Colorado River Monsters (fishing)

hell yeah brother! Nice fish!

 

Caught my first fish (cuttie) on a fly rod this weekend at 11,600ft!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAJVgN4IZOE

Figures, soon I will only be able to find relaxation yelling at people to get off my lawn.

 

Has anyone fished the Dolores River in Stoner or Priest Gulch?

 

Wow, Think you are the first person I know to ever ask about it. Did a quick Google search for fishing reports.

https://duranglers.com/lower-dolores-river-fly-fishing/
I know someone who is friends with these guys from my Fly Fishing Club, I will see if he can get any more info.

https://diyflyfishing.com/dolores-river-colorado/

 

Cool! Yeah i have reviewed the duranglers resources and it helped determine public access. Any info on hatch, primarily hit dry or wet flies, or runs would be helpful. Thanks @CO MTN Steve

 

I'm doing a SW CO fishing road trip the first week in September. The Dolores is at the top of the list!

 

Where else are you planning to hit?

Seems like the west fork after the reservoir has more public waters

 

I'll most likely go the other direction up 145 into the San Juans. The west branch follows 38. I'm going to pour over some maps and try to find some smaller tribs and feeder creeks to explore. From everything I've read, pretty much every waterway in the area has good fishing.

But to answer your question, we're leaving Denver and heading first to the Rio Grande NF to find some high alpine Rio Grande cutthroats, then heading to the San Juans and fishing our way up to Telluride. That'll probably take 3 days. From there we'll hit a spot on the Uncompahgre for a day, then swing up to Gunnison and fish the Black Canyon.

 

Ridgeway Reservoir Tailwaters (Pa-Co-Chu-Puk) are outstanding. Best Stream enhancements I have seen and home to my personal "Bubba" He is a monster Rainbow I have hooked up twice with and he literally snapped me off at will both times.

Not going to lie, this is a harder in some places to fish (if flows are up) with deep holes that can be a challenge to get fly down to them. Need to use a "light" leader to avoid spooking fish and thus makes it easy for the big boys to snap your leader. Fish by the bridge crossing for the tent camps, easiest place I know to catch fish in these tail waters besides the pond filled with pan fish for the kids.

 

I've caught whitefish. I was in Glenwood, can't remember if it was on the Roaring Fork or Colorado. All I remember was we parked at the Safeway and walked behind the store to the river.

Here's my best from a river in CO, about 25" rainbow.

 

A guide my girlfriend fished with a few weeks ago recommended this place, as well. We're hitting it as a part of our road trip. I'll see if Bubba is around and send him your regards.

 

Pa-Co-Chu-Puk keeping coming up in conversation when chatting with other anglers in the area!


Dolores is low right now so i fished the San Miguel for some cut bows. Beautiful water and feisty cutbows in the holes.






I am going to hit a few lakes for some larger cutties and try to fish a small section of the animus that is public access then work my way to AZ

 

FYI - my buddy landed this troutzilla yesterday... can you say hog!

 

If you need any info on camping or fishing around telluride or ouray then shoot me a DM

 

Slowly strip a scud at john wright in the morning/afternoon and you'll catch a grayling in less than an hour.

 

Joe, and I think they are probably all poached to perfection by now.

 

I was there about a month ago and they were rising like crazy. Need a 22 or 24 fly

 

anyone know where to catch tiger trout?