Dentry: Fishing itch can be scratched in clear tailwaters

Published April 19, 2006 at midnight

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Just when you decide to treat yourself to a deserved airing out, spring gets gushy and sullies your favorite trout river reach. So, runoff is off and running.

Is that what's troubling you, pilgrim? The trout - if there are any left alive - can't see through the murk, right? Even if they could, they've lost their appetites, right?

Old Freestone doesn't look like a trout stream anymore. It looks like Catfish Boulevard with a case of gout. Such a blight on the landscape never would be allowed to rear its toad-like countenance in photos in dude-ranch brochures or fly-fishing catalogs.

According to standard sermons fish writers preach to runoff victims, your choices are two: Stay home and pout or join the huddled masses in tailwaters below dams. At least the tailwater currents are tame and pristine, as befits a proper trout stream - even if all those other tailwater refugees have no manners.

If you try anything else - especially, heaven forbid, chucking hardware or fishing in a warm-water lake - you risk being shunned by fellow anglers for violating the Pure Fly Fishing Act.

Get over it. Trout don't fly south when their turf runs heavy with natural gunk. Nor do they fast. In fact, for fish that thrive in clear waters, the salmonids can tolerate amazing, dense loads of sediment, in season.

There are ways to fish even during heavy runoff and have fun, if you aren't stuck in the mud of habit. You might have to give up Shopworn Rig No. 1 (weighted nymph and minuscule midge fished below a strike indicator, ho hum). But you'll probably gain the river all to yourself.

The absence of crowds, or often another soul, is enough to lure some shrewd anglers to ply the latte-colored currents. In the absence of witnesses, many fly fishers even gain courage to flip a spinning rod.

An average runoff season in Colorado arrives in fits and starts in mid- and late April, then ramps up steadily to a peak that usually comes in the first or second week of June before tapering off in July or August.

No two runoff seasons are the same, and their sliding scale can vary by as much as a month in either direction, depending on snowpack, summer rainfall and meltdown weather. But suffice to say that if you don't fish during runoff, you're burning some serious daylight.

In 1995, a monster runoff year, dangerously high flows dragged on until September. That can be a good thing for trout, however.

Heavy currents scour sediment from the stream bottom, polishing rubble needed to nurture healthy populations of underwater insects and trout eggs. You'll see ample evidence later in summer, when runoff flows remain high but turn impeccably clear.

This year should be about average, especially in northern Colorado. Snow water equivalency now perched in the high country ranges from above average in northwest Colorado to below average in the southern part of the state.

According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Yampa/White drainage is 112 percent of average; Colorado River, 110 percent; North Platte, 107 percent; South Platte, 99 percent; Gunnison, 99 percent; Arkansas, 85 percent; Upper Rio Grande, 84 percent; and San Miguel/Dolores/Animas/San Juan rivers, 83 percent.

Flows already are rising and growing murky on many river reaches, including the Yampa, Colorado and lower Roaring Fork rivers. Which is not to suggest anyone should stay home and pout.

"Those fish have to eat," said Scott Gongaware, of Mountain Angler in Breckenridge. He was talking about murk flowing through the Pumphouse stretch of the Colorado River, downstream from Kremm-ling.

"The visibility is less than a foot," he said. "But you don't need much visibility down there. You should pick up some fish with stonefly nymphs, San Juan Worms, something bright and fairly big."

The upper Gunnison also is just starting to cloud up. So Brian Bell, of the Almont Resort fly shop, recommends stripping big Woolly Buggers or, heaven forbid, "throwing some spinners."

Spinners work well because their fluttering blades vibrate, sending signals to trout, which tend to snuggle up against the banks during runoff. You creep along shore, casting upstream and retrieving spinner or streamer down with the current.

Leave the waders home. You don't even have to get your feet wet.

Fishing hot spot

Chatfield Reservoir

• Why here? The reservoir offers potentially good, close-to-home fishing for walleyes and trout early in the season.

• What's hot: Walleyes, which have finished spawning and should begin actively feeding after the full moon.

• Tackle box: Try a shiner minnow or a jig tipped with a night crawler or leech.

• Best time: Fish early or late in the day.

• How to get there: From South Santa Fe Drive (U.S. 85), head west on Titan Road to Roxborough Park Road, then north to the south entrance of the state park. Or, from South Wadsworth, travel south past C-470 and turn east at Deer Creek Canyon Road to the north entrance.

• Ask the experts: Absolute Anglers shop in Arvada, 303-421-4025.

• Fishing report: For the Colorado Division of Wildlife's complete fishing report, visit www.RockyMountain News.com/fishing.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com

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