South Platte River, Colorado

Cheesman Canyon via the Gill Trail

Cheesman Canyon is the only part of this river that takes a hike. The Gill Trail leaves a small lot on CO-126 about four miles southwest of Deckers and drops roughly a mile and a half to the water, with high and low routes reaching different pools. The lot fills by early morning on summer weekends. Granite ledges, glassy pools and fish that have seen every fly make this the most technical water on the South Platte.

The Wigwam Club

Between the bottom of Cheesman Canyon and Deckers the river runs through the private Wigwam Club, which is posted and patrolled. It is not open to walk-in anglers and it separates the canyon regulations from the Deckers regulations.

Deckers to Scraggy View

From the Wigwam Club boundary down through Deckers to the Scraggy View picnic ground the river is roadside, with pullouts along CO-67 and the county road, named access at Deckers Bridge, Trumbull and Scraggy View, and a few posted private inholdings. This is riffle and pocket water that fishes easiest at moderate flows and takes the heaviest pressure on the river.

Brown trout

Wild browns dominate the canyon and hold in the deeper slots and shelf lines at Deckers. Fall baetis and the pre-spawn weeks of October bring them out; winter midging on a mild day is the quiet way to fish them. Fish size runs bigger than the river's width suggests, but leave the averages to the electrofishing crews.

Rainbow trout

Rainbows and cutbows share the water and take a larger share of the catch in the faster Deckers riffles. Tricos at first light from late June through August, PMDs and caddis through the middle of the day and hoppers along the grass are the summer game, always on long leaders and fine tippet.

Season and regulations

The river is a chain of tailwaters, so Denver Water's release schedule sets the flow, not the weather. Local shops put the ideal window at 150 to 400 cfs at the Trumbull gauge, with 100 to 250 cfs still fishing well for wading anglers and anything under 100 cfs turning ultra-technical; above 400 cfs wading gets hard. This page compares the live gauge to 150 to 400 cfs. It is open all year, and a summer thunderstorm over the Hayman burn scar can muddy the water within an hour regardless of what the gauge says.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife rules: from Cheesman Dam to the south property line of the Wigwam Club, artificial flies and lures only and all trout released immediately; from the north boundary of the Wigwam Club to Scraggy View Picnic Ground, artificial flies and lures only with a limit of 2 trout of at least 16 inches. Both reaches are Gold Medal water. Confirm in the current CPW fishing brochure.