South Platte basin · ColoradoDeckers 39°17′N 105°13′WEst. 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.

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A small boy in a dinosaur-print snow jacket, blue snow pants, a fleece hat with ear flaps and blue mittens sits in a folding camp chair on a snow-covered frozen lake, holding a short yellow ice rod over a hole, with a portable propane heater and an ice scoop on the snow beside him, at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska (photo: Lisa Hupp, USFWS, public domain)

Field Notes

Ice Fishing Gear for Kids: What a Young Angler Actually Needs on the Ice

A kid's ice fishing kit, item by item: the rod, the jig, boots, mitts, cleats, flotation, sled, shelter and heater, what to skip, and where the money belongs.

Nov 12, 2026 Read the story →

Anglers on foot spread across a small frozen lake on a clear winter morning, a red pop-up shelter, sleds and buckets on the ice, cattails and bare trees along the shore (photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Ice Fishing for Beginners — A Colorado Starter Guide

New to hard water? Here's the genuinely minimal kit, the license you need, how to find safe early ice, and the simplest way to catch your first fish in Colorado.

November 11, 202612 min read

A PMD Sparkle Dun — splayed dun deer-hair fan wing, pale cream dubbed body, and an amber Z-lon trailing shuck in place of tails, no hackle (photo: The Caddis Fly Shop)

PMD Sparkle Dun: South Platte Tailwater Fly Guide

The PMD Sparkle Dun is a must-have emerger for South Platte tailwaters in June. Sizes, materials, and when to fish it at Deckers and Cheesman Canyon.

November 9, 202612 min read

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

Arkansas River — Pueblo Tailwater Hatch Report — November 7, 2026

November 7, 2026 hatch report for Arkansas River — Pueblo Tailwater: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

November 7, 20264 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 — November 7, 2026

November 7, 2026 hatch report for Cheesman Canyon: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

November 7, 20264 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 — November 7, 2026

November 7, 2026 hatch report for Deckers: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

November 7, 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 — November 7, 2026

November 7, 2026 hatch report for Dream Stream: current flows, what's hatching, and what's working this week on the water.

November 7, 20264 min read

The log

Archive →

Latest from the bank

Ice Fishing Gear for Kids: What a Young Angler Actually Needs on the Ice

Ice Fishing for Beginners — A Colorado Starter Guide

PMD Sparkle Dun: South Platte Tailwater Fly Guide

Arkansas River — Pueblo Tailwater Hatch Report — November 7, 2026

Cheesman Canyon Hatch Report — November 7, 2026

Deckers Hatch Report — November 7, 2026

Dream Stream Hatch Report — November 7, 2026

The log

Never miss the hatch.