i posted this on the colorado board but their forum seems pretty dead. really dead. anyway, i thought since we have, by far, te most active forum, therefore the most active fishermen, that perhaps someone on here may know something about this area.......
i have to travel to montrose the second week of august fr some training for work. i'm wondering what kind of close fishing opportunities are near that area. i can see the gunnison river and crystal reservoir are nearby on maps. anybody have any reports or suggestions of weather or not its worth a trip to either of those places? thanx for any info.........
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I fished that area quite a bit when I lived there and it is excellent. I will ask my Dad for more specifics for you do get some better details as far as the Montrose area. Send my brother (kochanut) a PM, he was there (that area) quite a bit this year when he came home on leave before leaving for Iraq. He is really good to point out specific places/holes for you to fish. Let us know how you do!!!
TS
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If your talking about Crystal Lake just below Ouray, it's definitely worth a trip. There are decent size (very red) cutts in there. We were dragging leaches, swedish pimples and double renegades behind bubbles and caught a good number of fish. I haven't had much time to fish the other waters there.
Good luck!
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i dont know how much time you have but here are two places i would hit, and a third if you need to take a trip into gunnison.
1. first place i would go is the black canyon (currenati national park) right below blue mesa res. it has alot of deep fast moving water, but within a 1 mile walk of the prking area you have three phenominal holes that range from 5 to roughly 15 feet depe that are loaded with trout. the fishing is pretty hard because of the water fluctuations, and will be even tougher during the entire month of august if you look up predicted releases on the USGS web site. but once you get into a few trout and have them dialed in you have a chance of hooking a mbig one.
2. crystal/morrow point. before i go on about this, do yourself a favor and load a back pack with some essentials. dried snacks, plenty of ater (you can never take enough) an emergenacy space balnket or two, some matches and tinder, etc. its one hell of a hike down there, and getting stuck down there is something that can happen if the weather turns. just because its august dont expect it to be warm all the time.. dress in layers. i might sound like someones mom, but based off experiance on that side of the divide, the warmest summer day, can swing and get damn cold in a few hours.
anyway, once you hike down the steps ( i think its 286 steps down) and start walking down stream you will notice a few holes here and there. go ahead and fish there but dont dedicate a majority of your time to them. wait until you get to the make shit jetty/dock. what im talking about is what is left of a train embankment. people that float that lake usually push off from there since it offers the most stable place along the entire river.
once your there, go nuts. directly below that jetty there is one GIGANTIC hole that covers pretty much the entire stretch of the river, and this thing is always packed with some nice bows, and a few huge browns. once you dial them in you are set. most of the fih here are not as piccky as say, the taylor river, or the black cnyon, because not alot of people go through the effort of hiking dwn into the canyon for. them. the water does fluctuate a bit, but its not as bad as beingdirectly below the dam. they have some amazing mid day hatches, so thick you could walk from one side of the river to the other on top of them and not get your feet wet if you get my drift. bug spray is a must
you might see people from time to time just walking by, taking pictures. i had no idea what was going on when i saw them, but later learned they were walking to/from a little potoon boat the forest service owns and takes people on tours, no fishing from the boat i asked. usually around noonish the weather starts to turn. you get those midday clouds and that lasts any where from an hour to all night, this is where that back pack loaded with stuff comes into play.
lastly, if some how how you have to travel into gunnison there are two spots i always stop and fish. the first, is the first picnic area above blue mesa, i cant recall the name exactly, but heading into gunnison, its the second marked picnic area on the left (the first on the left says its a picninc area, its realy just a place to turn around/pee in the woods). park, walk across the street you will be standing on a cliff about 20 feet above the river looking straight down into a big cut thats pretty deep. walk upstream until you pass what is left of a road bridge, just the one bridge foundation on the highway side. its usually safe to cross the river there because it is so wide. the deepest i found the river to be was no more then a foot. becareful cause it still gets pretty swift, i used a wading staff and got across fine. walk down the bank on the opposite side of the highway until your inline with the cliff you were standing on. i always had luck in that cut with lies, worms, and spinners (remember your above the lake city bridge, but below the highway 50 bridge on the river, bait is allowed there).
lastly right before you get into gunnison you cross the river and on the right there is a sign for the gunnison water park. this is where people pick up/put in kayakes and rubber rafts. the hole directly below the bidge always is a win for me. black wolly buggers, black panther martins, bottom bouncing night crawlers, no matter what i would hook up with ish here. now about 00 yards down stream of that you will enter the kayake park on the river. if its not loaded with people, the DWR has dropped some giant boulders in the stream to provide obsticales for kayakers, they also provide some good fishable area. i never really concentrated on that section alot beacuse of the kayakers, but have h both hooked up with some GIad some success.
directly above lake city bridge (blue mesa) is where the river flows in. it produces some slack water with just a touch of movement,i plan on fishing it with a toon as soon as i get home on some leave. anyway you can park on the side of th road and fish for what ever you want on that section of the river until you reach the bridge then the rules change. the old man and i have hooked up with some GIGANTIC trout on wolly buggers, me on my fly rod, him on a fly and bubble, but we lost them both at the boat. good luck, and i hope this helps!
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sorry for the gramatical errors, my laptop is on top of a humvee right this second and its only 745 am and already 116F. when i get home tonight ill fix it up, and tell ya about the east river.
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wow! thanks for the info! thats like an entire book on fishing colorado. thats amazing man. funny i got all this info from us(you) locals and on the colorado forum i got 1 reply of "whatcha fishin for?" god i love utah.
i'll post a report after i go. its a month out so any other advice is much appreciated.......
thanx guys.
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