Record Heat , Low Water Levels Close Portions Of Yampa River, Other CO Rivers To Fishing, Tubing
It’s been a hot summer across Colorado — and those sultry temps aren’t just affecting the Front Range.
Record warmth in the Yampa and White river basins in northwest Colorado is stressing out fish and creating concern for the anglers, rafting outfitters and environmentalists who call the region home. Both basins feed the Colorado River, which has had a tough summer as well.
“This is just I think about the hottest year we’ve seen, worst stream temperatures, and the most amount of fisherman,” said Kirk Klancke, President of the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Fisherman come from across the state and the world to fish trout in Colorado’s premiere streams. Mix that burgeoning popularity with the severe drought, lack of monsoon moisture and prolonged heat and you have a bad combination for fish in Colorado’s high country. When rivers run low, higher water temperatures choke off oxygen for fish and helps disease spread.
That’s why Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have fishing restrictions in nearly a half dozen rivers across the state. Northwest Colorado Senior Aquatic Biologist Lori Martin said the scope and length of the restrictions is unprecedented. There have been smaller scale voluntary closures before, but “not to the geographic extent that we have in 2018,” she said.
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https://www.cpr.org/news/story/record-summer-heat-leaves-outfitters-and-fish-on-the-yampa-river-in-hot-water
