Cache la Poudre River, Fort Collins?

[two_nymph_rig]

I will be moving to Cheyenne, WY shortly, and fear that there will be no fly fishing to be done. I found the Cache la Poudre river in Fort Collins. This would be about an hours drive for me. Any success stories out there?

 

[mcnerney]

The Poudre took a big hit last year with the huge fire followed by the heavy rains and the ash/mud that washed into the river, so I don't know how it is currently fishing, but you might have to travel up the canyon until you get above the fire damage. You might also want to browse through the Midgeman's blog, he used to live in Ft Collins and the Poudre was his home river, and he wrote about his fishing there quite a bit. A few months ago he moved to Westminister. Here is his site: The Midge Manifesto

 

[two_nymph_rig]

Hey Mcnerney, I checked out the website, and couldn't find an e-mail to contact him. Do you know of an e-mail address that I could contact him at? Just want to see if he knows anything about the Cheyenne area.

 

[chased]

I live in Sidney Nebraska, only 100 miles east from Cheyenne and I go over there and to Fort Collins quite a bit. There is the Poudre, but like Larry said, it got hit HARD by fires this summer. I had to drive 30 miles up the canyon to get past the burn, and still didn't do so well. There's also the Big Thompson over by Loveland that fishes well, despite having a lot of fishing pressure. In the immediate Cheyenne area I haven't heard of anything...that might because I didn't look that hard because I don't want to spend $160 on an out of state license. If you're willing to drive about 180 miles, there is Grey Reef, which arguably holds some of the better trout fishing in the country. About 80 miles north east of Cheyenne is Torrington Wyo near the Nebraska border, and I know for sure of at least 1 nice creek over there that has a very healthy population of wild rainbows. If you venture over to Nebraska there are a lot of wild rainbow and brown trout fishing opportunities in creeks near Scottsbluff. If you go even further into Nebraska you'll eventually hit Ogalalla (180ish miles from Cheyenne), this is where I spend a lot of my time fishing for trophy sized rainbows, its also known for monster Wiper. So...within a 200 mile radius you have A LOT of good fishing opportunities. Once you get situated in Cheyenne we will have to see about meeting up and doing some fishing!

-Chase

 

[mcnerney]

Hey Mcnerney, I checked out the website, and couldn't find an e-mail to contact him. Do you know of an e-mail address that I could contact him at? Just want to see if he knows anything about the Cheyenne area.

I don't know him personally or his email address. I do know that you can comment on his posts and he does reply on some of those comments, so that might work.

Another option is to explore the sagebrush lakes around Laramie. Stop by the Four Seasons Fly Shop and get a map and ask some questions on what works., maybe by a few flies for their information. A little further to the west is the Snowies, lots of good fishing on the streams and lakes in that area, you will need a map of the Medicine Bow NF. On the other side of the mountain is the North Platte River and it has a number of public access points, just look for the brown signs along hwy 130 between Saratoga and Riverside, WY.

 

[4peace1piece]

Your closest places to get a line wet are west of Cheyenne: North Crow Diversion is filled with stockers, Granite, Crystal, and North Crow Res. have some 10-15 inch fish with occasional bigs, but I've actually recommend spinning tackle for all those. In the same area of Vedauwoo you can find many beaver ponds with beautiful brookies they just don't get too big. Then further west of Laramie are the fishable rivers you'll probably be most interested in for fly fishing: French creek, N. Platte, and Douglas Creek are typical freestones. The North Platte is fishable from the headwaters in Colorado through Saratoga/Seminole/Alcova/Casper before it starts to turn into catfish water by the time it gets to the Nebraska boarder northeast of Cheyenne.

Poudre and Big T are your options to the south before having to go through Denver. Also the St. Vrain.

 

[slicedog]

I fish the poudre 3-5 times a week in town during the spring to late fall. Yes it did get hit hard by the fires, but continued to fish well afterwards when the ash settled between rainfall. Last spring was out of control, the fishing was off the hook. The flush from the big runoff the year before cleaned out the river really well, allowing for a lot more insects to colonize the rocks, and the hatches were a lot larger and more diverse than other years. It is flowing low and crystal clear right now, but with flows around 18cfs the fish are really spooky. Cloudy crappy days it fishes bestright now when the flows are this low.

 

[mcnerney]

I fish the poudre 3-5 times a week in town during the spring to late fall. Yes it did get hit hard by the fires, but continued to fish well afterwards when the ash settled between rainfall. Last spring was out of control, the fishing was off the hook. The flush from the big runoff the year before cleaned out the river really well, allowing for a lot more insects to colonize the rocks, and the hatches were a lot larger and more diverse than other years. It is flowing low and crystal clear right now, but with flows around 18cfs the fish are really spooky. Cloudy crappy days it fishes bestright now when the flows are this low.

Thanks for the update. I hadn't read anything on how the river is fishing since the big fire, good to know the ash flow didn't wipe out all the fish.

 

[spiderninja]

Yeah, it has been challenging fishing the poudre in town with such low flows recently. But I have had some good days fishing some of the deeper runs in town. They just seem to be few and far between with <20 cfs.

Last year I did well after 14 opened up. There is a lot of good fishing above the burn area; I even had some success right in the middle of the burn area at the end of the season. There were some huge banks of silt, but it didn't completely cover the river and fish were still feeding.

 

[slicedog]

Haven't had success fishing the real deep pools( Legacy park) , find it hard to get a good drift with weight needed to get down to the fish, but some of the more moderate pools I have had success. See any of the big browns this fall spider? Really good size fish on the redds, but quite a few were really beat up and had fungus growing on them.

