Big Fish Day - No Foolin' 01Apr20

I headed to the 11 Mile canyon section of the So Platte for April Fool's Day. It was a gorgeous day but a bit windy and a bit crowded (24 cars). Flows were lowered gradually over days to 120cfs or so - good for 11 Mile - only modest midge bug sign, no BWOs to my eye. It was a big fish day for sure as after an 8min or so fight I brought the biggest fish I've ever caught from 11 Mile to net... a very stout 23+" male cutbow (I estimate it was 5 pounds as I couldn't get even two hands around its middle. He took the #24 top secret, a great fly for 11 Mile. I was also fortunate to catch another couple dozen fish with one doz of the ~9" size and another doz being 15"-17" or so, like those shown. All flies in the rig - egg then #22 Money Midge then #24 Top Secret Midge worked throughout the day. Perhaps my good fortune was portended when I unknowingly parked right next to Matt DeBalski! He mentioned fishing was good... and he was guiding his lady. I kept passing a number of folks heading upstream and finally started fishing at the top, almost at the final fence - I stayed there a while as I was crushing it. Ultimately I caught fish in other spots too. Gr8 day on the river.

Since I was halfway there, I headed on up to Summit Co and acquired some ORB beers for a big fish day celebration (and to score my Apr allotment from the Summit Club)... so good. I checked on the Nest too of course.