I spend the last week fishing the Arkansas freestone and camping with my Chessie Chico. The fishing was good. Nymphing I did well with a 2 bit stone trailing a pt frenchie over the first few days. We had a pretty good snowstorm come in Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning I emerged from my camper shell to about a foot of snow and it did not quit until Friday afternoon. My basecamp was pretty remote and I was stuck there until the Sun peaked out Friday afternoon for a few hours and melted the snow enough for me to make a quick escape to a lower elevation campsite where I was able to resume catching fish. As the front came in on Wednesday afternoon I got to experience the start of the "St Patricks Day" blue wing olive hatch. This was one of the most amazing things I have experienced on the water. The trout were rising like crazy and I got into a bunch of fish, most notably 2 really nice browns caught on a size
24 parachute bwo that I tied myself. Saturday was my last day before heading home and I lucked into a little hatch and managed one brown. From there I headed up river to some boulders where I spotted a nice rainbow chilling behind a boulder. The hatch had pretty much ended by then and fish were not visibly rising but I drifted a parachute adams past it several times before it rose in slow motion and the chaos ensued. Man, I love Browns, but there is something about the fight in a rainbow, taking 25 yards of line downstream in a split second after the hookset that makes them exciting to catch. I am lucky to have had the chance to get into some dry fly action. I caught the most numbers and biggest fish on small dry flies. Fun!! March is an unpredictable time to fish in Colorado weather wise. I woke up at 4 am Sunday morning to drive home with another inch of snow on my truck and another snowstorm coming through the Sangre De Cristo range and threatening to close Raton Pass. As I drove through the Pass the roads were already starting to ice up, another few hours and who knows. Going this time of year, you might have an entire stretch of river to yourself, just go prepared with flexible plans, extra food, water, fuel, and warm gear.

Beautiful fish and great pictures. Glad you got out safe.

Nice report and fish. Congratulations

Thank you both. It is always an adventure for sure.

Great report. I fished the Arkansas several years ago right around Buena Vista. I caught some decent fish, most of them brown trout. I also had my kayak, but it’s not made for floating white water. I headed over to Cottonwood Creek Lake for some epic rainbow trout fishing.

Beautiful territory! Your report brought back memories!

JR

Splitcane I need to check out some of the high mountain lakes. It is a beautiful area for sure! I had plans to go float the Roaring Fork with a friend that lives in Denver, but that fell through due to the weather. Maybe this summer!

Awesome post and thanks for sharing.

Good stuff! I have never fished it in March but plan to next year. I went to fish the Ark 10 days ago and thought I would hit the Mothers Day caddis hatch right on the money, but they did a big unplanned release from Turquois up by Leadville and the Ark at Salida jumped from 400 CFS to nearly 900 CFS, turned it to chocolate milk for 4 days, so fished smaller streams instead. Going back next week as the cold weather this week kept hatching at bay and it could be real good next week.

Good luck Danceswithbass! I'm fixin to head up to Co for two months, but probably won't make it back to the ARK until October. It is becoming one of my favorite fisheries and places to explore. I hope you catch that caddis hatch!
~Kdub

Great fishing trip. I agree the winter/Spring weather can be a real experience. I fished in Cody Wyoming around New Years and found browns rising on days when the hi temp was 35 degrees. It was wild fishing for sure. Glad the weather gave you a break so you could get down lower to a somewhat safer elevation. Tight lines!