Recommendations, CO in mid-April

[UncleDirk]

Hi All. 1st post on this forum, but have been doing lots of searches to narrow down what I THINK are best options. The interactive Fishing Atlas is a great resource. This would be oriented around wade fishing, and I'd plan to stop in to a local fly shop for current conditions, active fly patterns and support them with some purchases.

I'll be in Denver mid-April, and carving out the back end of a business trip for Fri/Sat/Sun morning fishing. I'm looking to get out of Denver, with 2 to 2 1/2 hour max drive. Based on my searches I'd like to get some feedback on some of the options below, taking into account potential snow pack run off, etc. I'm open to other suggestions too...

Staying in Silverthorne and fishing the Blue. I'm not a big fan of tailwaters, at least in my area (north Atlanta Chattahoochee) which has variable/significant water releases and would not want to schedule a weekend around "maybe" water flows. Not sure if April would be as big of a concern on the Blue vs. May/June with heavier runoff and water releases. Based on my reading, it sounds like there's A LOT of pressure, especially on the weekends which would coincide with my availability. I'm not really looking to fish side by side.

Staying in Kremmling, fishing the Blue below the Green Mtn Res. Cant quite tell how good the access is for wading, but definately of the impression it would be less pressured which is always a nice bonus, even if there were a few less fish to catch. That would also lend itself to option 3, along the CO river.

Staying in Kremmling or Byers Canyon area and fishing the CO. Not sure what the waterflows will be into mid-April on the CO river, and as with the Blue, not sure the pressure how many wading accessable areas are through that stretch. Perhaps the best option is staying Kremmling with options available on both the Blue and CO, and fish based on local recommendations?

Thoughts? Locations I might have overlooked withing that driving distance for good access to wading?

 

[kevind62]

Greetings and welcome to the forum. Try going to the Member Introduction thread and introduce yourself. Helps people connect and get a brief idea of what type of interests you have.

Having said that, there are numerous options out of Denver. Runoff is going to be an issue for everything Rocky Mountain this year with the abundant snowpack they've been blessed with. Tailwaters are great fisheries in the Rockies so don't shy away from them. Probably among the most productive at times. Dam releases in the west are not like those of the east. What you're used to are generating dams that release at given times a day and give a warning most of the time, or during our usual "occasional" thunderstorm monsoons. One minute you're fishing in a little less than knee deep water, horn goes off and within 5 minutes you're in waste deep class 5 rapid water. The dams out west are more for reservoir control and irrigation. Once the release starts it doesn't stop until the snow melt and rainy season is over. Depending on snowpack this could last till the end of June or as late as the end of August like it did last summer on the west side of the range. As they get ahead of the game the flows will slowly decrease through the summer. A lot is going to depend on when spring actually decides to arrive and start melting the snow. The wife and I were in WY in late March last spring and had to keep moving south to get away from incoming snow storms. Ended up fishing the Dream Stream and 11 Mile Canyon. Still had some wind, snow and cold weather but fishable conditions. Access may be different this year with all the snow. I'm sure several places are still not accessible due to snow drifts or avalanches in the canyon areas. Check the news and do a search for Colorado Avalanches. Pretty impressive stuff going on right now. And they're still getting snow.

Ok, enough of the gloom and doom. There are still going to be places to fish. Several CO locals on this site that will be able to give you great info. You may want to also consider the Yampa in the Steamboat Springs area. Lots of good fishing up that way east and west of town. And places to stay and eat. Several other steams in the area too. There is fishing on the Poudre above Ft. Collins but I've found the fish there to be a bit small and scattered. It also runs through the mountains so expect significant runoff in it too (which really should be good for the Poudre. I don't think it has had any significant runoff in a few years.). There is good fishing on the Blue and Colorado from Kremmling and Hot Sulfur Springs. Silverthorne is more of a tourist town.

The dream stream will be a bit longer drive but might be a good option. 11 mile canyon will likely not have a lot of access until after some good snow melt. I would guess most of it will be blocked off for a while. Just by looking at the snowpack maps.

 

[el jefe]

Mid-April is an interesting time. Be flexible, and make your decision real-time when you are there. Depending on prevailing temps, you could find many a stream available, or if run-off starts early, you may need to restrict yourself to tailwaters. Most likely, dams won't be releasing a spring flush in mid-April, so you will likely be OK there. And since most dams in the West are for storage, the flows are pretty consistent until they ramp up to send send water downstream.

