Many USFS campgrounds

with various facilities.

Picnic areas

Several boat launch sites

State Wildlife Areas

Guided wade or float

fishing available from

several local guide ser-

vices.

Rental cabins are available

from various entities along

the river.

http://visit.ftcollins.com/lo

dging

Flood Impacts:

Recent flooding has caused

minimal impact to the

Poudre trout fishery.

Temporary, localized drops

in the fish population

should recover within a sea-

son.

Brown Trout

Entirely naturally reproduc-

ing in the Poudre

Spawn in mid October

through November

Target larger fish in heavy

cover, deep pools or over-

hung banks

Rainbow Trout

Stocked fish maintain the

population in the Poudre

Spawn in mid April through

mid May

Whirling disease resistant

fish are currently being in-

troduced in the river in an

attempt to restore wild rain-

bow populations

Confluence of N. Fork to Upper

Boundary of Gateway Park,

Pingree Park Road/Bridge to W

boundary of Hombre Ranch

(below Rustic),

Black Hollow Creek to Upper

Boundary of Big Bend C.G.

Artificial flies and lures only.

All trout must be returned to

the water immediately.

Joe Wright Creek to Rocky

Mouuntain National Park:

Artificial flies and lures only.

Bag and poessession limit for

trout is 2.

Rocky Mountain National Park:

Closed to fishing

General Information: The Upper Poudre River is a designated wild and scenic river that provides excel-

lent trout fishing opportunities for brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout. Public access is generally good..

Location: Larimer County. Poudre River canyon begins NW of Fort Collins 1 mi. west of Hwy 287 and

Hwy 14 (Ted’s Place). Over 50 miles of public river from the mouth of the canyon to Rocky Mountain

National Park. Poudre River Map and Access Information

Recreational Management: U.S Forest Service, CPW, City of Fort Collins

Primary Management: Coldwater angling

Purchase a Fishing License: http://cpw.state.co.us/buyapply/Pages/Fishing.aspx

Cache la Poudre River Canyon

FISH SURVEY AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION Kurt Davies - Aquatic Biologist (Fort Collins)

kurt.davies@state.co.us / 970-472-4396

Regulations Amenities Sportfishing Notes

Previous Stocking

2013

Rainbow Trout

2012

Rainbow Trout

2011

Rainbow Trout

Management

The Poudre River is managed to provide

the best coldwater angling possibilities. Prior to

human arrival in the area, the only trout in the

Poudre were cutthroat trout. In the late 1800’s, pe-

non-native rainbow and brown trout were intro-

duced to the river. These became reproducing wild

populations. The rainbow trout out-competed the

cutthroat and dominated the river system.

In the 1990’s, whirling disease decimated

the wild-spawning rainbow trout and the river has

become a brown trout dominated system. Rainbow

trout are still planted in the river at a catchable size

but minimal natural reproduction is seen.

Sampling is done annually on eight differ-

ent sites from I-25 upstream. The river is elec-

trofished in the fall, when water levels have

dropped, to get an efficient capture.

The graphs on this page show two separate sites with different regulations. Both are length-frequency histo-

grams of brown and rainbow trout that show the number of fish captured during sampling in each size class. Keep in

mind when looking at these graphs, that the effectiveness of electrofishing gear in sampling a population decreases with

fish less than 5 inches. This means that there are likely many more fish in the smallest size classes than the graphs show.

The graph on the top is

from a site at Kelly Flats Camp-

ground in the canyon. General

statewide regulations apply here

and anglers can use any legal

method (no live minnows) and keep

4 trout. The lower graph is data

from a site called Pasquinel’s

Cabin, located just below the

Poudre hatchery. This site is catch

and release with flies and lures

only.

There are many more fish

overall at Kelly Flats but the size

structure between the two is differ-

ent with a higher number of larger

fish in the catch and release section.

10 inch rainbows are planted at a

Kelly Flats. No fish are planted at

Pasquinel’s. All browns in the

Poudre are wild fish. For more in-

formation, look at the differences in

fish/mile on the table below.

Cache la Poudre River Canyon

FISH SURVEY AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION Kurt Davies - Aquatic Biologist (Fort Collins)

kurt.davies@state.co.us / 970-472-4396

Poudre River at Indian Meadows.

This chart is a summary of our annual survey data for the

Poudre River for the last three years. The sites are listed from higher in

the drainage to lower. An “na” in a column means that the species was

not caught in significant numbers at a particular station to make an esti-

mate of their population (usually one or two individuals) or they were not effectively sampled by our methods to pro-

vide a population estimate (dace are too small and though we typically capture many). The estimates provided are for

fish in the population over six inches. The sampling gear that we use is not designed for estimating populations of fish

less than this size.

This data is good for looking at general trends between years and especially comparing differences between

sites in the same year. The 2011 sampling estimates are probably biased low as the water levels that year were higher

and made effective sampling more difficult. The fishery endured both flood and fire over this time period and you can

see that generally, the impact to the fishery was minimal.

In 2013, the Martinez Park site continued to have high water through the

fall and into the winter that did not allow us to effectively sample the site. We were

able to sample a similar site upstream at Lions Park (Overland Trail) and the num-

bers there, while not directly comparable, showed that the fishery in the city portion

of the river had fared quite well. You can see past sampling trout estimates to the

right. The influx of rainbows into the fishery was heavily influenced by the flooding

of the Watson Hatchery with 70,000 rainbows escaping into the river. Fishing

should be particularly good in Fort Collins for the summer of 2014.

The Gateway site was the hardest hit and numbers were down 70% over the previous six year average. This site

has the greatest channel alteration with a large diversion just upstream and an entrenched channel with little meander.

Fish here likely found little slack water refuge as in other sections and were forced to move downstream some ways.

Cache la Poudre River Canyon

FISH SURVEY AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION Kurt Davies - Aquatic Biologist (Fort Collins)

kurt.davies@state.co.us / 970-472-4396

Rainbow/Brown Trout Trend Comparison Graphs

Numbers of estimated fish/mile for each year of sampling are represented on the vertical axis.

The year of the sampling effort is on the horizontal axis.

Brown Trout numbers are in blue and Rainbow Trout numbers are in red.

These graphs are shown in descending order from higher to lower on the river. They represent the esti-

mated fish/mile derived from sampling each year and allow a visual assessment of the ratio of rainbows and

browns at each site as well as show overall population trends for each of the species over several years. This

information is taken from the chart on the previous page and is just a graphic way to better highlight changes.

Pasquinel’s, Black Hollow, Indian Meadows, and Gateway have catch and release regulations while Bliss,

Firelane, Kelly Flats and Martinez Park are under general statewide regulations. Catchable rainbows are regu-

larly stocked in the lower part of the canyon and influence the numbers of rainbows in the last three sites. As

part of an experiment, 4000 rainbows were stocked one time in 2010 at the Black Hollow and Indian Mead-

ows sites.

Several factors affect number of fish/mile in a certain stretch including the quality of the habitat at the site,

the productivity of the river, the average size of fish, the time of year and environmental factors like losses

due to low water or ice dams. We strive to sample at the same time of year in the same conditions at the same

sites year after year that were picked as representative reaches of that section of river. This helps minimize

changing factors, standardizes the data, and make the trends above more meaningful.

Cache la Poudre River Canyon

FISH SURVEY AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION Kurt Davies - Aquatic Biologist (Fort Collins)

kurt.davies@state.co.us / 970-472-4396