The South Platte used to be known for its chunky rainbows. But since the fire, you’re more likely to see browns. Photo by Matt Gray.

For years, many Colorado anglers near Denver called the South Platte home. Deckers and the infamous Cheesman Canyon were an easy day-trip for Front Range fisherman eager to tempt discriminating and sizable trout.

All that changed on June 8, 2002. That’s when the Hayman fire began in a small campfire circle and soon escalated to the largest wildfire in Colorado’s history. Eventually the fire charred nearly 138,000 acres, including land surrounding the South Platte River and Cheesman Lake.

The fire ultimately left many of us wondering where we were going to wet our fly lines on weekend afternoons.

“I certainly think the Hayman fire was one of the most discouraging and disappointing moments I have had during my fishing career,” said Pat Dorsey, co-owner and guide coordinator at the Blue Quill Angler in Evergreen, Colo.

Without the vegetation, grass, and trees that helped hold back the soil during rains, substantial amounts of ash, decomposed granite and other debris flooded into the river. The scorched soil within the burn area created a hydrophobic environment — one that reduces the soil’s ability to absorb water. Rain flowed over land, taking with it the decomposed granite and sediment, and dumped them into the river.

There was an extremely high fish-mortality rate immediately following the fires and through the subsequent summers.

Greg Cunningham of Targus Fly & Feather company grew up fishing and guiding the Platte around Deckers and has seen the river in many different stages.

“It was truly a sad time,” he said. “We continued to find dead fish months and months after the fire.”

However, that was a while ago, and now the fish seem to have adapted to their new habitat. Additional stockings have definitely brought the numbers back up, he said.

According to Jeff Spohn, the Department of Wildlife’s aquatic biologist for the upper South Platte basin, the concern was not so much for the dead adults: Recruitment of offspring has made the recovery more difficult.

In an effort to continue the natural reproduction on the river, Spohn initiated a substantial stocking program to boost the numbers of younger fish.

The state is now stocking roughly 20,000 3- to 4-inch rainbows, and about the same number of 3-inch browns.

When the sediment starts rolling down the river, those young-of-the-year that are just coming out of the gravel start to get crushed and ground up. “That’s why we are stocking the fingerlings,” Spohn said.