Vail is famous for its world class skiing, luxury accommodations and lifestyle, but that is not all that is world class. Vail and surrounding Eagle County has gold medal rivers which means world class fishing. Some of the best fly fishing in the country can be found in Colorado and in Vail’s own Eagle River and Gore Creek.
While sales of fishing licenses in Colorado have gone down in the last few years by around 13%, local fisherman disagree that the number of fisherman has decreased. Colorado is an amazing place to fish and the Colorado Division of Wildlife promotes fishing. The agency uses their website as a tool to help make fishing easier by detailing places to go and what kind of flies to use. They also have annual programs where children are giving fishing rods for a day lesson to help encourage the sport, finally Colorado stocks its rivers and streams to try and get as many people fishing as possible.
Fishing contributes greatly to education and fish preservation with an 11% tax on fishing poles and tackle which equates to several million dollars each year. Fishing licenses contributed around $12.5 million to the Colorado Division of Wildlife
In Vail Colorado, local fly fishing shops disagree. They claim they have seen a 20% increase over the last few years in license sales. On top of that, they have had an increase every year in the number of guided fishing trips to the Vail Valley’s streams even during the winter. To some après skiing is actually, après fishing. After spending a hard day hitting the ski slopes, some people are looking for a change of pace. Concierge services are actually recommending fly fishing. While parts of the Eagle River are frozen during the winter, warm water coming from the waste treatment plants actually make winter in Vail a great time to fish.
While anglers seems to make the Blue River of Breckenridge and the Frying Pan in Basalt a destination fly fishing vacation, Vail and it’s Gore Creek are not quite known for that yet. But the local fly fishing shops know that it will get there. Gore Creek contains bigger fish than some of its more popular competitors. And what of the decline in licenses? Since the surveys are only taken every five years, no one is sure if this is a trend or not. For the local Vail Valley fly fishing shops business is better than ever. So whatever your reason for coming to Vail has been, skiing, après skiing, dining, you can add fly fishing in Gold medal waters to that list.
Design by IMC, Articles © Copyright 2007 by AllVailListings.com
Top of Page
|
