Eleven Mile Canyon

Eleven Mile Canyon is the South Platte immediately below Eleven Mile Reservoir, cutting a granite gorge west of Lake George on the way down toward Deckers. It is the most scenic water Cole guides on the Front Range and, for a lot of people, the most enjoyable to actually fish. Where Deckers is long, flat and technical, the canyon is broken up — pocket water, plunge pools, riffle corners and short runs stacked one after another, with the road never far from the bank.

That structure changes how you fish it. Trout in pocket water hold in small, obvious places and do not get a long look at your fly, so a short line, a high rod and a heavy enough nymph to get down in three seconds will out-fish a delicate presentation. It is forgiving water for someone still learning to read a river, and it rewards anglers who are willing to keep moving instead of standing in one hole all morning. Browns and rainbows both, with fish in the twelve-to-sixteen-inch range being the honest expectation and better ones in the deeper pools.

Access is the easy part. County Road 96 runs up the canyon from Lake George along the river for roughly eight miles to the dam, and you can park and walk to water almost anywhere along it. This is a Pike National Forest fee area, so bring cash or a pass for the self-serve station at the mouth of the canyon. The Forest Service campgrounds — Riverside, Cove, Springer Gulch, Spillway and Blue Mountain — all double as parking and put you on distinct pieces of river. The old railroad tunnels partway up are the landmark most people use to describe where they were fishing.

The stretch below the dam carries a Quality Water designation with its own tackle and harvest rules, which are not the same as the statewide regulations that apply further down the canyon. Signs mark the boundaries, but they are easy to miss — confirm the current rules with Colorado Parks and Wildlife before you go.

Being a tailwater, it holds cold water through the summer and stays open through much of the winter. Runoff affects it far less than a freestone, so it is a reliable option in June when the Arkansas is high and off-color.