Colorado River Sampler
The Colorado River is somewhat of an enigma to anglers in the Mile High State. It is the state’s biggest watershed, and almost all of it—from the headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park 150 miles downstream to Rifle, Colorado—is trout water with plenty of public access. You can find good fishing somewhere on the river most days of the year, heavy hatches throughout the summer, and a variety of water types to suit nearly every angling preference and ability. Whether you like drifting big water, wading a river with limited places to cross, or exploring the mountain headwater streams, the Colorado River drainage has something for you.
Despite these credentials, I’d guess the Colorado is the most underfished trout stream in the state. Many anglers are either intimidated or bewildered by its size. They don’t know where to start exploring, or maybe, if they have fished the river, the tailwater tactics they used failed to produce. They may have heard myths like, “The river is too muddy” or “Whirling disease wiped out the trout.”
The truth is, the river is not as muddy as it once was and whirling disease has not wiped out the trout. The construction of Wolford Dam (1995) on Muddy Creek near Kremmling has improved downstream water clarity. Whirling disease has hindered the natural reproduction of rainbows in every stretch of the river, but the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) is maintaining the fish population by collecting eggs and milt from wild river trout, hatching and raising the fish in a hatchery until they are past the vulnerable stage, and then releasing them into the river. The brown trout in the river continue to thrive and occur naturally through the system.
There may not be as many trout per mile on the Colorado as in some fisheries, but the trout aren’t as picky either. If you look for the trout in the right places and use the appropriate tactics, you’ll find more than enough fish to keep your reel buzzing throughout the day, and you won’t have to put up with crowds. Better still, you can leave your #24 midge patterns at home and spend the day watching a #10 attractor dry fly bounce through the riffles.
I suggest the following four areas on the Colorado the headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park; the Middle Park section; the Upper Colorado between Gore Canyon and Dotsero; and the Lower Colorado downstream of Glenwood Springs. There are many other places you can enter the river, but these are the places for good access, fishing, and scenery.
Headwaters (Estes Park to Granby)
The Colorado River is the most important watershed in the driest part of the nation, but it starts its journey as an unassuming high-mountain trout stream. At 8,800 feet, the Colorado meanders through the Kawuneeche Valley, then flows through beaver ponds, backwater sloughs, undercut banks, and side channels until it leaves the National Park and pours into Shadow Mountain Reservoir.
Sandwiched between the Never Summer Mountains on the west and the lofty peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park on the east, the Kawuneeche Valley is one of the most scenic venues along the Colorado River. The valley is about eight miles long, but I’d guess there are at least 20 miles of trout stream coiled up there. More than a half dozen trailheads with parking lots along Highway 34 provide access, but you won’t see many anglers on the water.
The stream is high and cold through the spring and early summer; the best months for fishing are July, August, and September. Frost comes early at that altitude, and by the time the elk are rutting in October, the fishing is over for the season.
Because the water is relatively infertile there, you won’t find any “superhatches” that bring fish to the surface en masse or cause hyperselective feeding. It’s a river where you can fish an Elk-hair Caddis all afternoon, and your buddy with a Parachute Adams will do just as well. If you want more fish, add a bead-head nymph as a dropper, but it may not be worth the tangles.
Most of the insects are small, except for the ants, which look to be three times the size of the ants in my yard. Even the grasshoppers are small. I find #10 and smaller flies work best. Because aquatic insects can be sparse, terrestrials are important. On other rivers, an ant or beetle may be an after-dinner mint, but on this part of the Colorado River they are often the main course, and imitations of them are rarely refused if presented properly.
The brown and rainbow trout in the Kawuneeche Valley normally run 10 to 12 inches long, but can be 16 inches or larger, particularly during spring and fall when spawners run up from Shadow Mountain Reservoir. The river’s brook trout are best found in the beaver ponds scattered across the valley, or near a confluence with one of the many tributaries.
Native Colorado River cutthroat trout, one of the state’s rarest trout, have been relocated to Timber Creek as part of a restoration project spearheaded by the National Park Service. These trout are sometimes caught in the Colorado River and should be released carefully.
In the Park, fishing is restricted to flies and lures only, with catch-and-release regulations enforced for browns, rainbows, and native cutthroat trout. You must have an entrance pass ($10) to fish in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Middle Park (Hot Sulphur Springs to Kremmling)
After the Colorado leaves Lake Granby, it flows through private ranchland to the town of Hot Sulphur Springs, through Byers Canyon, and into the public water of Middle Park. It’s there you’ll find the “Promised Land” for fly fishers—miles of public water with broad riffles, deep glides, deep glassy pools, sweeping bends, and bubbling side-channels. Middle Park has the densest insect populations of any section of the Colorado River, making it “must-do” water for serious dry-fly fanatics.
From Byers Canyon downstream to Troublesome Creek (near Kremmling), the CDOW manages the river as Wild Trout Gold Medal Water. This means the biomass in the river is high, and they aim to keep it that way with a flies-and-lures-only regulation and a zero limit on trout.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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