A big cutbow from the Dream Stream. It liked the #16 Red Copper John.

My dad even catches a fish or two once in a while!

Fall browns are so pretty.

Check out this hook jaw!!!

Ready for the release.

One of largest brown trout I have ever caught.