 

[UncleDirk]

Kevin / El Jefe:

The information is much appreciated, I'll post to the New Members forum shortly. You're spot on about our water releases and water flows. PFD's are required, and flow rates can change dramatically over a short period of time. There are no guarantee's outside of about 2 hours.

Very glad to hear the mountain releases are a different breed. I've bookmarked several of the USGS gauges to track this information as well. I'll look into the Yampa area, have a potential contact up there through my nephew who'll be on this trip with me. Steamboat is great area! It's a bit further than I'd like though, as mostly it'll keep us off the water Sunday AM heading to DEN (more road time = less fishing time). Flexibility is a good point, will have to lock down lodging about a week out but that should at least provide a better sense of the big picture weather trend. Sounds like I'm leaning toward Kremmling, but will start some research on the Poudre too.

If all else fails, the water is too high, the temps too cold, the fish refuse to bite, I know there are plenty of local beers to sample .

 

[kevind62]

While you're in Denver go to Anthony's Pizza & Pasta. They've got a phenomenal NY style pizza. Go to the one in either Golden or Longmont. They're located all around town but I know these two do it right. The one in West Denver puts too much cheese. It doesn't allow the dough to cook right and ends up really soggy. You can buy it whole or by the slice. Be careful. If you're not a big eater then get it by the slice. If you think you can handle it, go ahead and buy the 18" pizza. But be warned. The one in Golden is by the Coors brewery.

Kevin / El Jefe:

If all else fails, the water is too high, the temps too cold, the fish refuse to bite, I know there are plenty of local beers to sample .

 

[kevind62]

By the way, from Denver you're only about a little over an hour from Deckers. Coming from Denver you can fish your way down if it's accessible. Another one you'll have to check the road conditions on and access. There are miles of accessible river on this stretch. And the fishing can be really good. But the fish get a lot of pressure and tend to be finicky so be prepared to change up flies quite often till you find what they want. With the exception of streamers, you'll want to go small.

 

[UncleDirk]

Now that's some quality content right there. I'll check Anthony's out if the schedule works out right. I've done the Coors tour, but from the inside out on a business/site survey including the glass and ceramics operations. Very impressive! Their branded light beer = sex in a canoe.

While you're in Denver go to Anthony's Pizza & Pasta. They've got a phenomenal NY style pizza. Go to the one in either Golden or Longmont. They're located all around town but I know these two do it right. The one in West Denver puts too much cheese. It doesn't allow the dough to cook right and ends up really soggy. You can buy it whole or by the slice. Be careful. If you're not a big eater then get it by the slice. If you think you can handle it, go ahead and buy the 18" pizza. But be warned. The one in Golden is by the Coors brewery.

 

[jangles]

If I had any advice , which I do a little , I wont give it to someone that joins and their first post is for help . I got this attitude from people on hunting sites and it's carried over to everything else . Good luck in your venture .

 

[UncleDirk]

Wow jangels. "Thread Killer" indeed! Sounds like some pretty bad Forum experience. Maybe a diagnosis of PTFD.

I've only gotten back into fly fishing early spring of last year (after about a 35 year hiatus), doing a little more on the NGTO (North Georgia Trout Online) forum and attending events. Figured I'd branch out a little, with better regional knowledge here. Best of luck.

 

[flav]

I've fished in CO in the spring a couple times, it's a **** shoot and totally runoff dependant. I'd have a reservior or two as backups, heck I'd plan on fishing stillwater and have the tailwaters as backups.

 

[UncleDirk]

Updating this post for future lurkers looking for info on this area. Writing this in Kremmling with a little time to kill before heading to the airport. I'm gonna miss Colorado. Hit the Blue north of Silverthorne late AM Friday in 2 different spots, no bites at all and throwing all manner of nymphs, pretty much everything but a streamer. Saw a few other guys out and didn't see they were having any luck either. Drove up to Kremmling for lunch and a beer at Grand Adventure brewery - closed for remodel which was a bummer, but the Grand Old West did us right.

Friday afternoon on the Blue toward Granby hit 2 more spots. Had 1 fish on and line broke at the sinker.
Never had another bite all day, throwing everything in the box at them. Saw roughly 10-12 other guys on the water, saw 2 fish landed for the rest of the afternoon, before heading to the Green tailwater.

