Great Trout Bum heaven in Basalt Colo. with fishing report.

[Big Bushkill]

Headed up to Colorado to fish with a friend of mine. First of all the Rockies in Fall are a most to see. Snow Capped mountains and the apens are turning. Anyway here is the report.

Fished 2 rivers the Blue and the Frying Pann.

Blue River Gold Medal and all wild trout: Fished the Blue on the 11t. The water was way to low and it was cold and windy. It even snowed. Managed only one small brown. I fished 4 hours and I had enough. Also the 9200 feeting alltitude at Brekenridge did help my breathing.

Roaring Fork the 12th and 13th. What a differnce, after a slow start a BWO hatch hit. Caught and released over 40 trout in the 2 days. The wading was great, the temps great, and allot of pools where you can get a perfect drift. Most of the fish where browns between 10 and 14 inches with one or two fish around 16. Caught a few rainbows the best a nice 16 incher. but I had one monster on well over 20 inches. I had him close but he took me under a tree in the river and schooled me.

Fished tiny flys size 18 to 24 all under water.. I hate getting the string through the hole with these flys.

I highly recommend getting there. I stayed in the town of Basalt which is 12 mile from Aspen. It is a trout Bum heaven. Frying Pann flows into the Roaring fork at the town. The Roaring Fork is a great drift boat river. Also the Colorado and Eagle rivers are not to far away.

 

[NJFred]

Nice report. Sounds like fun (reminds me of a couple of John Geirach stories regarding late fall fishing in CO and BWOs)

 

[emerger]

Sounds like a great trip.

 

[Fly Guy]

I was talking to my wife the other day about vacationing in Co. I figured we could take the trip, I could fish ing the AM and we could site see the rest of the day. Thanks for the info.

Jeremy

 

[Karel]

Did you fish the Blue above Dillon reservoir? That is pretty skinny water, especially in the fall.

Below Dillon reservoir is the Blue Ribbon/Gold Medal water where you can catch 24+" rainbows on size 22/24 midges... that's where the river flows underneath interstate 70 and through an outlet shopping mall (very scenic...)

The entire stretch of the Blue between Dillon and Green Mountain Res. is a very nice and productive fishery, though. Sorry you had not more success.

 

[Big Bushkill]

I fished both, first the upper in Breckinridge. Then I went to the better water below the dam. Still low water. I talked to 2 other guys who where local. They caught one each and where pissed about the low water.

It is a great river but I caught it on the wrong day. The wind was whipping so bad it would blow your drift off. Still no hatch.

My friend from Colo refused to fish by a shopping mall. I was all for it. It is supose to be the best spot.

Cheers

 

[Big Bushkill]

Fly guy, great idea. Aspen is 12 miles away, but she may shop you clean in Aspen. Still the sights are great.

Cheers

 

[zlj75]

I fished the Blue River at shopping mall for about an hour in July, it's actually a great spot, but for much different reasons than you'd think. There are lots of fish in that section which is a definite bonus, but even better is the fact that you can fish while your wife/girlfriend shops. So you keep her happy because you're at the mall but you're not getting dragged shop to shop.

The funny thing about that stretch of river is that there's a pedestrian bridge over the river and all the shoppers can spot all the trout that you're casting to...of course the trout are pretty picky so they barely even glance towards your flies, but having ten people above you watching you fish is an odd experience.

In the future I'd like to head further up the Blue and spend some more time on the Eagle where I did get one really nice bow.
ZJ

 

[Big Bushkill]

LOL,l my Colo friend who is actually a Green Horn would not let us fish there. He hates the shopping seen. He is divorsed and hates anything about chicks shopping.

Still that is the best spot. Still the water was really low on the blue.

I wanted to hit the Eagle because we heard it was fishing GREAT. The porblem was my friend is more of a skiier and Mt Biker. He knew one gurateed spot on the Frying Pan and it worked. Hiid spots on the Blue stunk.


If I had time to take days to figure the Eagle out I would have been in. Anyway the town of Basalt is Trout Bumm USA. We stayed and the Green Drake 80 bucks 2 rooms.

Even though it is 12 miles from Aspen, It is more of a Flyfishing town..

Cheers.

 

[Big Bushkill]

Hi Karel, I did fish the upper and lower Blue. The problem was the water realease. You could see the river stone where water should have been flowing.

I met 4 other guys who told me they need to let more water out and that includes the guides.

Still Basalt COLO is the place to be. Fly into Eagle Airport and you are set.

Stay at the Green Drake.

Cheers

 

[zlj75]

I should have spent more time on the Eagle, but I got suckered into fishing Gore Creek for two days right near the town of Vail. The Gore is supposed to be really good and I did see lots of fish, but I was skunked both days there. I was fishing along the highway and the Vail bike path though so those fish see a lot of pressure.

Looking forward to spending some time on the Frying Pan next summer, this past summer's trip was the trip of a lifetime, we hit 7 rivers in CO and NM over a three week period, and hoping to do even more next year.
ZJ

 

[Big Bushkill]

I heard the Eagle was fishing great when I was out there. I wanted to hit it but my friend made the correct call. He is a beginner and knew where to go on the PAN.

I was ready to jump out or the car while seeing the Eagle on the ride down after Vail.

Where did you fish in NM. I was there 8 years ago and fished some great streams near Taos. Not just the Rio Grande.

Cheers

 

[oasis man]

Your report on the Blue River reminded me of the time twenty years ago when I fished that river....twice. The second time I was on the water about six hours...this was July, but the water was so cold that I had to warm up my legs/feet every hour on the bank of the river. During one of these rest periods, a state fish and game warden came along, and we started to chat. I mentioned that I had not seen any evidence of trout in this "Gold Medal" river. He laughed, and said that "Gold Medal" had more to do with politcs than fish...in fact, they had just completed a two year study that showed that this river was so cold that fish gained little, if any weight, over the two year period.
So I went back to fishing. And indeed, I did see one fish that afternoon...it actually swam up to me and asked if it could borrow my neopremes..
OM

 

[zlj75]

We fished the San Juan in New Mexico. We were staying in Durango so it was just an hour down to the San Juan...we had an amazing day down there, fished dry flies all day and it was footballs after football. Everyone else was fishing the typical small stuff you'd expect to use on the SJ but we had great luck with the dries.

 

[zlj75]

here's a link to a couple pics and a report from the beginning of the CO trip.
Fly Fishing - Colorado, South Platte: The Dream Stream

 

[Big Bushkill]

I love the S Platte. I fished it 7 years ago. Caught 2 rainbows around 5 pounds each. Also a few in the 17 inch range. We fished below the dam in Cheesman Canyon. Camped out there.

It was great.

 

[Big Bushkill]

I fished the San Juan. What a sick river. I have never seen so many large trout.

My best trip in that area was a 5 day float camp and fish down the Black Canyon the Gunnisson.

If you have a chance you have to do it.

I have to kids now. That would be hard to pull off until they can go with me.:dizzy: