Haineness In 11 Mile Canyon 20Jul22

Kala & I and some CoWWBoyz availed ourselves of the Haine family visit to Colorado to fish and picnic with them on the So Platte in 11 Mile Canyon. It is one of "those places" in Colorado; so it was good to get Angie, Audrey & Max there for the day; ok, Rob too but he's been before. We arrived about 9am and assembled @ RIverside CG then drove to the head of the canyon to grab Idlewilde picnic area for the day. Despite the price of gas we had 4 trucks/SUVs among the group. We immediately observed the trico mayfly mating balls and knew we should throw drowned spinners. Master fisherman MattdB scored big with a day off, and wading shoes and fly rods for for every Haine! Yeah, he's sporting a 8x rod vault these days. It was whacky crowded the entire length of the canyon this day - just a freaking Wed. A number of folks caught fish or at least did remote releases. All manner of flies worked but mostly sub-surface small stuff. I tried to get the "tough boys" photo as typical but somebody (Bro Brown) broke ranks with a smile, as usual, somebody always does.

After we all were armed we hit the water; we all wet-waded but for Gregger, who forgot his neoprene booties ~ the water felt good in the heat. Matt lined up the Haine fam in a conga line in good water above the last bridge. Kala and I with Steve & Greg went upstream a smidge and danced in the ~230cfs flows (the highest we've seen in summer in 11 Mile). Higher flows in summer are very good for the fishery but more challenging for the waders. We were even entertained with a 2x flyby of four F22s spinning up the canon at low altitude and inverted... awesome, glad they are on our side.

I caught some fish - all ~17" cutbows like this in the AM; others weren't as lucky - Kala was blanked. The RF Diamond Blaze 4 wt is perfect in these waters.

Kala & I jumped off the water ~12:30pm to set up picnic camp for lunch. I forgot the portable canopy so we used the one on the Crusher Too - canopies are a necessity when the rain forecast was 85% chance. Fortunately it didn't pour and just rained for a moment. We enjoyed cowboy caviar, killer brats with grilled peppers & onions, Dave's doctored burgers, and yummy watermelon salad. Sated and chillin' with my cassis sour cocktails, we debated the day and world issues. Really fun outing in stellar environs.

The Haineness left the canyon, as did Kala, after lunch. We said our goodbyes with hugs and bumps and vowed to do it all again. Some adult male CoWWBoyz stayed for some PM fish wrangling and I caught several more including two nice browns on yellow sally topwater action. One ~17in flying fish and one 19"er. Matt helped me land the 2nd as he threw the hook and I had to land him side pulling. Matt threw the Rodfather Colorado in the afternoon and loved it - it's nice to have independent assessment of one's work, especially from a master fisherman like MdB. Great day with Kala and the boyz and the Haine fam. Fish catching could have been more egalitarian, but this is not an easy river section, especially at higher flows.