Here is a trip report from Tim Graham, our FATC member who now lives in Colorado (lucky guy):
We floated the Arkansas River yesterday at Browns Canton south of Buena Vista. Upper Colorado is running very low at 600 cfs also warm water (60’s) which would stress fish a lot. So our guide called an audible
It was a great trip. Caught many browns and a few rainbows. A number of fish were caught on top. Hoppers and Madam X
I fished with Tom McReynolds a long-term friend from STL. Tom and his wife Becky have a 2nd home in Keystone, CO. They have floated with Reed Ryan our guide about 18 times. We floated The Arkansas River, ½ way between Buena Vista and Salida and put in the river at Hecla Junction in the southern part of Browns Canyon. Brown trout were very active throughout the river. There are also some nice rainbows in this river. We were fortunate to catch a number of fish on top (madam x and hopper patterns) but the dominate bite was for pmd’s, with a strong hatch through most of the day. This is a great float. Fishing was difficult at times due to 30 mph winds through most of afternoon. Casting a three fly rig to small targets while moving through white water was a challenge for me. We got lucky on several nice size fish, mostly browns and a few rainbows. The brown trout fight like demons in this swift water.
Best regards,
Tim