Fly Fishing at the Broadacres...

Fly Fishing at Broadacres Ranch means an incredible variety of fishing experiences. You’ll fish everything from the big, brawling Rio Grande River to small spring creeks. Glassy, still-water lakes with cruising trout invite sight casting on their crystal clear flats. Unspoiled high country brooks that tumble through deep pools and smooth runs hold feisty rainbows, brook trout and Colorado cutthroats. Our own private Shallow Creek is a cold water gem, harboring surprisingly large browns and rainbows that rise willingly to well-presented dry flies. Early in the season you’ll have a choice of floating or wading the Rio Grande.

If you are looking for phenomenal fishing on pristine water with great guides, personal attention, and beautiful scenery, you’ll love Broadacres Ranch. As an Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing lodge, we pride ourselves on making your fishing trip safe, successful, and enjoyable.

Our fishing pages should provide you with all the information necessary to plan an angling vacation at Broadacres Ranch. However, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

• 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 glimpse 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 insect. 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 an eternity, he makes his move. In a deliberate fluid motion, the big brown ascends the last few inches and inhales the fly. 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 beautiful as the scenery that surrounds him. Welcome to Broadacres Ranch!

• Angling Staff
  Expect top quality guidance and one-on-one attention from all our professional guides at Broadacres Ranch. They are equipped with the knowledge to complement experts, and the patience to teach and instruct beginners.
  
  If learning the art of fly-casting or identifying aquatic insects is what you seek, your guide will lead you step-by-step to make you a better angler. Our staff’s love of fishing, teaching and the outdoors will be easily recognized in the first few moments. Their humble nature and sincere interest in your fishing experience will make your fishing trip one to remember.
  
  Classes and personal instruction on fly tackle, casting, fishing tactics, fish biology, aquatic trout foods, tying flies, nymph fishing, and lake fishing are all available upon request. Morning guiding is from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm; afternoon guiding is four consecutive hours from 1 pm to 7 pm, depending on your preference and the weather. You’ll get a chance to meet and develop a relationship with your guide before you get on the water to discuss your goals, water preferences, favorite spots, and scheduling.
  
  
  
• Trout Habitat
  The Broadacres Ranch trout habitat features a wide assortment of fishable water. Whatever your skill level or interest, chances are we have the just the kind of trout water you dream of fishing: Big river water with bouldered runs, deep troughs, and pools featuring slick back eddies and smooth tails - this water conceals monster rainbows and browns; delicate spring creeks where trout spook at an errant shadow and stealth is as important as fly selection; lakes with big sunny flats and the game is sight fishing to cruisers.
  
  Our great trout ecosystem, blessed by Mother Nature, is also the result of careful hard work. In the fall of 1999, we embarked on an ambitious 10 month program with Aqua-Hab, one of the West's most capable private in-stream habitat improvement consultants. Additional work in 2001 augmented our waters with even more features. By the time we were done, we had exponentially increased our holding water and significantly improved the population of wild fish per mile.
  
  Off the ranch we have access to some of the best tributaries in the entire watershed. These small creeks, descending from the mountains of the Rio Grande National Forest, are small intimate fishing experiences, and for a time, you’ll forget the rest of the world even exists. Browns, rainbows, cutthroats and brooks swim in these waters, and will eagerly attack your fly.
  
  Today, between the beauty of the backcountry streams, and the productivity of our waters on the ranch, the Broadacres offers some of the finest and most varied angling opportunities in the American West.
• The Wooly Bugger
  Visit our on-grounds fly shop, the Wooly Bugger, for all your equipment needs. We carry top-quality Umpqua flies, Orvis brand rods, reels, waders, fishing supplies, fishing attire, and more. As a guest of Broadacres Ranch, you’ll receive a 15% discount on all Orvis angling products. Additionally, if you choose to rent gear from us, it can be applied towards a later purchase of the item.

"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, Texas