Colorado River Monsters (fishing)

CPW has an app that shows every lake they stock and history, I want o say ~300 alpine lakes are stocked a year. Granted mild winters can lead to more survivors but it's all about Altitude and depth of the lake is under XX Feet (something less than 20 feet) the chances are about zero for winter survival at altitude. There is also some phenomena (something with sunlight blocked by snow) that can occur that can reduce the oxygen in the water and kill them even if over 20' deep.

Not sure how many here are part of Trout group (trout unlimited being the big one) but they have meetings with various presenters about Trout fishing. I always go when they bring in CPW or University students presenting their trout studies.

Here is a recent one talking on Poudre Headwaters Restoration Project and then has a speaker on Cameron Peaks fire effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUo0JPHAkr0&t=2334s

 

Is that bill dance? lmao

 

Anyone been to waterton canyon?

 

Took the day to recharge... which for today meant an 8 mile roundtrip hike to Shelf Lake at 12,000' for Colorado River Cutthroat. I've wanted to catch some alpine lake cutthroats, but got skunked on my first attempt at Slater Lake earlier this year. Thankfully, today was awesome. Landed three of them, all on hopper patterns. Couldn't rip the grin off my face.

 

Oh, yes. The further you go up, the better the fishing. Bring a bike.

 

I learned that you ant drive in the canyon.... they didnt make this clear on the interwebs

 

A few of late from the Eagle and the Pan

 

It's probably right at 2 hrs...but the tailwaters of the Ark are a pretty safe bet year round...flows have been consistent, temps have been stable, and it produces some nice fish for me on a regular basis...PM and i'm happy to share some of my spots.

your post was almost a month ago now, but the Dream and 11 mile have been very low flows of late...lots of muck from dam work on the upper end of 11 mile and lots of weeds due to low flows down near the middle. The Dream has been the only stream I have yet to have good days on, maybe I don't fish as well as I though but I've spend days there sight fishing to picky bows with no luck. Hoping for better luck this fall with some hungry browns heading up from the lake.

 

I have given up on the "Dream", besides the crowds, those dam picky trout drive me mad. 3 Fish is an exceptional day for me there. Way outside the distance/ hour is the "Miracle Mile" in WY and that is a truly awesome place to fish, the license is fairly hefty compared to what CO charges.

 

Dude, same. I pretty much refuse to fish 11 mile, Cheeseman, Deckers, or the Dream anymore. Every time I give in and try again there is always some schmuck that walks into the river 15 feet above me and ruins my approach to a run I'm working. The only exception is Cheeseman. From December - February I'll drive up to the top and hike in below the dam. Few fisherman will do that hike in a foot of snow. The solitude is nice.

I think at some point we all like to generalize about the "glory days" when the front range was less crowded and the water was empty. Interestingly enough, I picked up a copy of John Gierach's Trout Bum and started it over the weekend. In the chapter "Camp Coffee," he talks about Cheeseman Canyon, "That's a stretch of the South Platte River, one of those tailwaters that stays open and more or less fishable throughout the year. It's famous water and almost too crowded to fish in the summer, but still nice and lonely on most days between Christmas and, say, the end of March." He wrote that in 1986.

There's no doubt that the gold medal waters within two hours of Denver have some mighty pretty fish, but to me they're not the most authentic experience you can have these days.

 

Ditto. And I feel the same about the Ark below Pueblo. I did the same hike into Cheesman this past January and it still seemed busy for the time of year. I thought maybe these areas would be less crowded during a weekday but so did everyone else. If I decide to fish any of them I just have to go in with the mindset that I'll have to keep my shit in check and have a good time anyway.
I did hit 11 Mile Canyon twice recently and there was plenty of river and fish available. I only went twice because the first trip gave me hope.

Last Friday I drove 3 hrs to get to Mirror Lake above Tin Cup, fly fished 5 hrs and drove another 3hrs home. There was 4 other fishermen I saw on lake, I imagine the rest were on the Taylor tailwater. So it was totally worth it for the solitude and the fishing was good...

 

The Ark at Pueb is decent...there are a few hidden access spots down past the state park that are nice and quiet. I really enjoy the "middle" Ark too, from salida down to spikebuck...although there was a burn up there a few years back and I don't fish much below the creek where that runoff was coming in according to an old guide buddy, it killed ALOT of fish down lower in 2018 I believe and it hasn't recovered fully. Some nice fish in that river though.