 

[spiderninja]

Yeah, I unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot of fall fishing in because I was traveling and finishing up school. But I have heard that there are some nice sized browns through town. I guess they are just pretty picky and I have yet to nail one.

I fished near legacy maybe a month ago and it was just too shallow. And most of the bigger pools were frozen over. There is that one run near the lake which has produced for me in the past. I think the last time I was there it just too early in the day. Getting a 22 midge emerger down seems to be the ticket for those deep runs.

 

[slicedog]

yeah, usually have something that small in an emerger on there. Laid into to or three quality browns around 20in and missed a few more last year, especially fishing streamers in the fall.

 

[goldeneye]

Not meaning to hijack, but I am moving to Greeley, CO this summer for an internship and was wondering if the Cache la Poudre River in Ft. Collins would be the closest stream to try and fish?

 

[mcnerney]

From Greeley it would probably be closer to just go west on hwy 34 toward Estes Park, the road follows the Big Thompson river.
Just above Estes is the Rocky Mtn NP and there is a lot of water up there to explore, especially if you're into hiking.
Something to think about is that as you head west on hwy 34 after you pass through Loveland, watch for hwy 56 on the right, if you take that road north, it heads up to Masonville (a wide spot in the road), take a left turn and that puts you on hwy 27, if you follow that north it will take you up to hwy 14 that runs through Poudre Canyon (about 20 miles up the canyon).
There are numerous small lakes in and around that portion of the front range, do some exploring and you will find some great bass and carp fishing.

 

[comeonavs]

From Greeley it would probably be closer to just go west on hwy 34 toward Estes Park, the road follows the Big Thompson river.
Just above Estes is the Rocky Mtn NP and there is a lot of water up there to explore, especially if you're into hiking.
Something to think about is that as you head west on hwy 34 after you pass through Loveland, watch for hwy 56 on the right, if you take that road north, it heads up to Masonville (a wide spot in the road), take a left turn and that puts you on hwy 27, if you follow that north it will take you up to hwy 14 that runs through Poudre Canyon (about 20 miles up the canyon).
There are numerous small lakes in and around that portion of the front range, do some exploring and you will find some great bass and carp fishing.

Exactly, tons of roadside fishing up the Big T canyon. If you are will to hike more than a few hundred feet you should find some unoccupied water. And there is miles of water in the park.

Greeley to Poudre , depending on traffic and how high up the canyon you go probably an hour drive til you are getting your gear on.

Greeley to Big T canyon again depending on traffic and how far you go, but you'd be at the bottom of the canyon in about 30 minutes.

Poudre is much less pressured IMO

 

[mcnerney]

I have to agree with Comeonavs that the Poudre is way less traffic. One thing I forgot to mention that if you are interested in fishing the Poudre, you might be interested in looking through some of the older posts on the Midgeman's blog, he is located down in Westminister now, but used to live in Ft Collins and he regularly fished the Poudre and posted a lot of great information on that water. He doesn't post his blog as much as he used to, but browse through his site. The Midge Manifesto

 

[goldeneye]

I appreciate the input. I've grown up reading articles about fishing in Colorado and out West in general, and have always dreamed of being able take a week long fishing trip out there sometime. Now I can't get over the fact that I'll be living on the Front Range for six months with three day weekends. I'll definitely look into the National Park, and do some research on the local streams. Again, thanks for the input.

 

[jslo]

It's interesting, maybe I don't experiment enough- but I will be transparent here: I've never caught a fish on the Big T. Never. Not one. I've probably fished there 10x. Fishing in the Park I've caught plenty of all varieties. Fishing on the Poudre, I've caught plenty. Plenty. Fishing in the bahamas- bonefish, check. But the Big T? nada lol. I aim to change that this summer. I think it's a nymph river and I generally do well with dry's on the Poudre...so my goal is perfecting my nymphing on the Big T and will change the ratio and break the spell

All that to say, I have also had a heckuva time catching fish in town. I live in FoCo. Where do you go in town to fish the Poudre? I've not lived here that long. I have tried a bunch of times in various places (Timberline/Prospect area, lemay/riverside area, legacy park area...) no luck. anyone have any advice for me? Just for what it's worth, I'm a fly fishing, catch and release, barbs clipped, eco friendly fisher

 

[slicedog]

legacy park is pretty good for me, I also like gustav swanson park by New Belgium. For now, with the flows so low, stealthy approaches are really needed. Best times for me are around 4:30-6:30. There is almost always a midge hatch around then and plenty of rising fish. I usually use a black or grey sprout midge, or a jujubee adult midge(yes I said jujubee adult, see charlie cravens website for tying info). Both work well as emergers in the film. If the flows ever pickup, then nymphing is the ticket. I like a size 12 or 14 flashback hares ear followed by a BWO or midge pupa. I plan on getting out sometime this week, PM me if you would like to meet up.

 

[spiderninja]

legacy park is pretty good for me, I also like gustav swanson park by New Belgium. For now, with the flows so low, stealthy approaches are really needed. Best times for me are around 4:30-6:30. There is almost always a midge hatch around then and plenty of rising fish. I usually use a black or grey sprout midge, or a jujubee adult midge(yes I said jujubee adult, see charlie cravens website for tying info). Both work well as emergers in the film. If the flows ever pickup, then nymphing is the ticket. I like a size 12 or 14 flashback hares ear followed by a BWO or midge pupa. I plan on getting out sometime this week, PM me if you would like to meet up.

Yeah, I've had luck at both of those places as well. I also like fishing up off overland. It has just been so low in town, I have been doing most of my fishing up the canyon.

Good call on the jujubee adult midge. That looks like an awesome pattern for some of those slow shallow pools.