Beaver Creek Reservoir is a popular trout and Kokanee fishery in the South Fork area. A resident population of Brown Trout exists along with State of Colorado stocked catchable Rainbow Trout and Kokanee Salmon with many large fish caught annually. Access is easy year-round by going from Rainbow Sporting Goods 1.4 miles SSW on US Highway 160 turning left on Forest Service Road #360, then 3.1 miles to the reservoir dam. The boat ramp, made of concrete for easy access with plenty of parking and toilets, is an additional 1 mile. Camping is available in two campgrounds on the way to the reservoir and at Cross Creek Campground at the head of the lake.

The avid bait fisherman will find that a large or baby RAINBOW night crawler, always guaranteed to catch fish or die trying, fished on the bottom with and EAGLE CLAW #139 or #181 hook can be the means to a pan full of fresh fried trout. Those fisherman preferring to use one of the new floating dough bait such as CRAVE on a bait rig, which is usually a 36" 4# leader with an adjustable slip weight and an EAGLE CLAW #386 size 14 treble hook, can have exceptional luck especially when the catching seems to be slow.

More active fisherman will prefer to fish with spoons and spinners like the MEPPS AGLIA lure. The gold lures with plain or colored blade is productive in clearer water and in murky water silver works best. Try different retrieve methods such as slow and deeper, fast and more near the surface or even counting down the lure after casting before beginning the retrieve to fish the lure at different depths.

The fly fisherman is not left out at Beaver Reservoir. The Dead Chicken, a local pattern from Rainbow Sporting Goods, fished on a spinning or casting rod with RAINBOW PLASTIC ADJUST A BUBBLE water filled bubble allows fishing of those out of reach areas. Many other patterns of flies from the more than 2000 different sizes and types on hand at RAINBOW can also be very productive. Please check with our experienced and knowledgeable staff for the up to the minute hot pattern.

Another little known lure is the PISTOL PETE. This fly is tied like a wooly worm or wooly bugger only with a small propeller blade on the front of the fly. The Pistol Pete is fished with spinning rod and water filled bubble like other flies except using a slow continuous retrieve. Pistol Petes tied with a sparkle flash material or in a Dead Chicken pattern have been the most successful.

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