When my brother, Jim, told me a month ago that he wanted to hop on a Southwest Airlines flight from Austin, Texas, to Montrose to come fishing, I immediately cautioned him that we’d have to keep an eye on runoff levels.
He made reservations then to fly here in mid-May, and held out the option that if the area rivers weren’t clear, he could always cancel.
My sphere of fly fishing rivers includes the Gunnison River in the Gorge, the Uncompahgre River at Pa-Co-Chu-Puk, the San Miguel River above and below Placerville and the Cimarron River and its forks.
I’d also include the Lake Fork of the Gunnison below Lake City, but since the road construction at the Little Blue Canyon has begun and traffic is mostly closed through there, the trout in the Lake Fork are spared my barbed offerings.
From January through April, the Gunnison Basin measured in the 70-80% range of median levels for snow pack. Not great, but it could have been worse. Then came May, and the snow pack dropped to 53% of median.
Even with low snow pack and mild runoff, mid-May can be sketchy for fly fishing.
This time of year, the Cimarron River and its three forks above Silverjack Reservoir are off limits. Runoff is blowing and going, and fishing is a no-go until, probably, late June.
I kept an eye on the San Miguel, but in recent days the water level kept going up, up and up each successive day, signaling warmer days and more runoff and murky water.
The “Unc” below the reservoir at Pa-Co-Chu-Puk is usually an option when all else fails. It’s a tailwater fishery, and the water is usually clear and fairly consistent in its levels. Even so, it’s a heavily fished river among locals and all the campers at Ridgway State Park.
I call it the amusement park of fly fishing rivers. It has big, man-made constructed pools at the upper end that hold behemoth trout that have probably been caught more times than they can remember. The lower section is free flowing with a fair amount of stockers. It’s not much of a wild experience, though you can catch trout.
And, since I’m sour on Paco, that left the Gunny in the Gorge as the fishing spot for my brother and I.
Usually this time of year the Gorge is “blown out” by the United States Bureau of Reclamation for at least a week, making fishing difficult.
Cary Denison of Trout Unlimited posted on social media in late April that flows through the Black Canyon were expected “to peak around 2,400 cubic feet per second, likely in late May.”
Just three weeks later Denison posted that recent “dry conditions have dropped the basin into dry category,” and that peak flow would be 1,000cfs, and for only one day.
Such is the way water will trickle this summer.
Thus, Jim flew in this past week and we ambushed healthy trout in low-water flows in the Gorge for two days. That’s OK for now, but when long, hot summer days come along, and the water heats up and the fish are stressed, I’ll probably stay off the water, especially in thinner rivers such as the San Miguel River and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison.
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It’s kind of funny that Ouray County is still in a mask mandate. Hardly anyone is paying attention to it, though.
Some store owners are requiring masks, others are not. And as soon as Governor Polis came out this week and said if you’re vaccinated, and I’m vaccinated, then we both really don’t need masks, that pretty much put an end to widespread mask usage.
How do you know if someone has been vaccinated or not? You don’t. It’s all on the honor system.
In my store, scant few customers are wearing masks. If they want to wear one, I’ll put mine on. If not, I won’t. I’ve been vaccinated, and at some point, we need to put our faith in something. So, I choose to put my faith in vaccines.
As far as the order from the county commissioners to mask up through the first week of June, I’m sure they’ll rescind that.
They need to. There’s no enforcement, and even though the order comes with hefty fines and even — gasp! — prison time, very few care at this point.
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