Help, I'm an Englishman (Denver, Edwards: to live in, restaurants, dangerous)

[Roger100449]

Moving to Colorado for five years. Retired and intend to pursue my passions of fly fishing for wild trout and some ski-ing in the winter. Any advice on where might be the best place in Colorado to live in order to pursue these goals. Am looking at Lyons but not committed to anywhere really. Any quick advice or avoids would be much appreciated, noticed already people on other threads saying avoid North facing properties. A moments reply with any advice from any of you would be much appreciated and I'd silently thank you for many years.
Regards
Roger100449

[lb86]

Lyons is lovely. Drake, and Estes Park is nice as well. Good Luck

[wanneroo]

Depends on a lot of things. Colorado has a vast range of microclimates and everything from very urban to very rural and isolated. Also depends on what budget you have, what services or amenities you require, etc.

For people to help you, you'd probably have to specify about what you want in a town and what you can afford.

Probably if budget was not a factor, I would recommend Eagle County and the towns of Edwards or Eagle. You've got the best skiing in the world at Vail up the road, Denver is 2 hours away, plenty of shopping and restaurants in the area, plenty of medical options with a hospital, tons of festivals and activities, plenty of fly fishing.

[2bindenver]

Would you call me? I love to hear English guys speak. Anything, read the phonebook, please?

[80skeys]

coming from England (where I've heard fly fishing is a big thing), you're gonna love it out West.

Places to avoid would be:

* the plains (Eastern third of Colorado) because there's no fly fishing there

Almost anywhere else puts you within driving distance of good mountain fly fishing. If you can live in north/north-central Colorado, then you'll also be able to reach great fly fishing areas in Utah and Wyoming.

Anyway, in Colorado, places where I like to fly fish are:

* Taylor river and the East fork of the Gunnison between Crested Butte and Gunnison
* the Lake fork of the gunnison outside lake city
* the Rio Grande outside South Fork
* the North Fork of the Gunnison outside Delta
* The Frying Pan outside Basalt

If you aren't used to fishing big waters, then be extremely careful should you decide to wade the Rio Grande or the Gunnison. They are deep and fast.

[80skeys]

Here's some more info.

In Colorado 'wild trout' are the following:

- German browns. although not native to the West, these are wild because they are not raised in a hatchery
- Brookies. In most places, these are wild.
- Cuttrout. These are usually wild, although the Game and Fish dept has been trying to establish populations in some lakes, and so would not be "wild in those cases.

Rainbow trout are always hatchery-raised, and therefore are never wild.

So keep in mind, any time you're hooking into a German brown, you've got a wild trout.

Now, I'm making the assumption you are not used to wadign in big rivers. So forgive me if that's not the case. Again about being careful: any river here that's not a shallow creek, can be quite dangerous. Most of the rivers, even if they do not appear deep, are much deeper than you think. There are severe drop offs and pools and these rivers can be very dangerous to wade in.

I suggest you start out wading in shallow, small streams to get used to it. There's plenty of these around.

For world class trout fishing in a shallow river, the Frying Pan right below the dam is always very shallow (2 feet). This is the section of the river 1/4 mile below where the water comes out of the dam. You can wade across the entire river without getting above your knees. It's shallow and slow. And hook into huge trout despite the shallowness. This would be a great place for you to start out on and get used to hooking into the Western trout.

I've heard that will reject a fly much quicker than what you're used to in England. So be prepared for some good action!

[Gunluvver2]

[quote=80skeys;9986028]coming from England (where I've heard fly fishing is a big thing), you're gonna love it out West.

Places to avoid would be:

* the plains (Eastern third of Colorado) because there's no fly fishing there
. . ."
************************************************** *******
Wow, I guess the hundreds of hours I spent fly fishing in Yuma County (as far East as you can get in Colorado) was just a figment of my imagination. The streams and rivers may not be as large and as fast as those in the mountains but the fish are.

GL2

[ocean2026]

Well there's really nothing this discussion board can do about you being an Englishman. The problem results from choices made by your parents and perhaps their parents ages ago. If you speak while fishing, the fish will note the accent right away and leave- as no respectable sea creature wants to be fried in oil and become "Fish & Chips". Best, that you find an American - most are friendly - and keep him or her around you at all times.

[80skeys]

Well, there's nothing wrong with yuma co., but most people's (especially foreigners) idea of fishing the West is the Rocky Mountains, which is why I steered him away from the plains.

[quote=Gunluvver2;9987583]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

coming from England (where I've heard fly fishing is a big thing), you're gonna love it out West.

Places to avoid would be:

* the plains (Eastern third of Colorado) because there's no fly fishing there
. . ."
************************************************** *******
Wow, I guess the hundreds of hours I spent fly fishing in Yuma County (as far East as you can get in Colorado) was just a figment of my imagination. The streams and rivers may not be as large and as fast as those in the mountains but the fish are.

GL2

[FaithW]

Hey I am english too..... Lyons is lovely and like a rural english village but with more mountains!!!! I personally prefer the plains as the mountains can be jolly cols which we are not used to!!!! Plenty of fly fishing is done in lakes om theplain too