In that dim void between nightfall and moonrise, two arm-weary anglers drifted into sleepy chatter above the kettledrum throb of a rapid, watching the chiseled outline of a canyon wall slowly fade to black.
A sudden racket from a garbage bag suspended in a tree brought the conversation wide awake.
“Raccoons,” Kirk Deeter declared, swinging a light beam to catch a bushy tail disappearing into the foliage.
When the noise came again, the flashlight told the real story. That magnificent tail, more than twice the size of a coon’s, belonged to a ringtail cat, a highly nocturnal and seldom-seen resident of the desert Southwest. The sighting, perhaps once in a lifetime, seemed appropriate for a river setting that is equally extraordinary.
Of all the places where trout reside in Colorado, none lifts the bar of scenic beauty and fishing opportunity nearly so high as Gunnison Gorge.
Rare “cat,” even more special river.
The splendor shouts for itself: A ribbon of clear water tumbling between a tangle of tall cliffs in a place that is at once remote and magnetic.
Paul Zabel is perfectly willing to speak for the fish.
“There are some thick, beefy trout here,” the Telluride resident declared. “When it’s on, you’ll catch as many here as any place you’ll ever go.”
Zabel, a real estate agent, came west 14 years ago and, after finding this reach of the Gunnison River below the national park, soon purchased a 15-foot Maravia raft. By closest calculation, he has been down the canyon at least 40 times, mostly behind the oars.
“I joke with my family that if I’m ever missing, this is the place to look,” he said. “I could spend a month right here in this campsite.”
Fortunately for the pressing work schedules of his companions, the time limit set for the Gunnison Gorge Wilderness by the Bureau of Land Management is two nights. Managed under strict regulations, the 25 campsites along 13 river miles retain an unspoiled character unmatched by most public places.
The river can be reached by four side canyon routes – three difficult hiking paths and the more forgiving Chukar Trail, down which horses tote rafts and gear for the few fortunate to float the gorge from the very top.
Then there’s the day hiker access from the bottom up. Wade anglers walk up from the Gunnison Forks day use area 14 miles west of Delta off Highway 92 to access 4 miles of what may be the best and biggest trout of all.
The float blends excellent fishing with whitewater thrills, including two sections rated Class IV. Full appreciation of both hinges on water volume, last week an ideal 1,280 cubic feet per second.
Since the construction of three upstream dams were begun nearly 50 years ago, levels have been problematic with the ebb and flow for hydropower and irrigation. The situation came more into public view in recent years with an initiative by the Bush administration surrendering a federal claim to water rights that would at least partially restore traditional flows in Black Canyon National Park and beyond.
A suit by Trout Unlimited and others to restore this right awaits a ruling in Colorado Federal District Court.
The river also makes news as a living laboratory for a Colorado Division of Wildlife experiment aimed at reversing a rainbow trout decline linked to whirling disease. Intensely infected with the organism that kills young trout, the gorge has been without rainbow reproduction for at least a decade.
Save for an occasional plant of rainbow fingerlings, the biomass is made up almost exclusively of the disease-resistant brown trout – more difficult to catch and less adaptive to the insect riches that once made this rainbow heaven.
Biologist George Schisler is directing a project to determine whether the WD-resistant Hofer rainbow imported from Germany can be used to restore a wild rainbow population. In autumn 2004, he stocked 10,000 marked 4-inch trout of a Hofer-Colorado River rainbow cross, along with the same number of the pure Colorado strain.
A year later, he found a similar survival rate, but with a compelling twist.
“The spore load was 30 times lower in the hybrid, about the same as for browns,” Schisler revealed.
The next milestone will be whether the progeny of the hybrid can reproduce and survive, along with further tests with various blends of the domestic Hofer and the wild Colorado River strains.
DOW hopes to restore a feast of rainbows and browns to the gorge that will remind anglers of the good old days. But they’ll have to find their own ringtail cat.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
