GUNNISON — By any gauge, it is the most unusual fishing situation in Colorado, perhaps even the country.
Get it right and an angler can spend a day, or three, in the midst of the most dramatic trout bite that exists outside a hatchery.
Lose the timing and there’s still a story to tell about the lethal contest that occurs each April between the brown and rainbow trout of the Gunnison River and the millions of little kokanee salmon making a bold dash to freedom.
An angler can picture himself as a protector come to assist the salmon through their 20-mile ordeal or just another predator in a wild scene that must be experienced to be believed. Each year — this time on April 14, the Colorado Division of Wildlife releases salmon 1 1/2 inches long that have spent the winter growing in the Roaring Judy Hatchery near Almont.
Flushed through pipes from their raceways, the kokanee literally pour into the East River for a brief jaunt to the confluence with the Taylor and thus the beginning of the Gunnison.
This year 2.9 million of these tiny fish began a wild run that delivered them to their final destination at the giant Blue Mesa Reservoir, where they will grow to become the centerpiece of the state’s most prolific kokanee fishery.
Curiously, they will reverse their run as adults three years later to surrender their eggs at the hatchery and start this strange tableau all over again.
But before they reach the lake, they must run a gauntlet of teeth that might not be matched anyplace in fresh water. DOW personnel at the hatchery open the pipes just at dark to give the fingerlings a better chance to escape the trout lying in wait.
Biologists calculate that a great majority ride the flow straight to the reservoir and reach sanctuary in one overnight run.
Stragglers get picked off by the trout, which in turn are tricked by fishermen who await this brief but oh, so exciting ordeal.
“The trick is to get fish that already are stuffed to the gills to bite,” said Jason White, who owns the Crested Butte Angler shop just upstream in the resort town.
White and his fellow sharpshooters catch brown trout with kokanee fingerlings literally pouring out of their mouths.
“I don’t see how they figure to get another one in,” said White, who tempts them with a variety of streamers to match the silvery bait. While White prefers to run a boat down the stretch from Almont to Gunnison, drifting with the melee, other anglers stake out a beat on the several stretches of public water and wait for the action to come to them.
“Everything turns on and starts eating,” said White, who has worked as a guide in the valley for 14 years.
But timing is everything in a scenario tied to the several variances of weather — in this case a dust storm sweeping in from the southwest that caused a low-level melt-out on the Gunnison.
Rising 400 cubic feet per second overnight, the river swelled to 1,200 cubic feet per second (CFS) at Almont, 2,000 by the time it reached the town of Gunnison.
In a swirl of dark water that varied between chocolate and green tea, trout were difficult to attract. Some that did bite spit the odd salmon, perhaps the equivalent of a loud burp at the end of a gluttonous meal.
While scoring a general miss on the salmon, the trip did establish a mind-set for what may be the finest series of insect hatches in all the state.
Timing again is the trick, this time with the runoff.
“I like a situation where I can call a client when conditions are just right,” White said. “That way there’s no worry about the hit or miss.”
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
