The Fly Fishing Guide to Colorado's Flat Tops Wilderness
By Al Marlowe and Karen Christopherson
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About this ebook
Al Marlowe
Al Marlowe, freelance writer and photographer for outdoor recreation publications, is a member of the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers. He has been published in American Angler; American Survival Guide; Arkansas Outdoors; Backpacker; Bird Dog News; Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources; Colorado Outdoors; National Wildlife Federation; Rocky Mountain Game & Fish; Rocky Mountain Streamside; and Western Outdoors.
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The Fly Fishing Guide to Colorado's Flat Tops Wilderness - Al Marlowe
1
FISHING THE FLAT TOPS
The Flat Tops, located in west-central Colorado, is a place unlike any other mountain range in the state. There are no tall spires, no fourteeners. Rather, it is a high plateau, appearing as a massive block of rock pushed upward by some giant’s hand, and planed level.
On its surface, covering several hundred square miles, long extinct volcanic craters are filled with water. In other places, glaciers have gouged deep valleys and plowed debris into ridges, damming streams.
Because of its location, the Flat Tops collects an abundance of precipitation. Water, collected by lakes and drained by streams, makes the region an angler’s paradise. Creeks with names like Derby, Grizzly, Sweetwater, Canyon, Doe, Fawn, Buck, and Spring pop up all over the map. There’s Star Lake, Wall, Keener, Oyster, Shepherd, and others, causing the angler to conjure visions of large, hungry trout.
The Colorado River cutthroat is the native trout of Colorado’s West Slope. Trappers Lake has a reproducing population.
There’s something for anglers of all persuasions. Fly casters have a choice of streams, from small creeks and beaver ponds to rivers hiding fish of surprising proportions. Lakes and ponds beckon to the spinner fisherman. Some have big surprises. If you should try the Mandall Lakes, hang on to your rod. That submerged log you thought you snagged just might be a 10-pound mackinaw.
So where should one begin in a quest for angling adventure in this most magnificent wilderness? For starters, when traveling on Interstate 70, get off at Dotsero and follow the Colorado River upstream for a couple of miles to Deep Creek. The creek runs fast as it plunges and wends its way to the Colorado. For the first mile along the gravel road, the water is private. In another mile, the road departs the creek. It’s a small stream in a half-mile-deep canyon, but in the dozen miles below Deep Lake, it’s reported to have brooks, rainbows, and few fishermen.
The rough gravel path continues on another 37 miles before ending beside the South Fork of the White River. On the way along the Coffee Pot Road, Deep Lake will tempt the angler to stop off early. Being an extinct volcanic crater, the lake lives up to its name. Its waters hold brook trout and mackinaws. In 1949, a state record mac was taken here—42 inches long and 36 pounds. The record held until 2007 when a larger mac was taken in Stagecoach Reservoir, just east of the Flat Tops and on the Yampa River drainage.
After another 8 miles, you’ll come to The Meadows. The trailhead parking lot gives access to the upper part of the South Fork. It’s a small stream, having mostly brook trout. Except in late summer, anglers will find few rising fish, but drifting a No. 12 or 14 Humpy will attract strikes from ravenous trout.
Downstream, the South Fork is larger and faster as it flows toward the South Fork Campground. In between, there’s more than a dozen miles of wilderness water. The cutthroats and rainbows are bigger than the brookies found upstream, but they’re just as impatient to take a fly.
Along the north side of the Flat Tops, go east out of Meeker on Rio Blanco County Road 8. At Buford, the South and North forks blend their waters. Continuing east from Buford takes you along the North Fork of the White. Being easier to reach, it gets fished more than the South. By carefully studying your White River National Forest map, though, you’ll be able to find a few out-of-the-way stretches of public water that hold brookies, browns, rainbows, and cutthroats, all eager to take your fly.
Continuing upstream along the North Fork takes you to Trappers, the best-known lake on the Flat Tops, home to naturally reproducing cutthroat trout. A mile to the east sits Little Trappers. This 30-acre lake can be easily fished from shore for 12-inch cutts.
Then there are places like Mirror Lake, a few miles north of Trappers. Hordes of brookies can be seen in the lake’s clear water as they scour