Buena Vista- Arkansas river

[ColdWaterFshr]

Got out and fished for couple hours down at the city park while the family hiked Mt Yale.  Browns were eager, but not great size.  River is still cranking from late runoff.  Any suggestions on where else to go?  Cottonwood Creek and Chalk creek are on my shortlist 

 

[motroutbum]

Drive north towards Leadville a bit. You can fish in the town of Granite as well as Hayden Meadows.

[ColdWaterFshr]

On 7/6/2024 at 8:26 AM, motroutbum said:

Drive north towards Leadville a bit. You can fish in the town of Granite as well as Hayden Meadows.

Ended up hiking up to Ptarmigin Lake.  Wind was howling there, and there were about 10 others already fishing.  So I fished the lower lake where the inlet from the upper comes in.  Fish were stacked up there but extremely skittish at everything I offered, which was the kitchen sink.  Fun watching them swarm around.  Beautiful bright red cutts, some pushing 18”.  Lake sits at 12,xxx feet.  I could’ve stayed and fished that spot all day.  So pretty.

Floated 15 miles through Browns Canyon the next day at 2700 CFS.  What a ride.  Seidel’s Suckhole is solid class IV.

[ness]

Sounds like a fun trip. We were in that area back in 2017. Did the raft thing on the Arkansas near Leadville. I don’t know what class rapids we did, but it was right at pucker level for us. 

 

 

[ColdWaterFshr]

14 minutes ago, ness said:

Sounds like a fun trip. We were in that area back in 2017. Did the raft thing on the Arkansas near Leadville. I don’t know what class rapids we did, but it was right at pucker level for us. 

 

 

You must’ve done the Numbers section.  We were signed up for that, but the wife wanted to do the more scenic Browns Canyon section.  Pretty similar in size of drops, but I think Numbers has more of them. 

[WestCentralFisher]

On 7/6/2024 at 8:26 AM, motroutbum said:

Drive north towards Leadville a bit. You can fish in the town of Granite as well as Hayden Meadows.

I fished Hayden Meadows a few years back and did pretty well. It was runoff in a very heavy snow pack year and didn't really appear fishable, but I did pretty well anyway with the flashiest streamers I had in my fly box. The backdrop is as pretty as any place I've fished in the west. Would love to try it some time in more normal water conditions when wading is actually possible.

[Terrierman]

Be sure to enjoy the hot springs when you're on Chalk Creek.

[ness]

12 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

You must’ve done the Numbers section.  We were signed up for that, but the wife wanted to do the more scenic Browns Canyon section.  Pretty similar in size of drops, but I think Numbers has more of them. 

As long as we're talking about MY trip now  I'll share a little excitement I had. 

We were staying in Breckenridge and I had gone to the edge of town to fish the Blue River a little. I parked and was walking up to the stream kinda looking down and not really paying attention to my surroundings. I heard someone to my right say, 'Look out'. Not in an urgent way, but pretty calmly. I looked up and there was a momma and baby moose in front of me. Maybe about 50 fifty feet? I stopped and started to retreat a bit. Momma didn't seem to be too worried, but I don't have a lot of moose-reading experience. I felt comfortable enough with my situation and her demeanor that I snapped a phone pic. Here it is, cropped some so they look much closer than they really were. 

 

[ColdWaterFshr]

8 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Be sure to enjoy the hot springs when you're on Chalk Creek.

Mt Princeton Hot Springs was only a couple miles away and Cottonwood Hot Springs was even closer.  Ran out of time.  Had plan to hit one or the other, just too tired from all the hiking around.  Plus we had a hot tub at our Airbnb.

[ColdWaterFshr]

7 hours ago, ness said:

As long as we're talking about MY trip now  I'll share a little excitement I had. 

We were staying in Breckenridge and I had gone to the edge of town to fish the Blue River a little. I parked and was walking up to the stream kinda looking down and not really paying attention to my surroundings. I heard someone to my right say, 'Look out'. Not in an urgent way, but pretty calmly. I looked up and there was a momma and baby moose in front of me. Maybe about 50 fifty feet? I stopped and started to retreat a bit. Momma didn't seem to be too worried, but I don't have a lot of moose-reading experience. I felt comfortable enough with my situation and her demeanor that I snapped a phone pic. Here it is, cropped some so they look much closer than they really were. 

 

Whoa!  50 feet is pretty close.  You know those things can run at like 80 mph, doncha?  

Still, very cool.