Saturday Shoutout / Cheesman Winter

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Colorado is one of the best places on Earth.

If you’re a trout angler, you probably agree with me. For quality fishing in beautiful places the mountain state is hard to beat. One of the things that makes it an anglers paradise is year-round trout fishing. Even the harshest Colorado winters offer up pleasant days here and there and the state’s impressive tail water fisheries stay open.

Trouts Fly Fishing recently posted this great video, by filmmaker Russ Schnitzer, of winter fishing on the South Platte River in Cheesman Canyon. The canyon is a highly technical fishery with some amazing trout.

Take a quick trip to Colorado and enjoy some winter fishing.

 

Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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21 thoughts on “Saturday Shoutout / Cheesman Winter

  1. I guide in this Canyon, and it is by far one of my favorite places to spend a day chasing tail. However it has become more and more crowded the last few years. This video, and this post are great, but our local water doesn’t really need any more publicity.

    • That is the reality of the digital world we live in.
      Love it or hate it, anybody with a GoPro and a fly rod can make videos like this. It’s not like Cheesman was a secret before this video…

  2. Colorado arguably has some of the best year-round trout fishing of anywhere else in the world. From any major city west of Denver (Silverthorne, Gunnson, Colorado springs, Durango ect…) great fishing is only an hour away! It is no wonder we are so crowded!

  3. Great video. Took me back to my early days when I first started fly fishing it started at Boulder Creek but I have fished Cheesman. I miss Colorado. Thanks for sharing

  4. Great vid! I think I saw the guys flying the drone earlier this year on the lower part of the river. But, I’m with some of the other viewers on that Cheeseman and Deckers are just becoming way to crowded and over exploited by a large number of ‘bum’ guides. Normally I don’t vent about these things because I realize it’s public water and that we all have to share, but recently I had a bad experience with a guide and his newbie client. I was fishing a hole in Cheeseman and this angler just comes stomping around the corner and splashing into the water of the hole I was fishing (obviously a newbie) The guy acknowledged me and kept on fishing right through the run from the other side of the river. I was like ‘seriously!’ But to make matters worse, this other guy (the so-called guide) decked out in Simms gear and a Sage rod comes from behind me and hops up on the rock about 10 ft. from my position to ‘sight’ for his client. I just stood there in disbelief… To add to this circus, the so-called guide sighting for the angler also decided to light up his dope pipe when he hopped down from the rock and was out of sight from his client. I was down wind and could smell that nasty stuff. I couldn’t even yell at this guy because I was so furious. Normally I don’t vent, but I saw this post and figured it would be a good place to let everybody know that the South Platte drainage is becoming overrun and that the professionalism of some of these guides is killing these places. These guides should technically be the stewards of the water as this is where they make their income. I do know some professional guides that truly care about what they are doing and for the future of the sport, but there are truly some ‘bum’ guides that don’t care and are truly ruining a sport to make a quick buck so they can buy their next bag of dope. So, anybody looking to drop $200-400 on a guide, be sure to research the product you’re getting. These select ‘bum’ guides realize that there are tons of newbies and out of state anglers getting into the sport and are very easy to take advantage of. It’s unfortunate and is hopefully not the future of a sport that was once meant to be for fun and relaxation, not CQC. I’m wondering if there is any way to start up or if there is a 3rd party rating system to rate guides and outfitters? Kind of like ‘Angies list’. Maybe call it ‘Anglers List’?? That way we can root out some of these ‘bums’ and starve them off of the water by poor ratings. Maybe you guys on ‘G&G’ can chime in on this issue as you guys are truly positive ‘stewards’ of the sport and it’s future. I truly apologize for the vent but something has to be done for the future of the sport.

  5. Hi Trevor,

    I understand your post and it can be frustrating at times having to fish with so many new fisherman and their “bum” guides following in tow. However, though it is never right for someone to act the way that guide did but how I’ve learned to cope with this is by seeing the Canyon as a training ground. Yes, many fishermen are going to fish exactly the same spots with exactly the same flies but the goal is to simply fish much better than them. If you have that in your mind when you fish heavily pressured water it will make you a much better fisherman and also learn to enjoy those yahoo’s who can’t fish as well as you might be able too. Just a thought, I love the Canyon and there will always be people there, we can’t change their mindset but we can change ours.

