Every year at this time, nature affords us a few weeks to regroup from the spring and reload for the summer. Actually, it is often more like a month. But this year has been different with intense heat coming early and a large amount of snow melting in May, ahead of schedule. And while a cool, moist weather pattern circulates over the upper Arkansas River basin now, the fact is that we are moving through the runoff period quite gracefully thus far. We have seen the river go as high as 3350 cfs this spring but now it is back down to 2120 cfs with good visibility along the edges and NOBODY fishing. Moving upstream, flows become increasingly fishable, with about 550 cfs in Hayden Meadows and 1810 cfs in Browns Canyon.
A common misconception at this time of year is that one can’t catch fish above a certain flow level (fill in the blank, everyone has their own opinion) or turbidity (this ranges from crystal clear to coffee with cream). In my experience, there is no limitation based on flows or turbidity. There are no absolutes, rather it is the relationship between yesterday and today that matters. 2120 cfs is a lot of water, and two feet is not a lot of visibility (both looked at from Arkansas River standards), but if it was 2500 yesterday and one foot of visibility, then the trend is decidedly positive and fish will respond accordingly. (As I am writing this, a local angler just walked in. He had just spent a few hours fishing the County Line section in upper Bighorn Sheep Canyon and had tremendous action along the shoreline). Runoff does not appear as a steady slope on a graph. It is a series of peaks and valleys with a lot of plateaus mixed in. Any time things flatten out or drop, clarity improves at the same time that fish become established in their positions. This is when hungry fish go nuts!
The way this runoff is playing out, I do not anticipate the river getting really high. It may not even hit the high point of 3350 cfs set last Friday. As a result, there are going to be plenty of days over the next three weeks that will fish quite well. After that, summer and stoneflies are full on. It all looks pretty good from here on out.
For those who are impatient, or don’t want to wager on peaks versus plateaus, our trips to Antero Reservoir have been absolutely red hot. We are talking about high fish counts and big fish in a beautiful setting on a comfortable boat. If you have wondered about this South Park fishery, now is the time to hit the water. We have good availability in the weeks ahead.
