Fishing
Legendary Fishing Waters of Vail Valley
By All Vail Listings

Near Vail Co real estate at an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, it’s fly-fishing paradise.  The legendary waters of the Vail Valley are to a fisherman what the majestic ski bowls are for the skier:  perfect challenges, awesome scenery, and beautiful moments of connecting serenity.  For most anglers, monster fish are the stuff of legend and not reality, but there are lunkers around Vail, Arrowhead, Avon and Edwards CO homes that will bend a rod in half. 

With the Eagle River, Gore Creek, the Colorado River, as well as numerous high country lakes and streams, a broad selection of waters await residents of Vail, Bachelor Gulch, Beaver Creek, and Arrowhead real estate. Plus Cordillera with its four golf courses has some ponds full of beauties. Considering variables like angler preference, level of experience, water conditions, and current hatches, fishermen may want to hire a guide, though many are right at home fly fishing the Eagle River as you pass right through Eagle-Vail, Avon, Arrowhead and Edwards real estate. 

A tour of Eagle County’s trout havens could begin along the winding bends on Homestake Creek where small pockets, riffles of water, and modest-sized rainbow and brown trout often hide in the pools and eddies around beaver dams along one of the most scenic areas in Vail Valley.

The Eagle River is a good place for intermediate-level fishermen.  Using the public-access points from Arrowhead to those near Eagle CO real estate leads to fantastic water and great fishing.  Without a guide, newcomer fishermen park near the middle school in Edwards and walk down to the river.  Two miles of pocket water, long runs, and deep holes will gracefully add scope to the fishing experience.

For a fishing challenge, anglers may head to the mossy Gore Creek where debris in the water requires more technical know-how.  In spite of awkward and slippery rocks, lots of pocket water and visible fish make the Gore experience memorable.

Another option is float trips, usually on the upper and lower Colorado, Eagle, Roaring Fork, and Frying Pan Rivers.  During spring and early summer, float fishing on the Eagle River from the water treatment plant in Edwards, all the way to Wolcott or Eagle, can be superb.   Sometimes it is fair game to access fish on private lands by floating through.  The law allows a landowner to hold title to a river bottom.  If a landowner holds both sides of a waterway, there is no access unless the owner permits it or the river is floatable.  For example, anglers can access boatable, Gold Medal stretches of the Roaring Fork River where setting foot outside the boat or even dropping anchor constitutes trespassing.

The Colorado and the Roaring Fork Valley offer no shortage of private water that is open to those willing to pay for the privilege of casting to rising trout in an idyllic, quiet setting.  But some public waters, such as the Fryingpan River, are legendary among fly-fishers from near and far.  Few have driven the Fryingpan without marveling at the sight of a mile of wide, terraced pools spilling over rocky breaks—another extraordinary reason to find a patch of real estate nearby.

Some anglers go for the “grand slam,” i.e., netting a rainbow, cutthroat, brown and brook trout from the same waters.  The rainbow trout was introduced in Colorado in the 1880s and live in most mountain lakes and streams.  They have dark spots and a rainbow horizontal stripe on their bodies.  Three cutthroat trout species are native to Colorado–the greenback, the Rio Grande and the Colorado.  Cutthroat trout have heavier spotting toward the tail than rainbows and a red slash on their throat. They can be found in high lakes and streams.  Introduced in the 1890s, brown trout live in a variety of habitats, from high mountain streams to the broad rivers in the plains. They have dark and red dots, distinguishing them from rainbows and cutthroats.  The brook trout were introduced in the late 1800s.  They have white spots on top of a dark background with orange, black and white outlined fins and are found in higher elevation lakes, beaver dams, and streams.