Hitting the colorado tomorrow

[TroutFishingBear]

I'm hitting the colorado tomorrow for the start of the great trouting there from now until mid february!!! Wish me luck and I hope the 10 pounder doesn't break me off this time[]
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[Oats]

What part of the Colorado do you fish, do you go up near the confluence or near Parshall or around Glenwood Springs?
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[TroutFishingBear]

I fish around glenwood. The biggest and best fish in the river are below the river's confluence with the roaring fork. Particularly south canyon is good and canyon creek if you are willing to walk. The average fish is a 3 lb. bow, but we have got em up to about 15lbs and hooked many larger.

I would fish above the confluence, exit 119 where no name creek flows in, and I will in a couple of weeks. For some reason it is closed for the brown spawn until nov. 15, even though the spawn doesn't really start until then. (another case of dow not doing their homework) Really, in all technicality, there are only 3 people that are allowed to fish where the creek goes in (me and 2 other people) because it is private property, and we know the owner. But many people fish it anyway.

Tomorrow I plan on fishing south canyon first, then fishing upper grizzly creek (a 2 mile walk from grizzly creek parking area walking east on the trail there is a large hole that almost nobody fishes.) Then round it off with upper canyon creek section. A reasonable goal for me tomorrow is an 8 lb. rainbow.
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[TroutFishingBear]

I caught 21 fish in the day, 10 of them were between 3-4 lbs. The others were all below that. Fishing wasn't as good as I could've asked for, and the big fish definitely weren't out and running yet. I was catching them on worms and curly tail grubs. All fish were lip hooked and released to fight another day[] The really interesting thing were some of the 16-20" rainbows I got had what appeared to be fish in their stomachs, big fish too like 6-8 inchers in their stomachs. When I get the pictures developed you will see these fish that had equal girth and length. (almost, a bit of exaggeration)
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[DonInDenver]

Sounds like you had a great day TFB! I'd really like to see your pictures. Please post 'em when you can.
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[NealCO]

That sounds awesome! I have fished the Colorado at State Bridge and the section around the Kemp Breeze lease alot. I have always wanted to explore the lower canyon areas!

I have explored a little of the Rio Grande system but have barely touched the 75 smaller streams that feed it. Sometimes there can be some amazing fish that find their way up small tributaries!
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[TroutFishingBear]

Your right about small tributaries sometimes having big fish, especially if the tributary has some big holes and a good forage base. I remember a small creek I used to fish when I was little that was near gateway, colorado and it was maybe only 20-30 cfs but we used to get a lot of 2 and 3 lb. browns and rainbows out of there. A story my dad once told me was when I was like 4 years old I was sitting on a big rock above a big hole in the crick flipping a grasshopper and I hooked and faught a 10 lb. brown trout and he was holding on to me by my legs because I was almost going in the water since I was so small[shocked]

If you have only fished the colorado river around state bridge and kemp breeze lease, you have been missing out! The fish there are decent, 12-14" usually with a few nicer ones, but the real good fish don't get very numerous until the roaring fork dumps in and you can fish the massive holes around south canyon and canyon creek. These trout, mostly rainbows, feed on suckers and average an easy 3 lbs. I wouldn't suggest flyfishing in this area: too deep, and the big fish don't eat flies very much. I use a nightcrawler and bounce it with the current, and in a rockier, extremely powerful hole a big 4" curly tail with 1/4 oz. jig head can be the ticket. I bet some of those jigs you use at spinney would work really well[]
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[TroutFishingBear]

Probably going up again friday after this trimester's finals at my high school. Friday is only a 2 final day and hopefully I can get some big fish in the evening bite and then some more good ones on the following morning bite. This week WILL be better than sunday[] 8 pounder here I come[cool]
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[Icedaddy22]

I also fished in the Glenwood area on the Colorado this weekend. I caught and released 44 beautiful trout, including two over 5 pounds. Most were rainbows in the 1 -3 pound range. Up around Grizzly Creek I caught mostly browns but still some nice bows.
Every fish released on a drifted crawler. Two were deeply hooked but no bleeding.

Tyler
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[TroutFishingBear]

Are we hitting the colorado saturday or sunday this weekend icedaddy?
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[TroutFishingBear]

Well, just got back from hitting the colorado about an hour ago. The numbers game was tougher than usual, 28 fish in 1 1/3 days of fishing it hard. 26 bows 2 browns, the browns are spawning and therefore I cannot catch them since they are in the creeks. Although the size of the rainbows were excellent; I caught 2 8" dink rainbows, a couple of bows around 14 or 15" (I kept one about that size, only deep hooked fish all trip), and the rest of the bows were all 3 lbs. plus. I got 3 trout 5 lbs. or over, including a 23 1/2", 7 lb. rainbow that had a huge baitfish in its gut I think. I had a big problem losing fish; I lost a hook jaw 30" brown on my second cast of the trip at new castle on a 3" pumpkin color curly tail. (I hooked him close to the bank and he made my 6 lb. test look like butter...) I also had a big fish on on a curly tail, don't know what it was a brown or rainbow, but when I got the curly tail back in (he spit the hook) the curly tail's tail was no more, the fish bit it off. The fish was at least a 8 pounder by how heavy he felt. Well, like I said, the numbers game wasn't on but the fish were big and zinging some drag[cool]
If anybody lives around this neck of the woods ya gotta hit this fishery right now
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[TroutFishingBear]

Tyler, do you have the camera? It wasn't in my coat pocket when I got back...
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[Icedaddy22]

Yep TFB, it's in my coat pocket. I did pretty well too fishing the Colorado this weekend, caught 24 trout. Caught lots of 'bows in the 2 - 4 pound range, and one 20" brown that was about 4 pounds as well. They are hitting really good still, saw a guy hook about an 8 pounder on his fly rod that broke his tippet. So the big ones are biting now.

Tyler
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[TroutFishingBear]

well, the weather was awful, the wind was blowing, I'm still sick, but I roughed it out and caught 16 fish. 13 rainbows. I got a bow up about 5 1/2 lbs. Lost a few bigger fish. The fish were definitely very non-aggressive and picky today....I bet that's because it was 20 degrees colder for a high than it was the days before today. such a drastic change in weather has gotta put a lot of fish down.
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[Icedaddy22]

The Colorado was really slow this weekend, only landed 12 trout. I think the big storm put them off too. But I caught lots of nice ones, most were 2 - 5 pound rainbows. No bigger browns though, just one small one and a modest 16". Those big bows are football fat, colorful, and often had fat bellies that looked stuffed with baitfish. Healthiest Rainbows I have ever seen anywhere. All of them are still swimming in the river.

Tyler
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