Turns out, my wife is out of town this weekend and I've got Friday off. Thinking I may venture out away from the front range a bit more. I have never fished the Gunnison or Taylor...and my last trip to the fork was during runoff and it was blown out. Any recs for maybe an overnight trip to fish? Was thinking Indy Pass over to try the Fork again, fish the eagle on the way back down 70. The Rio looks nice too down east of Creed, I spend a lot of time in that area, but have never fished it. Figure a great weekend to try something a bit further away.

 

Only spot on Roaring Fork I will share is Wilton Jaffee Park, amazing place to go with the fishing but can get over-run with "guided" fishers so get there early. Frying pan is good but can be extremely crowded. Upper Arkansas south of Leadville has some good spots (one I like is a the first bridge that crosses the Arkansas South out of town- all open space north along river for a long ways) but wide open (no tree's etc) so Sunny& hot days, wind, storms, etc I would skip it.

 

Traffic at Cheeseman is definitely hit or miss during the winter. In January and Feb you can show up on a Saturday and the parking lot will look like it's high spawning season. A week later only one truck will show up. My approach is always the same...leave Denver at 5:15, get to the parking lot at first light when the temp is still in the single digits, then keep walking until it's in the mid-twenties. The trout usually start popping when it's about 27 degrees. During winter most guys stick to the first mile or so of the canyon. Bring micro-spikes.

 

The Gunny and Taylor are both great rivers.

The Taylor is tough--just below the reservoir is where people go to line up side by side and cast nymph rigs at huge trout. The small ones are 18 - 22 inches. The big ones are the size of my leg. No hyperbole there. That section of river is a teeny tiny piece of land though, and you're probably going to see 20 - 40 other anglers within 100 yards of each other. I have the same feeling about this area as I mentioned above. The trout are pretty but not worth my time. I've fished this section three times in the last year and have had good days, but I only went either at night, or fished it from 5:30 - 7:30 am. Everyone else shows up around 8. Just below that patch of trout nirvana are many miles of fantastic water. But. It's all private. About halfway down the canyon the public water opens up. It's beautiful and has some great structure...also crystal clear. I've fished a ton of spots on the lower half of the Taylor and pulled out some beauties, but I can't say I've ever had a lights out day there. It's probably just me, but there seems to be something about that river that my particular style doesn't jive with. For smaller steam fishing right off the Taylor, go up spring creek. Most are 8-10 inches but we've also pulled out a few in the high teens. You can fish it all the way up the mountain to the reservoir.

The Gunny is fun--I need to spend more time there myself. I've been to Neversink a handful of times just outside of Gunnison proper. Last time I went I pulled in 5, but had a slow day...the water was barely a trickle. The trip before that it was one of the most picturesque stretches of water I've ever been to. I landed my first 20+ rainbow on a size 20 dry and just about shit my pants. It was beautiful. Check the water levels before you go. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison Natl Park is a few hours farther, and man, it has some roly-poly tailwater rainbows. From what I hear the inner canyon has a ridiculous brown trout population, but access is super tough. Lots of hiking. I was there the first week in September and it was 97 degrees in the canyon.

 

My cousin and I have been wanting to float the Ark for a while now. We got a couple fishing rafts a couple years ago but so far have only used them twice in a couple lakes. With the winter flows we think we'll try it this year.
We had big plans at the time we bought the rafts to hike them in and fish some higher elevation lakes, but the nearly 100lb pack it fits in thwarted that real quick!

 

Thanks steve...I do fish the headwaters of the ark often, smaller fish, but they're always hungry

That's too awesome...been watching fishing videos on black canyon all afternoon. Ended up with the day off Friday. Thinking I'm going to head out super early and hike in....if anybody wants to meet up or tag along, gimme a shout. Wife is out of town for the weekend, so I may camp down in the canyon if the fishing is good

 

The only way to camp down there is to go to East Portal campground. That's also where you'll want to start hiking in. It's first come/first serve, but I think you'll be fine finding a spot...there are 5 or 6 drive up sites, then 50 yards down there are another 8 or so that are walk in. The trout right by the campground and up to the first dam are super spooky. I think that area gets a lot of pressure. I got them on droppers at first light and right at sunset, but zilch during the day. There's a water pump at the camp ground that's fine to drink from and the crapper is the cleanest I've seen. You can burn wood down there despite the fire ban. Good luck this weekend!

Edit: I'm pretty sure you can backpack into the canyon if that's your thing. Be prepared to cross the river with your pack on a few times. There's not a direct path the whole way down. Still, start from East Portal.

 

I found about 8 routes (not trails) listed online that you can hike into the canyon. The east portal spots are regular campsites, but primitive camping is ok in the bottom elsewhere is you drop into the middle of the canyon...just need that free pass and sign the waiver on the way in.

East portal looks good for day stuff, but looks like yoy said, access is limited is flows are too high to cross safely.