In our exclusive Adventures with Alan series, we’ll travel week by week through southern Colorado to show you thrills and chills, hidden gems and familiar sights.
For this adventure, we’re channeling our inner Brad Pitt from the 90s movie classic, A River Runs Through it.
But instead of Montana, our sights are on the South Platte River in scenic Eleven Mile Canyon.
It’s fly fishing time
Our guide for this adventure is Phil Tereyla, with Angler’s Covey in Colorado Springs.
After donning boots and waders to help keep us dry, we enter the river.
The water is crystal clear and cold on this beautiful fall morning… and that’s where our instruction begins.
In fly fishing, fish are caught with artificial flies.
Tereyla tells us that this allows them to eat as they normally would in a more natural environment.
“All these fish do is sit face up. They just do that … they open and close their mouths and let the current feed them,” Tereyla said.
It is adventurous and relaxing, but it requires patience like all other forms of fishing.
“(If) that indicator sinks, if it’s winking at you funny … anything that looks like it’s not floating on top of the water, we’re going to put that hook in,” Tereyla said.
When setting the hook, it refers to the action of quickly pulling the rod in a downstream direction.
This will put the fly in the corner of the fish’s mouth.
Shortly after learning the basics and figuring out a few points, we hook our first fish.
However, thanks to a slow assembly, the fish got away.
After that initial strike, we hit a dry spell.
Cold and cloudy conditions may be partly to blame.
Staying, we keep casting until… we hook another fish!
Once I get a hold of this guy’s hand… he’s gone.
To refresh you, this would be:
Fish: 2
Alan: 0
At this point, I meet with Tereyla to find out what I did right and what I did wrong.
“So the cast was amazing. Your hook set was great, in the right direction. Maybe we were a little slow on our hook set,” Tereyla said.
As we get closer to lunchtime, the sun and warmer temperatures are helping to bring out more flies.
Tereyla tells us that the more flies the better, and she’s right!
With more flies landing in the water, the fish seem more alert and we start to see more action.
And after a few more close calls (hooks), we reel in our first cut bow of the day!
After a few celebratory shots and a photo with the fish, it’s time to release it back into the river.
That’s the rule around here in this section of the South Platte.
Not wanting to quit, we continue a little longer until we catch our second fish of the day, and it’s even bigger than the first!
Final result at the end of our day:
Fish: 2
Alan: 2
And so, I’m hooked…
For a first timer, I can’t say enough about how much fun I had fly fishing for the first time.
I want to thank our guide Phil Tereyla from Angler’s Covey for taking us out on the river and showing us a good time.
For everything from guided fly fishing and ice fishing trips to equipment rentals and fishing lessons, you can check out their website: https://anglerscovey.com/.
Fly fishing rating
Now it’s time to rate my latest adventure.
In terms of difficulty, the process of learning how to fly properly with a good solid cast took some time. Once I got it we ended up hooking at least two fish and catching two. 3.5 out of 5.
On a fun level, I think the natural beauty of the experience plus first time fly fishing made for a perfect day of fun. 5 out of 5
Now for my final rating… let’s rate this one 5 out of 5 stars.
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