Conquering the Arkansas – is that really possible?
This idea, spawned at the Denver Fly Fishing show in February, couldn’t have worked out any better. While at the show, Charlie Trankler attended a presentation by Taylor Edrington, owner and operator of Royal Gorge Anglers in Cañon City, CO. After listening to Taylor describe 100 miles of blue-ribbon fishing on the Arkansas River in CO, Charlie got busy finding lodging, booking a guided day, and filling out the trip with three other FATC guys who were eager for the challenge. As I have told everyone who asks me about the Arkansas, “trip after trip, that river always kicks my butt.” On this trip, however, we turned that around. She gave up some very nice fish for all of us.
Charlie was our leader. But, he played the role more like a facilitator. Tim Graham from Windsor, CO, Greg Krochta from Aurora, CO, and me, Jim Craig from Glen Carbon, IL, rounded out this foursome.
We converged on our Airbnb in Cañon City late afternoon, Monday April 24, 2023, for this seven-day trip. Tim picked Jim up at the Denver airport that morning and headed to Cañon City, and Greg drove in from Aurora. Charlie stopped early that morning on his drive in from his new home in Austin, TX, for a guided day on the Arkansas tailwaters in Pueblo, CO, about 30 miles east of Cañon City.
With time to spare before the Airbnb would be ready and before Charlie and Greg arrived, Tim and I headed to the Royal Gorge Fly Shop where we would meet our guide the next day. It was one of those places that gives you a great feeling when you enter. It was a very clean, attractive, fully stocked shop. The gentleman who helped us was genuinely excited about fishing the Ark, answered all our questions in detail, and ensured all our paperwork was done for tomorrow so nothing would slow us down in the morning. This shop was a great resource to us throughout the trip.
Later that afternoon we all met at the Airbnb. It was a remodeled, second-floor, two bedroom, three bed apartment in the Cañon City historic district above a retail space that was a combination coffee shop, bike shop, breakfast restaurant and afternoon bar. The name of the shop was The Bean Peddler. All around us were restaurants and bars within walking distance. The unit was great. It was fully furnished and attractively decorated. Oh, did you notice we were one bed short? Tim graciously volunteered to couch surf for the week. He said the oversized couch was actually quite comfortable.
This was NOT a spend-every-minute-of-daylight-on-the-river kind of trip. This was a fishing AND fellowship trip. Every morning we had excellent breakfast sandwiches in the coffee shop downstairs. We hit the water between 9 and 10 AM. After fishing we would have a happy hour in our Airbnb before enjoying really good food at local restaurants no more than a two-block walk. After dinner we watched The Last Dance NetFlix series on Michael Jordan. It was amazing. For two of our dinners, Tim brought great meals that we prepared in our Airbnb. One was ½ pound hamburgers, fries and all the sides. The other one was a great spaghetti meal with delicious wine. Another exception to our local dining routine was a trip to Quincys Tavern in nearby Fremont, CO. Each night they offer only one entrée. Some nights it is only filet mignon. Some nights it is only prime rib. And, no choices on the included side dishes. Your only choices are the doneness of the meat and size of the cut. Because we hadn’t thought to make reservations, we spent our wait time in a nearby brewery. Our table was ready exactly when promised. That evening we enjoyed 20 oz. prime rib meals and lots of table banter. It was quite a memorable night.
About the fishing. Our trip started with a day of guided wade fishing on Tuesday. We met our guide, Evan, at the Royal Gorge Fly Shop. He was waiting with our three-fly nymphing rigs ready to go. We headed west on CO-50. It follows the river west then eventually north to Salida and eventually Leadville, CO. There are tons of turnoffs as well as many state recreational areas providing access along this 45 mile stretch of Blue Ribbon water up to Salida, CO. There were tons of riffles, runs, pools, and of course, pocket water. Evan put us on fish right away. But the fish were not the only high point of the day. Have you ever had a river guide prepare a grilled lunch? Evan was amazing. We had grilled sausages with all the toppings and side dishes. What a great lunch. Fishing resumed after lunch, but rain and sleet finally drove us from the river late in the afternoon. Throughout the day Evan proved to be a fun-loving guy and great teacher. Everyone caught quality fish that day, chunky rainbows and beautiful browns. I netted my biggest fish of the trip, an 18” brown upstream from Pinnacle Rock Access.
