Last night I attended the Rocky Mountain Fly Casters Chapter of Trout Unlimited’s guest night meeting. Their guest speaker, Ed Engle, gave an interesting talk on becoming and living the life of a professional fly fisher. The crowd was large, there was a huge raffle table from which I won a new fishing shirt, and it was good to visit with so many fishing friends, including Tom our very own state editor.
Prior to the program, Ben Swigle, Colorado Parks and Wildlife fisheries biologist and a Fish Explorer field editor, gave a quick presentation on how the Big Thompson fared after the flood. As I’m working from rough notes and an OG’s memory, I hope we get a more complete update from Ben in the near future.
The section of the Big Thompson from below the dam in Estes and several miles downstream can be considered Dr. Jekyll, as the fish surveys since the flood show it has a population of trout well within historical norms. Oh, there is “damage” to be seen along the river’s course, but the river has maintained good structure, and the trout are still there. Actually, in places the rainbow numbers are up thanks to fish being flushed out of Estes Reservoir and even a couple of walleye were sampled.
However, moving downstream to Drake and below we enter into the Mr. Hyde section. Ben reports that the section in Drake looks a lot like an irrigation ditch and a similar situation exist around the Narrows where the river has been severely channelized. Around Glade most of the stream improvements have been blown out and it now looks a lot like a prairie stream. Sampling in the Glade area indicates the brown population has gone from 4,000 per mile to around 500.
Ben feels with time and effort the lower river will recover and once again be a good fishery. Toward that end CPW will be conducting further surveys to access the damage and progress. They are in need of help and will be seeking it from the community, specifically in the areas of project support, willow plantings, stream restoration, and grant writing.
With the road opening soon, I’m sure many will make the trek to Estes to have a look for themselves. Myself, I think I’ll wait until spring and maybe even fish upper section where the river where the trout have fared well.
Ben was asked a couple times how the other aquatic life did, and the answer is, they don’t know as no assessments have been made to date. The Poudre handled the flooding better than the Big Thompson and looks to be back to normal fairly quickly. Asked when Watson SWA would be opened, due to the damage from the floods it looks like it will be at least another 6-8 months before we have access to the area.
Anyway, this is a quick overview from last night’s meeting. While the Big Thompson now has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character, I’ve little doubt that will some hard work, it won’t be many years before we once again have good fishing throughout the Big Thompson from Loveland upstream.
To say fly fishing is a passion for Dave is an understatement, he lives by the adage, �fly fishing isn�t a matter of life or death, it�s much more important than that.� Simply, if it�s a fish, then Dave�s willing to chase it on a fly. This includes making two or three trips a year out of state to places like Alaska, Canada, East and West Coasts to fly fish for salmon, northern pike and salt water species, such as redfish. The rest of the time Dave spends his time plying Colorado waters with a fly rod for everything the state has to offer such as bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, catfish, pike and yes even trout with a fly.