Less than half an hour after leaving his office, Tim Emery stood solidly attached to a fish that put a serious bend in a sturdy fly rod on its way to the far side of the river.
The flash of Emery’s smile was matched only by the sun’s reflection off the steel supports of a four-lane viaduct leading to downtown Denver. A third sparkle came from the fish’s scales, shining like miniature gold pieces.
By now you’ve guessed it. The fish was a carp, 15 pounds of muscle and determination and, in a tangled way, the centerpiece of a far-flung effort to breathe life into the South Platte River and its immediate environs.
Emery had spotted the fish a short time earlier, lolling in a quiet side channel in a school of eight. It was far from the largest of the lot. Farther out in the current, several others lolled back and forth in a slate green flow — an almost perfect setup for approaching a wary fish that has been called the freshwater bonefish.
This water level, and clarity, also gave promise for success at Saturday’s third annual Carp Slam, the spiritual showcase for the money-raising effort to make river restoration possible.
The Slam, organized by the Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited, will add $7,000 in seed money to a years-long campaign that ultimately will cost millions. But, for now, all eyes are on the Slam. Fifteen amateur anglers paid $250 to enter an event split into two sessions, 8:30-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-4:30 p.m., with headquarters at Fuel Cafe, 3455 Ringsby Court. Spectators are welcome, an opportunity to gather tips that will aid those who’d like to learn the carp game.
Trouts Fly Shop contributed a $1,000 first prize; World Fishing Network donated $2,000 and prizes for filming rights. Eager guides and competitors will provide the enthusiasm for an activity that, as the film crew attests, gains increasing popularity across the nation.
All of this serves chiefly as an angler’s pow-wow for an initiative that began several years ago with a $400,000 grant to the Greenway Foundation to study what is called River North, from Confluence Park to the northern city limits.
More recently, Trout Unlimited announced a memorandum of understanding with South Suburban Parks and Recreation and the city of Littleton for a study of an extended reach of the river downstream from C-470.
North of this is a jumble of broken concrete, discarded tires and assorted trash that has plagued the river for as long as anyone can recall.
“We’d like to see the Platte turned into a recreational playground, a place that would attract tourists as well as residents, much like with Salida and Durango,” said Michael Hobbs, president of the Denver Chapter.
It is an endeavor that will take time, an estimated 10 years, and more money than any such project in state history. But there is plenty of muscle and desire gathered in an all-star lineup of proponents: the Denver and Cutthroat chapters of TU, Greenway Foundation, Division of Wildlife, Environmental Protection Agency, Urban Drainage, Confluence Kayakers, Army Corps of Engineers, Denver Parks and the city and county of Denver.
All have joined to draft the River South Greenway Master Plan, a new blueprint for cleanup and development. A public meeting to take comments is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. Sept. 9 at Overland Golf Course, 1801 S. Huron St.
This lineup is impressive, but so are the obstacles. Thus far, most of the money and planning has been directed toward River North, which has by far the poorest water quality and the least potential for fishing. DOW this year stocked some hybrid cutthroat trout in the 4 miles below Chatfield, where water quality is good, but not without problems.
“For 72 days last winter, the river essentially was dry, with just 5 cubic feet per second coming out of the reservoir,” Hobbs said. “We’re not going to spend $200,000 on design and another $1 million to improve a stream that essentially dries up.”
A solution, Hobbs suggests, might lie with the much-discussed Chatfield reallocation plan or cooperative agreements with municipalities and irrigators.
For now, proponents are left to plan, and dream.
