Charlie Meyers State Wildlife Area
14 Day Forecast: Look for sporadic hatches of midges.
Effective Patterns: #20-22 Top Secret Midge, #20-22 Manhattan Midge, #20-22 Mercury Pheasant Tail, #20-22 Jujubaetis, #20-22 Top Secret Baetis, #20-22 Chocolate Foam Wing Emerger, #16-18 Hot Tail Flash Egg, #20-22 Red Larva, #20 Mercurry Blood Midge, #10 Pine Squirrel Leech, #14 UV Orange Scud, #14 San Juan Worm, #20 Flashback Mercury Black Beauty, #20 Buckskin, #20-22 Pat's Midge, #20-24 Griffith Gnat, and #22-24 Parachute Adams.
Measurements
Fly Fishing Information for The Dream Stream Between Spinney & Eleven Mile Reservoirs Colorado
The lush meandering, meadow portion of the South Platte between Spinney and Eleven Mile Reservoirs is known as the “Dream Stream” or the Spinney Mountain Ranch. This beautiful 3-mile section of the Platte offers anglers the opportunity of a lifetime to catch large trout. This fabulous tailwater fishery is located in the heart of South Park, tucked between 14,000 foot snow capped peaks on the west, rich ranchland to the north and south, and Pikes Peak on the east. Spinney is a well-balanced fishery where anglers can catch trout on nymphs, dry flies, and streamers.
The river is comprised of prime trout habitat, which includes, riffles, runs, gravel bars, shelves, and undercut banks. Fly-fishers can expect to catch a mixed bag of rainbows, browns, and cutthroats in 10-18 inch range. In addition spring (rainbows, and cutthroats) and fall (browns and kokanee salmon) spawning runs from Elevenmile Reservoir are quite impressive with fish up to 10 pounds landed during a key three-four week period. Ideal flow conditions for “Dream Stream” are between 100 and 250 cfs. The regulations are flies and lures only and all fish must be returned to the water immediately.
The Charlie Meyers State Wildlife Area (commonly called the Spinney Mountain Ranch or Dream Stream) is a classic meandering, meadow stream. Anglers have the opportunity to catch rainbows, cut-bows, cutthroats, and brown trout when they fish this fabled stretch of water.
Tips & Other Information:
Flows are currently at 57 cfs and will remain there until Denver Water begins draining Antero Reservoir. According to Denver Water, “Antero outlet flow will ramp up to 75 cfs on 5/2 and 250 cfs on 5/3. It will stay at 250 cfs until 6/1 when they begin ramping down. Flows from Spinney to and Cheesman will follow suit, but be delayed slightly by the travel time between locations. So, high flows throughout the system from May into early June is to be expected.” An assortment of midge mitations and Baetis nymphs dropped off an attractor is your best bet right now. As the water ramps up, aquatic worms, scuds, and leech patterns will be good attractors. The sucker spawn is in full swing rigiht now, so a yellow egg is a good attractor as well. We’ll keep you posted as things change and Denver Water updates us. Revised 5/1/26