The rest of the days sort of went the same way, but with much better weather. We tried many different spots along the Arkansas. Access points seemed endless and angling pressure was only noticeable on Sunday. Most of the time, we had the river to ourselves except one day when we met a full-grown man in a Winnie-the-Poo Tigger costume at the Texas Creek Access. Only in Colorado should this not be a surprise. The biggest mistake of the trip was not getting his picture. Overall, fishing was good. See the accompanying pictures.
On several days, we stopped at the Royal Gorge Fly Shop to get real-time info on bug hatches and corresponding fly selection. Some flies we already had and some we bought. This proved very important to our success. The fish were dialed into the specific life-cycle stages of the caddis and mayflies. The Arkansas River is a freestone in this area. So, the lower stretches warm sooner than the upper stretches and thus fish differently as the insect life-cycle is influenced by water temperature. Early in the trip when the water temp was 46°F, the fish were focused on caddis larva and mayfly nymphs. As the water warmed and the insect life cycle began to change, their preference clearly moved to the emerger imitations of those same insects. We weren’t there long enough for when their preference would switch to topwater flies. Leave your eggs and worms at home. If you weren’t offering imitations of the river’s natural fly du jour, the odds were not in your favor. Nevertheless, Charlie and Greg did break the pattern a couple days by fooling a few fish with streamers. Charlie’s biggest brown came on his personal wooly bugger variant, the Charlie Brown.
After fishing several days on the free stone section of the river, Thursday we decided to try the tailwaters below Pueblo, CO. Besides, Charlie caught big rainbows there all day April 24th with the guide he hired before he met us in Cañon City. The Drift Fly Shop in Pueblo was the home base for his guide. So, we stopped there on our way to the tailwater. They were incredibly helpful with fly selection (sizes #20-#26) as well as exact GPS coordinates for several access points. They were also on top of historic, current and projected water flow release rates. We hit the river with flows at 350 CFS. It had been stable and despite the rain the night before, no increase was predicted. This was a preferred flow rate for the fish and for wading. That sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? About 10 minutes into our fishing, we noticed lots of brush floating down the river, the rock structure we were fishing was now fully under water, and water clarity had turned from gin clear to murky. About then, Charlie’s phone rang. The Drift Fly Shop was calling to tell us an unplanned release had begun and it as going to increase to 850 CFS. They gave us some other access points to try that would be less affected. But for now, it was time to seek higher ground. Soon after that, Charlie’s guide from Monday called him with the same warning. Charlie had mentioned to him the previous day we were headed for the tailwaters. Once again, connecting with local guides and fly shops proved invaluable.
But, our day wasn’t over. We didn’t quit. We went upstream to the freestone section that would not be affected by this release. Everything looked normal as we started fishing—well for about the first 15 minutes. Then the water became increasingly muddy, then very muddy. Something was seriously wrong. Had the spring runoff started? Charlie, Tim and I decided it was unfishable and headed to Royal Gorge Anglers for answers. When we got back into cell phone coverage, we called them. Having built a relationship with them all week, they were happy to share the details of what was happening. Rain the previous day in a clay-rich drainage into one of the tributaries put a 5-mile slug of muddy water into the river. By tomorrow it would be gone, but for today we just had to go up river to find clear water. So, we did. However, Greg was toughing it out in the muddy water and it paid off with his biggest fish of the trip, a 20” brown trout. It came on a blowtorch trailing the Troutbitten Craft Fur Jig, 2 miles upstream from the Parkdale Access.
By Sunday night, six days of fishing had worn us down. It was a good kind of tired. However, the memories of our fellowship, fishing, and learning experiences still had us riding high. I think by then Greg had even gotten over his broken rod accident, the details of which will remain undisclosed — what happens on the Arkansas stays on the Arkansas. We learned that yes, the Arkansas can be conquered if you bring you’re “A” game and utilize sound, local knowledge. It truly deserves its Blue-Ribbon status.
Here are our top flies for the week:
- Blow torch – by far the best
- Chartreuse Gary LaFontaine sparkle pupa
- BWO perdigon
- Sexy Walt’s worm
- Charlie Brown Streamer (Ask Charlie Trankler for the recipe.)
- Nitro caddis
- Troutbitten Craft Fur Jig
- Golden Stone nymph