    • Voting for Hillary then? Essentially your point is to submit, and find the silver lining in the fact that these places are toast. Dude, take the idealism somewhere else. Trevor is dead on. I live in the Springs, and I have given up on Deckers and Cheesman. Too many flatbrims.

      • All, sorry for this post. I was fired up a little. I have seen the same crowds/attitudes and had to stuff it for a long time. Apology to all for flaming here. RB

    • Andrew,

      Thanks for the thoughts brother. Yea, it is unfortunate to have to look at the Canyon as a training ground. I’d rather keep the competitive mindset in the gym or at work. Next time I’ll just attach a hunk of weight and ‘drop cast’ a foot or two in front of him with a smile j/k.. But the thing that blew me away was that this ‘guide’ was leading a new angler into ‘our’ sport, This newbie probably thinks that this is ‘the way it is’.This guide obviously had no respect for the future of what so many of us cherish. The mindset is almost like a disease and he was passing it on to the new angler. Who knows how many new anglers he interacts with in a given week. I’m serious about figuring out a way to starving these ‘bum’ guides off of the water though through bad press,

      • Trevor, let’s circle up and figure this out. I am in the Springs, and would like to help with the idea in order to best preserve and educate all, somehow. Don’t purport to have the solution by any means, but man, the problem is real, and the fish and the rivers are just getting hammered.

        • Everything is getting hammered. Turkeys, Elk, Whitetail, Bass, Crappie, Trout getting hammered everywhere. Almost 10 years ago I was getting on the river at 3:30 am in Alaska so I could get my limit of Coho before 7am because there would be 50 to 60 people there by then. We have to search for new places and if you are a die hard, which I am sure you are if your reding and responding to Gink and Gasoline, you can find your own little stretch that nobody has found or is willing to do the work to find. I got tired of getting pushed off of private land while hunting whitetails and even lost a friend of 35 years over it but now I hunt by jon boat on public land and as long as it stays like it is I will hunt it the rest of my life and I have no worries about others it is great. Fishing and hunting is on fire and depending on how you look at it that is a good thing because without that revenue other types would be taking over your rivers and streams I guarantee you that.

  6. Why is a shop that doesn’t even guide on a stretch of water putting together a video for it???? Does it make them appear fishy?? I think it’s a lame attempt to create content. Stick to Deckers boys and slanging gear to those Cherry Creek housewives. Kinda similar to local shops doing “fish-a-longs” to get around needing guide permits. Not surprising most places in the state view the front range shops as a joke. I get shops/guides promoting water that they guide on to increase business and sell guide trips. Daddy can buy you a fly shop, but daddy can’t buy you fishiness.

    • Tom, Tom, Tom, how sad and pathetic you make yourself look. Hating on us for putting a moving together, hating on Front Range Fly Shops, and hating on me personally regarding facts that couldn’t further from the truth. Where does it say that we can only create content for waters that we guide on? The purpose of this video was not to drive outfitting business, but to highlight a local fishery that we all hold near and dear. Think what you may about Front Range fly shops, and that of Trouts Fly Fishing. But truth be told you now nothing of my business, nothing of our loyal customers, and nothing of the value we strive to bring to the Fly Fishing Industry as a whole. Be a hater all you like, hope it works out well for you in the future.

      • Tucker, Tucker, Tucker. Answering hate with hate is not the right way to go, is it?

        Tom is not being all that nice, granted, but we need to DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT WE WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO US. That is biblical, and truth. Adhering to this timeless guidance makes everything better, including what happens on the river when the river is crowded. Andrew’s point is essentially turning the other cheek, and being kind to others, and he is right, even though it is frustrating for me to say so. Rivers are our churches, I think everyone would agree. We need to treat them and others like we are in a holy place. Can I get an AMEN?

  7. Advice from Pat Dorsey’s Stream Report on ‘The Cheese’:
    “Notes: Keep an eye out for redds, there are a lot of them in the shallow riffles. In addition, refrain from fishing to fish on redds as it is unethical and effects the future of this fishery. Please pinch your barbs, wet your hands prior to handling the fish, and keep them wet! It is important to keep the fish in the water after landing them…then quickly remove the fly, take a pic, a quickly release them. Cheesman is getting a lot of pressure, do your part to help reduce the stress on the fish!”

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