Weekly Report Green Resev. on Blue 20 mi south of Kremmling:
Trouts Fly Fishing | Blue River - below Green Mountain Reservoir

A steep walk down (and back up) to the water. Fished this tailwater late Friday which has TONS of pocket water and nice little runs. Water was slightly cloudy, lake upstream is still iced over. Didn't catch anything but a beautiful stretch of water, worth the effort even without netting anything. BWO hatch 45 minutes before sunset, but never saw any rises. Finished the day with a hawk doing a flyby in the gorge - with a 12 inch rainbow in the talons.

Here's the gauge data / Water Levels/Gage at Green Resev. We hit it at about 3.25 which allowed access to most of the runs without too much difficulty. Could have hit he others with effort to wade across and reach them from the other side.
USGS Current Conditions for USGS 09057500 BLUE RIVER BELOW GREEN MOUNTAIN RESERVOIR, CO


Decided to hit the Yampa tailwater outside of Steamboat on Saturday. Arrived about 12:15 and 10 or so cars in the lot. Quite a few people on the water, but plenty of runs so nothing shoulder to shoulder. It's about 3/4 of a mile to hit, and a great stretch of river. Finally success, takes on small egg patterns, pheasant tails 18-20. Go small. Saw some rises throughout the day as well.

Heres a few links I put together researching the trip:

Covers the state, with Blue/CO area 2/4 down.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife -
Conditions - Statewide

Interactive Map for the State. There is a CO App, CPW Fishing that has this data as well.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Atlas

Stocking Report, Not like GA where I know all the rivers. For those of you ever heading to GA though, here's their stock report, and man do they stock a lot every week spring to fall.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife -
Stocking Report
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

CO DNR Fishing Report / Weekly
https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/FishingReports.aspx

 

[UncleDirk]

Updating this post for future lurkers looking for info on this area. Writing this in Kremmling with a little time to kill before heading to the airport. I'm gonna miss Colorado. Hit the Blue north of Silverthorne late AM Friday in 2 different spots, no bites at all and throwing all manner of nymphs, pretty much everything but a streamer. Saw a few other guys out and didn't see they were having any luck either. Drove up to Kremmling for lunch and a beer at Grand Adventure brewery - closed for remodel which was a bummer, but the Grand Old West did us right.

Friday afternoon on the Blue toward Granby hit 2 more spots. Had 1 fish on and line broke at the sinker.
Never had another bite all day, throwing everything in the box at them. Saw roughly 10-12 other guys on the water, saw 2 fish landed for the rest of the afternoon, before heading to the Green tailwater.

Weekly Report Green Resev. on Blue 20 mi south of Kremmling:
Trouts Fly Fishing | Blue River - below Green Mountain Reservoir

A steep walk down (and back up) to the water. Fished this tailwater late Friday which has TONS of pocket water and nice little runs. Water was slightly cloudy, lake upstream is still iced over. Didn't catch anything but a beautiful stretch of water, worth the effort even without netting anything. BWO hatch 45 minutes before sunset, but never saw any rises. Finished the day with a hawk doing a flyby in the gorge - with a 12 inch rainbow in the talons.

Here's the gauge data / Water Levels/Gage at Green Resev. We hit it at about 3.25 which allowed access to most of the runs without too much difficulty. Could have hit he others with effort to wade across and reach them from the other side.
USGS Current Conditions for USGS 09057500 BLUE RIVER BELOW GREEN MOUNTAIN RESERVOIR, CO


Decided to hit the Yampa tailwater outside of Steamboat on Saturday. Arrived about 12:15 and 10 or so cars in the lot. Quite a few people on the water, but plenty of runs so nothing shoulder to shoulder. It's about 3/4 of a mile to hit, and a great stretch of river. Finally success, takes on small egg patterns, pheasant tails 18-20. Go small. Saw some rises throughout the day as well.

Heres a few links I put together researching the trip:

Covers the state, with Blue/CO area 2/4 down.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife -
Conditions - Statewide

Interactive Map for the State. There is a CO App, CPW Fishing that has this data as well.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Atlas

Stocking Report, Not like GA where I know all the rivers. For those of you ever heading to GA though, here's their stock report, and man do they stock a lot every week spring to fall.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife -
Stocking Report
https://georgiawildlife.com/Fishing/Trout

CO DNR Fishing Report / Weekly
https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/FishingReports.aspx


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