The first real cold snap of the season left a frosting of snow on Colorado’s high peaks and a quickening of the spirit among outdoorsmen of every stripe.
Let the migrations begin.
For big game hunters, this frosty harbinger of autumn signals a movement of deer and elk down from the highest elevations to the more gentle places where most of us will try to find them.
Sub-freezing temperature toward timberline makes forage dry and brittle. If there is one constant in this outdoor game it is that animals follow food. With the approach of winter, that trail leads downhill.
These are the calculations that cause hunters to lie awake nights, thoughts bouncing from peak to valley and back again.
But there is another type of migration to ponder, one that commands our attention while awaiting the big game hunt.
The autumn movement of fish, primarily brown trout and kokanee salmon, offers a delightful opportunity for success, both in size and number.
This march has begun at a number of locations, with more to come.
For starters, let’s go to the South Platte River where it joins two reservoirs near the hamlet of Hartsel.
Kokanee have begun what will be a month-long run up from Elevenmile Reservoir, soon to be joined by a procession of brown trout. On Monday, the Division of Wildlife began its second season of kokanee spawn taking, closing off a 700-foot-long section of river where traps are set between the reservoir and County Road 59.
Anglers may intercept fish below the traps in this catch-and-release section of river and also may continue to fish upstream, so long as they do not interfere with the operation.
DOW workers routinely allow spawn-run brown trout to pass through the trap. Biologist Jeff Spohn reports that more than 40 browns between 6 and 12 pounds were counted last fall.
Browns will be in the spotlight for the other South Park trout movement, this from Spinney Mountain Reservoir upstream into the South Platte. Large fish travel as far as 20 miles up the Middle Fork, most toward the prime spawning gravel on the Tomahawk State Wildlife Area and the adjacent Buffalo Peaks Ranch.
This area has been reopened to autumn angling at the conclusion of a DOW study to determine the effects of fishing pressure upon spawning success. The ethical and biologic aspects of fishing for spawning trout long has been debated in angling circles.
The test conducted by biologist George Schisler may not be conclusive for every location, but it does shed considerable light on the situation at Tomahawk.
Schisler concluded that in a place with such an extensive inventory of spawning gravel, angling pressure had little negative impact on brown trout recruitment.
“But this may not be true at other locations where such an abundance of spawning habitat does not exist,” said Schisler, leaving the issue to a case-by-case debate.
A third location with prime public access to migrating fish is the Gunnison River above Blue Mesa Reservoir, where the state’s largest concentration of kokanee salmon travels upstream to an encounter with another key spawn-taking operation.
As a consequence, no take of kokanee is allowed upstream of Blue Mesa until Oct. 31, but catch-and-release is permitted.
Only 10 days remain for another key opportunity, this where the North Fork of the Colorado River spills from Shadow Mountain Reservoir and flows fewer than 2 miles toward the inlet at Granby Reservoir.
Both kokanee and brown trout are gathering at the inlet; some fish also have moved all the way up to the Shadow Mountain spillway. Fishing in this reach will end Sept. 30, again to accommodate DOW’s collection of kokanee eggs.
These grand days of fish migration are upon us. Let the hunt begin.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
