[Guest]

thinking seriously about hitting the arkansas river saturday. fly fishing only. thinking about the browns canyon area - hecla junction access. supposedly you can access the river there, hike into the canyon.
can anyone tell me about this stretch, particularly trail access, wading, etc.
this seems to be a very remote part of the river, except that it is white water rafted a bunch.

 

[epic]

Might want to check the flow with run off water may be very muddy and high.

 

[bitafurnfeather]

Water level's fine, 221 CFS this AM in Salida above West Fork. There's an easy ford at the Hecla parking lot. You can follow the RR tracks upstream or down from there. If you want to hike a mile or so in either direction you'll get away from most walking anglers (just like anywhere else).

Deeper holes in Brown's since the river's narrower there. Water's probably a bit colder than from Bighorn Canyon down. Lots of fish in there -- just like the 50+ miles below it.

 

[StillwaterFreak]

Just drove by the Ark in Buena Vista the other day and it still looks like it's low winter flows. The Ark is a later run-off river, and rightnow is a great time to fish it. Listen carefully, CADDIS LARVAE'S!!!

 

[arkfisher]

Fished the Ark on saturday and sunday and it is still fairly low and clear. with this cooler weather i think the runoff is still a few weeks away. Fishing was real good.Green Copper johns (this is like the green Pupa) were real effective,also p-tails and barr emergers. I don't fish Hecla much. If you don't cross to the RR tracks you have a hard time getting upstream due to large boulders you run into 1/4 mile up. downstream is easier.Right now its probably better below Salida.