Fishing at the Broadacres . . .

"We had a wonderful experience here at Broadacres. The opportunity to fish the creek, the river, and the lakes was really unique. I will remember this fishing forever – especially a great morning at one of the holes on Shallow Creek... The setting in this valley is beautiful. We hope to come back many times. Thanks for a great experience."
--B.&G.G. and D.&J.M., Fort Worth TX

Angling Staff
With the knowledge to challenge the expert and the patience to teach and instruct the beginner, one-on-one attention is what you can expect with any of the professional Guides here at Broadacres Ranch. If learning the art of fly-casting or identifying aquatic insects is what you seek, your Guide can take you through step-by-step to make you a better angler. The love for fishing, teaching and the outdoors by our staff will be easily recognized in the first few moments. Their humble nature and sincere interest in teaching will make your trip to Broadacres Ranch a fishing trip to remember.

Classes and personal instruction on fly tackle, casting, fly fishing tactics, fish biology, aquatic trout foods, tying flies, nymph fishing, and lake fishing with a fly will be available throughout the week. Each morning the Guides will meet to discuss the fishing assignments for the day. With guest input on water preferences and favorite spots, rest assured your Guide will pick a spot to make a memorable day of fishing on Broadacres Ranch.

Visualize this...
The scene is set along a lush grassy bank on Colorado's spectacular Shallow Creek. There is not another angler in sight. You are surrounded by breathtaking pine covered mountains splashed with fluorescent yellow aspen glades. A bull elk bugles nearby in a hidden stand of spruce timber, momentarily distracting you from the business at hand. The cloud of Baetis mayflies dancing over the river brings you back to your senses.

Four-weight in hand you stealth into position just below a tantalizing pool which piles up under a classic cut bank. Scanning the water for signs of rising fish, you catch the slightest glance of a big shimmering trout snout that just dimpled the river's surface. Was that real or were you just imagining things? There he is again, coming up to eat a small fluttering caddis. The mere thought of that old fellow rising out of the depths to inhale your dry fly makes the sweat bead on your forehead. 

You false cast several times just to be certain of your distance, and then release the line in an elegant loop that delicately delivers your #10 Stimulator right into Mr. Brown's dining room. The afternoon light is just perfect, so you can see him materialize out of his haunt. The fish hovers in the crystalline water like some sort of orange-tailed golden apparition, carefully inspecting your artificial for several tense seconds.

Then, after what seems like eternity, he makes his move. In a deliberate fluid motion, the big brown ascends the last few inches and inhales the dry. At first you are too awe struck to do much more than exhale, but somehow you regain your composure enough to set the hook. At the sting of the hook, the brown is out of the water in a series of flashing tail-walking leaps which again leave you breathless. After another series of equally-dazzling jumps the fish races downstream in a crafty attempt to break you off in the cut bank's roots and tangles.

In an act of desperation, you sprint toward the fish and angle your fly rod low toward the water in order to keep the tippet away from the treacherous snags. As you enter the pool, the big brown spooks back out into open water. He races about wildly and makes several more spirited leaps before you have him in the net. What a fish! As wild and spectacular as the scenery that surrounds him. Welcome to Broadacres Ranch!

Trout Habitat
In the Fall of 1999 one of the West's most capable private in-stream habitat improvement consultants, Aqua-Hab, finished enhancing all of the Broadacres' river properties after almost 10 months of back breaking labor.  Additional work was performed in the fall of 2001 by renowned water hydrologists Lee Silvey, Steve Belz, and Owen Williams.  With an exponential increase in holding water and an outstanding population of wild fish on a per mile basis, the Broadacres offers some of the finest angling opportunities in the American West...

The Individual Fisheries

The Broadacres Ranch offers a unique combination of big tailwater, diverse pocket and meadow freestone, and stillwater private fisheries. You can spend a morning stalking and wading the Rio Grande and then have an intimate afternoon on the smaller freestone fishery, Shallow Creek.

Our private river fisheries employ a carefully controlled "beat" system limited to eight anglers to ensure a quality angling experience. If you're tired of fishing moving water, you can always challenge the trophy trout in our two private lakes.

The Ranch is surrounded by Rio Grande National Forest, and as the U.S. Forest Service owns 96% of Mineral County, there are hundreds of miles of public streams and many lakes in close proximity to the Broadacres. Some of these waters are easily accessed by forest road, but others are remote high mountain wilderness fisheries.

Quality Orvis equipment, including rods, reels and waders, are available to our guests at a nominal fee which can be applied, with a few restrictions, to new purchases. Quality Umpqua fly patterns matching our local hatches are available for purchase.

The Upper Rio Grande River - One of the West's Best Kept Angling Secrets.

The Rio Grande flows clear and cold from the Rio Grande Reservoir some 25-miles above Broadacres Ranch. By the time it reaches the Broadacres property line it takes on the characteristics of both a freestone stream and a tailwater fishery. The 1½-miles of private river at Broadacres is a broad, fast flowing piece of water with a variable boulder and gravel bottom.

The river itself is easily accessed by wading, but it can also be floated via a drift canoe or McKenzie boat. There are over 900 new natural boulder structures which greatly enhance the fishery; in fact there is so much holding water from bank to bank that one can fish an entire morning without moving more than a couple hundred yards.

The Rio Grande River and its tributaries on and near the Broadacres Ranch have an incredibly-diverse population of aquatic insects. The river's peak season, starting around the middle of June when the runoff usually subsides, is commenced by a terrific golden stonefly (Hesperperla pacifica) hatch. Multiple species of other stones, caddis, mayfly and crane flies come off before and after the stonefly hatch begins, and continue to hatch heavily throughout the summer and late fall. Big hatches mean fantastic dry fly fishing throughout our peak fishing season.

Browns, rainbows and cutbows are found in equal numbers on the Ranch's stretch of the Rio Grande. Most of the fish are wild, but there are some stocked rainbows in the mix. The average fish size on the Ranch is about 14-inches, but fish up to 20-inches are commonly caught during a day's fishing. Throughout the season, trout up to 25-inches are taken. The average fish size continues to grow since the catch & release policy was instated, and we expect this trend to continue as the Ranch's fisheries mature.

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ShallowCreek
Shallow Creek is a classic freestone stream that runs through the northern side of the Broadacres property. Flowing at about 8-15 cfs during the summer months, there are over a 1¼-miles of beautiful river offering fantastic dry fly fishing in both a pocket water and meadow environment.

Like its larger cousin, the Rio Grande, the entire private section of Shallow Creek received extensive in-stream habitat improvements, from countless natural rock and log structures, to the deepening of existing holding water. The end result is a virtual anglers paradise – nothing but riffle-pool-riffle interspersed with an incredible population of aggressive wild brown, rainbow, cutbow, and cutthroat trout!

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Broadacres Lake and Sleeping Ute Lake
Tired of catching the big hopper-eating browns on Shallow Creek? Had enough of those beautiful wild caddis-sipping cutbows on the Rio Grande? If our two rivers haven't tempted you enough, how about a little stillwater action for trophy trout on one of our two lakes? Just across the highway from the main ranch, and fed directly by Shallow Creek, are our two scenic lakes brimming with trophy browns, rainbows and brook trout. Over 11-surface acres of damsel-sipping, tippet-breaking, reel-screeching stillwater action await those with enough stamina to fish their way through our extensive and dynamic fast water fisheries.

We also have a smaller, ¾ -acre Trophy Pond heavily-stocked with aggressive rainbows. This is the perfect place to get your children started in the wonderful sport of fly fishing!

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