Help With Colorado Fly Fishing Trip?

Hey fellas-
I've always wanted to fly fish in the Rocky Mountains and I'm going to make my dream a reality this year with a trip to Colorado. I know a lot of you guys have experience fishing in Colorado and so I'm hoping you can point me to some good river and stream trout fishing. I'd like to stay away from the front range, so would anyone be willing to give me some ideas on the western slope where I can experience a great weeklong fly fishing trip? Thanks for the advice. TK

Try going up and staying in Steamboat Springs. Yampa and Elk rivers are really good fishing. Yampa has bigger fish than most rivers in Colorado. There is a long stretch (7 miles?) of the Yampa through town that is catch and release only and there are a lot of really good trout in there. In the summer months tubers can be an issue through here. Further upstream is the Chuck Lewis state area that has fishing access. Further upriver the Sarvis Creek area below Stagecoach Lake has good fishing and is a beautiful spot. A few areas with public access on the Elk you could explore also. If you want to hire a guide for some private access I'd recommend Straightline Sports. Most of the guys are really cool except for Rich. Trust me you don't want to fish with him. I can't believe they still employ that knucklehead. I've had a place in Steamboat for several years. Really cool town and great fishing. You should go up there.

I've been going up to the Gunnison area for the last couple of years. I mostly hit the big rivers; Gunnison, Taylor and the Lake Fork. The fishing near Gunnison is nothing short of incredible. No reason to go anywhere else in Colorado IMHO. I'd highly recommend Doug Dillingham's guidebook "Fly Fishing the Gunnison Country". There is more info and interesting ideas in that book to keep a guy busy for a lifetime. Rich

Oh yeah, here is a link to the guidebook if you decide to head up to Gunnison https://www.gunnisonflyfish.com

There are two main areas of Colorado I absolutely love. The first, all the area from South Fork up to Just north of Lake City. TONS of excellent water to fish all through the area with the Rio Grande, Cebolla Creek, Big Blue..... Endless, beautiful water. The second area would be the Dillon/Silverthorne/Breckenridge area. There, you have the Blue, Colorado and Eagle rivers as well as Ten Mile Creek and lots of alpine lakes. You can also make the day trip run over to the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork Rivers. IF I had to do it tomorrow, I'd be headed to that area between South Fork, Creede and Lake City.....

Conejos River.

Grab the float tube and head to South Park.. Antero and Spinney have impressive hatches from June -Sept. with 20" avg. bows -cuts -browns..

The Dream Stream below Spinney can also be impressive.. Cheers

Looks like a lot of good recommendations. Keep in mind there’s often a strong monsoon season with abundant afternoon thunderstorms blessed with frequent cloud to ground lightning and stream muddying downpours. I think that gets rolling early in July most years and lasts into the latter part of August. Snowmelt season depends on many things, but it can definitely last into June. I don’t know how much flexibility on timing you have, but these are two big weather related things to plan around, definitely if you plan on camping up high someplace.

It is looking to be a good water year on the east slopes, the western slopes still need some snowpack. I would wait until April/May to make a decision for sure. Last year was a terrible snow year and most of the western slopes were either burned, dry, or closed. Dillingham's book is great for the first timer. Get it. He pissed a lot of people off when he published it.

I have been to Colorado each of the last six summers, usually 2-3 times a summer. Here are my rankings for what it's worth:

1) Conejos (Conejos, La Jara, Elk Creek)
2) Gunnison/Lake City (Gunnison, Lake Fork Gunnison, Cebolla,upper rio grande)
3) South Fork/Rio Grande
4) Buena Vista (Arkansas, Taylor, several creeks, hike in lakes)
5) Ridgway (Uncompahgre, CImarron Forks)

Conejos, do yourself a favor and stop by a fly shop and get you a map, take whatever dries you want and hit the upper tribs, you won’t regret it!

get on facebook and look up my buddy Steve Maldonado Southwest Airlines he recently moved up there and is killing trout. Bet he would help another Txan out! tell him denny linzy sent ya, he's not a guide but can and will hook a brother up.

Fellas-
Thanks for all the responses. I'd love to here more about the Gunnison Valley. TK

Come up to Wyoming and avoid the crowds. Saratoga would be a great little town to base a fishing trip out of, north of Steamboat area.
Fish On ranch near Centennial Wyoming or Vee Bar Guest ranch also have great fishing.
Casper has awesome fishing on the Platte River as well.
You could potentially catch brown trout, rainbows, brookies, golden, cutthroat, garyling, tiger trout, and kokanee all within 2 hrs of Laramie, Wyoming. Throw some walleye in too.
Rent a forest service cabin and hike in for some great fishing in the Snowy Range.
Guided float trips available in Laramie and Saratoga as well as Casper.

Ya'll should also check out TroutRoutes for the mapping side of things, at least for trout streams (full disclosure, currently employed there). Super detailed public access and stream maps with stream flows, elevation maps of streams, parking spots, the whole works. Currently free on both Android and Apple. We mapped out over 2,000 streams in Colorado alone, with this type of detail (Gunnison River in the town near the fly shop mentioned). Shows public access land, easements, parking, etc). Hit me up with questions or feedback. -Zach