Troubled waters: Closures, cautions cast cloud over fishing season in Colorado

Colorado’s fishing season is facing increasing closures and cautions as heat drives rivers and creeks lower and warm enough to threaten cold-water fish. Near Colorado Springs in mid-July, about a dozen rainbow trout were found dead in a pond outside Angler’s Covey, where temperatures couldn’t be kept low enough. Later, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) reported roughly 300 dead mountain whitefish in the lower Elk River, citing water temperatures likely above 80 degrees near Steamboat Springs. CPW rolled out voluntary closures throughout July, warning that water above 70 degrees raises catch-and-release trout mortality, and that late-afternoon readings on rivers including the Rio Grande, Arkansas and Colorado regularly exceed that threshold. The agency also urged avoiding popular stretches of the South Platte and Clear Creek from noon to midnight, with some areas at under 50% of typical flows.