get away from the crowds and fish the Poudre on the way

I have a guide from Kurt's booked for Saturday morning. I am bringing a small 6' light spinning combo and a MH casting combo. The idea is to fish spinners and small roadrunners in the rivers and streams. If we get to the lake I am going to throw a swim bait targeting muskies.

Anywhere up there is good in the small streams, throw the cutthroat back but you�re encouraged to keep the Brookies. If I were using spinning gear, I�d probably toss a small (1/80z) jig under a light float, but if you�re getting in to the back country, oftentimes the water is simply too small and too shallow to use spinning gear.

Heading to Estes Park Wednesday, was wondering if you�ve had any luck?

If you have not left for Colorado yet . Try this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtogy_Q6mDw&t=29s. You can buy beads in may colors

Yes we did have success. A few larger rainbows on the Big Thompson with spinners and everything else was caught on a fly called the chubbie. Mostly smaller brook trout of the fly and some 10" browns but it was till fun. The Big Thompson river is stocked with larger fish but if the flow slows and the temp rises they start to die off. When I mentioned that I had swim baits our fly fishing guide told me I should go below the lake Estes damn and throw at the muskies that sit down there eating trout. Unfortunately we did not have time to go. Talk with the people at Kurts and/or Scots fly shop they were very helpful. If you like beer avoid the Estes Park brewery it more like a restaurant and their beers were sub par IMO, but due go to the rock cut brewery everything I tried there was excellent and they will can you a 32oz tall boy on the spot.

Thanks for the info 1WithTXFish. We will not be fly fishing just spinning rods with the kids. Is there plenty of public access in the area to the Big Thompson? Can�t wait to get there and take a break from this heat.

You will need to look into that. We stayed at a place called idlewild by the river and they had Big Thompson frontage. We could fish as far as we wanted down river but we could not go past the property line up river. Bring water shoes because you will be in the water at least half of the time when fishing the rivers and streams.

There are some really good size browns and bows below the dam along with the muskies. That's a pretty good place to take the kids also, but there is quite a bit of current and you'll be fishing from shore. There's a parking lot that is only a few steps from the discharge and river.