South Platte · Colorado · Est. 2025

Fly fishing intel for people who actually fish.

Weekly hatch reports. Gear I own and fish. River guides to the sections worth driving for. No hype.

Cheesman … checking… Deckers … checking… Dream Stream … checking… Above Spinney … checking… Eleven Mile … checking… Arkansas … checking…

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What's hatching, what's working, and what's worth your money.

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A fly rod bent deep into a running fish on a clear South Platte canyon run — the load under a real fish is where a blank shows you what it's actually made of.

Gear Review

Are Expensive Fly Rods Worth It? The $300 vs $1,000 Question

An honest breakdown of what separates a $300 fly rod from a $1,000 one — modulus, swing weight, recovery, warranty — and where the money is real versus marketing.

September 11, 2026 Read the story

Overhead on a clear South Platte tailwater — a rainbow just brought to the net on the thin nymph leader, resting over clean cobble with the tippet running up off the fish.

Your Sighter Is an Instrument, Not an Indicator

On a tight line, the sighter isn't a bobber — it's a gauge. Here are the five things my euro sighter reports on the South Platte: contact, angle, depth, speed, and the take.

September 9, 202613 min read

A tan Elk Hair Caddis dry fly — pale flared elk-hair wing tied tent-style over ginger palmered hackle and a tan dubbed body on a gold dry-fly hook

The Elk Hair Caddis: My High-Floating Searching Dry for South Platte Summers

How I fish the Elk Hair Caddis on the South Platte — why it floats so high, when to skitter it, and the tan, olive, and peacock sizes I actually trust.

September 7, 202613 min read

Arkansas River at Pueblo tailwater at sunset — cottonwood silhouettes and orange sky

Arkansas River — Pueblo Tailwater Hatch Report — September 5, 2026

September 5, 2026 hatch report for Arkansas River — Pueblo Tailwater: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

September 5, 20265 min read

The South Platte in Cheesman Canyon — the river running dark and broken over a cobble bottom with ponderosa timber standing right down to both banks, the far wall already in shadow and only the tops of the pines still holding light

Cheesman Canyon Hatch Report — September 5, 2026

September 5, 2026 hatch report for Cheesman Canyon: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

September 5, 20265 min read

The South Platte at Deckers — the river running clear and broken over a shallow cobble bed, granite domes and ponderosa on the far hillside, the canyon road following the bank on the right

Deckers Hatch Report — September 5, 2026

September 5, 2026 hatch report for Deckers: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

September 5, 20264 min read

The Dream Stream under a hard blue midday sky — thin, low water spread wide over an exposed rock bar, a bald treeless hill rising straight out of the far bank, old homestead cabins on the slope, and no shade anywhere on the river

Dream Stream Hatch Report — September 5, 2026

September 5, 2026 hatch report for Dream Stream: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

September 5, 20264 min read

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