Camping in Rifle River Rec Area Last weekend of September - any fish in river?

[richie722]

Anybody have any experience fishing this section of the rifle river during late september?

Will there be any salmon or steelhead in the river at that time. If so, what kind of lures/bait would be good to try on a spinning rig.

Thanks!

[the rapids]

although ive never fished r.r. rec that late in the year, salmon are always in the river by then, and its just a matter of how many are that far upstream. you might luck into a steelhead or lake run brown but id go downstream a ways for a better mix of the big lake fishes and residents. also, that is the last weekend the stretch above sage lk road is open (the parks southern boundary btw).

[HarleyDHawger]

If you need a place to access the rifle river south of the park try this, get on sage lake rd. follow it to pettite rd. go south to twin lake rd go west (R) on the gravel part of the rd. it ends in a couple of miles into a circle turn around. It a good place to park and within very easy walking distance to the river. you'll have to go down stream a ways to get to rocky areas. this gets you south of the october no fishing part of the river. If your still there on the start of bow season the deer might jump across from the park and startle the blank out of you. we usually cut threw the edge of the swamp about a 1/2 mile but its easy to get turned around and I don't recommend it unless you hunt back in that area like I do.:fish:

[aquaticsanonymous]

There are some excellent spots to fish the rifle, the question is will we get a decent run? Some good areas to fish are near Skidway Lake, just don't leave anything unattended/unlocked as it will be stolen! Good luck!

[richie722]

As we will be camping inside the rec area, I plan on only fishing the areas that I can walk to from our campsite. This weekend is the last weekend that the river is open inside the rec area, so hopefully we can get into some trout or the bonus salmonoid.