I'm flying up to Colorado at the end of June to meet a couple buddies. One lives in Denver and the other in Fort Collins. We want to fish streams, rivers, lakes, etc. probably within 2-4 hours of either area, we're in our mid 20s and pretty flexible. We'll kinda just be driving/camping the entire trip, so we can go wherever. We'll have all day Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday for fishing.

We've kinda looked at Poudre Canyon and the Granby area. What other places should we be looking at or checking out? Not too interested in doing guides, we would also be okay with hiking a few miles in and finding something as well.

That's going to be a pretty nasty time with the run off. My guess is the pouder will be unfishable in most places. My suggestion would be to target alpine lakes you can hike to. Head to the fly shop there in Fort Collins and ask them for ideas. You can also do some google searching, there is a lot of info on fishable lakes you can hike to online.

Download the Colorado parks and wildlife app. It has great maps of fishable streams with species, accessibility, etc.

ETA: is called CPW Fishing

Great advice!

The fishing has been crap lately in the NW part of CO. But obviously with the runoff it is to be expected. I hope to get out over the weekend and hit some smaller streams around Avery or Buford, but I think it will be a wash.

End of June you could hit the Conejos. Great guy spot as there is one mexican food place in Antonito and thats about it. You could even maybe hit the Upper Arkansas if its fishing well on youre way down. The cabins at the fly shop there are pretty decent place to stay

CT'97 said:

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That's going to be a pretty nasty time with the run off. My guess is the pouder will be unfishable in most places. My suggestion would be to target alpine lakes you can hike to. Head to the fly shop there in Fort Collins and ask them for ideas. You can also do some google searching, there is a lot of info on fishable lakes you can hike to online.

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It's out of its banks right now but in a month from now? Might be more manageable. Especially up the Poudre Canyon.


Lots of lakes and streams to hit up.

Good call to contact an outfitter or fly shop for info. Those that are local or have more experience, do you think it would be better to try out lakes or reservoirs if the rivers aren't fishable? We're not really concerned about success, more about the experience but a fish or two would be nice

Deckers area can get pretty busy but is nice.

I lived in Boulder as a kid. My Dad and his buddies would always take a couple trips a year to Trappers lake and the surrounding lakes and streams. We moved to Texas before I was ever old enough to be invited on those trips as it was pretty remote back then. After my dad passed I decided to take my son for a dad/ lad trip there between his 8th and 9th grade years. We got there right after ice out in early June. We did a little day hiking and had remote spots almost to our selves. We cleaned up on brookies and native cutthroats. Good times...

Theres a few Alpine lakes off of CO14 in Poudre canyon where they've introduced arctic grayling.

Also there's some smaller streams up in that area that have native greenback cutthroat.

If you car camping I'd also look at Redfeather lakes and Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming.

If you don't feel like camping all the time, look at the town of Walden.

mpl35 said:

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CT'97 said:

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That's going to be a pretty nasty time with the run off. My guess is the pouder will be unfishable in most places. My suggestion would be to target alpine lakes you can hike to. Head to the fly shop there in Fort Collins and ask them for ideas. You can also do some google searching, there is a lot of info on fishable lakes you can hike to online.

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It's out of its banks right now but in a month from now? Might be more manageable. Especially up the Poudre Canyon.


Lots of lakes and streams to hit up.

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Hard to tell for sure but I think with the snow pack that the end of June will still be pretty messed up. The burn scare is still leading to more intense run off and a generally more dirty and flashy river.

Go see the guys in St. Peter's fly shop, https://goo.gl/maps/b81irYFBKSL97nrcA I've had good luck talking with them and if you ask about out of the way spots that you have to walk a little to get to you will likely get a good response.

https://www.minturnanglers.com/fly-fishing-the-tomahawk-state-wildlife-area/

This is a great DIY place, just the first link I found. Drove by this area recently and water was still too off color to fish.

Thanks for the tip, I'm always looking for little places like that to stop and fish as I'm driving up through CO. I'll have to stop through when I'm up there this summer.

CT'97 said:

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Thanks for the tip, I'm always looking for little places like that to stop and fish as I'm driving up through CO. I'll have to stop through when I'm up there this summer.

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No problem. BTW- there are some monsters in this small stream! They lurk under the undercut banks. My wife hooked one and I swore from 35 yds away she was stuck, then it started moving! She refused to move and right as I was About to net, her 4-5x tippet broke. This fish was 5 lbs plus! Could be a fun place to go mousing at night. This spot is so much better than the Dream Stream!

A buddy and I went to Leadville, CO last summer and fly fished the Arkansas River in the morning (caught a couple brown trout) on the road pullout spots and then hiked up to Timberline Lake and tore up the cutthroat. Next day we summited Elbert. Hard to have more fun in Colorado than that.