Santa Maria Ranch Fishing Conditions

South Park Fly Fishers

Photo by Gary Nichols, 2006
Santa Maria Ranch
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04/17/10

River Clearing Up at Santa Maria

04/17/10 - The Middle Fork is now open at Santa Maria Ranch and the water is starting to clear after the first surge of runoff. Depending on conditions, we plan to open this property for reservations on Friday April 23.

2009 FISHING REPORTS

9/28/09 - Fall fishing conditions at Santa Maria Ranch are the best they have been in many years. Several anglers report catching large browns and rainbows on wolly buggers and other streamers within the last week. 9/19/09 - Great water conditions and good fishing in late afternoon with small crystal buggers. Two browns and five rainbows around 20 inches in the deep pools and undercut banks. Otherwise, fishing was fair on dry flies for smaller fish that were surface feeding. 8/22/09 - Great day of fishing with friends. Numerous browns on elk hair caddis and several browns and rainbows over 20 inches on Fat Albert patterns.

2008 FISHING REPORTS

10/03/08 - Stream flows are low at Santa Maria Ranch. Fishing has been mixed, depending on the day and angler.

We did quite well after switching to streamers and San Juan worms. Caught a few large browns and rainbows and lots of smaller browns. Water came up throughout the morning and was off-color due to rain (September 21, 2008).

Fairly constant action until about 2:00 PM when the fish shut down due to warm water temperature. Total fish count was about 30 but two browns and several rainbows were over 18 inches. One of the rainbows measured 23 inches and one brown was 21 inches. The weather and stream level were perfect. (August 29, 2008).

Should be better in another week or so (July 28, 2008).

One fish on egg patterns, but it was the biggest fish Ive ever caught! Wind and snow made fishing tough. We will be back after runoff (May 10, 2008).

Three fairly casual anglers caught 14 brown trout in about 7 hours of fishing. Missed about the same. One pretty good size around 14 inches. All landed fish were 8 inches or less. The flow was still up which might have contributed to the poor fishing. The water was definitely off. Beautiful property though. Rare surface feeding. Tried it all: Hoppers along the banks; lots of high stick nymphing with double set-ups; even streamers in the deep pools and into the undercut banks.

Two anglers, 15 fish - a couple of nice ones. Stones and Streamers (May 4, 2008).

Fished well. Stone flies and San Juan worms (May 3, 2008).

Didnt have much action until I figured out where the fish were holding. Dont bother fishing the riffles or shallow pools...fish are holding on the bottom of pools deeper than 3 feet. Weighted golden stonefly nymphs and various streamers yielded 19 browns and rainbows late in the day, including 7 rainbows over 20 inches! (April 27, 2008).

One fish - 18 inch rainbow. Water off-color; beautiful water. Will be back (April 20, 2008).

Water muddy but caught a few fish (April 19, 2008).

2007 FISHING REPORTS:

A month ago we caught 40 fish here but not today. I landed six fish all day, the largest of which was 13 inches. The water is so clear that they must all be laying on the bottom in the deep pools. Great property nevertheless (September 21, 2007).

Good fishing in the morning but nothing large...lots of 14-15 inch browns on nymphs. Yellow humpy produced numerous 12-14 inch rainbows in the afternoon (September 14, 2007).

Good time...small browns on almost every cast using parachute adams. Also, two 18-inchers on prince nymphs. Several other large fish followed stimulators and streamers, but no takers. Weather was cool and calm (September 9, 2007).

Except for two nice browns caught around noon, there was very little action until mid-afternoon. Several fish of all sizes, including a 23-inch rainbow, were released after a late afternoon thunderstorm. Beadhead nymphs were the only patterns that worked but smaller fish were rising to BWOs and midges (August 26, 2007).

Caught 15 among 3 anglers, all small. Really windy, tough fishing. Flows noticably higher than on the Tarryall Creek leases. Water clear. Grassy banks only (08/24/07).

Caught a dozen decent browns and hooked four monster fish, only one of which I was able to land. Most action was in the morning below the bridge; they quit feeding altogether in the afternoon. Small caddis worked for the smaller browns but the big ones took BH pheasant tail nymphs (August 13, 2007).

Stream flow was perfect but the water got a little too warm in the afternoon. We released about 120 browns and rainbows in roughly equal numbers, 20 of which were larger than 18 inches. Smaller fish took small BH nymphs while the large fish were more interested in streamers and large stonefly nymphs fished deep. We observed a variety of different mayfly and stonefly hatches throughout the day but very little surface action. Feeding window was between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM, after which the fish shut down for the afternoon (August 12, 2007).

Caught 8-12 inch browns on size 14-16 dry flies. Large brown on size 20-22 nymph in deep water (August 10, 2007).

I shared this property with another angler but Im not sure how he did. We split up and I fished the lower half. Nothing large but 20 or so nice browns on dry flies along the edges. I missed one huge fish in a pool when I set the hook too hard (August 6, 2007).

Lots of small fish throughout the property. One 19-inch brown caught below the bridge on a dry attractor, a couple more 18-inch browns caught in the straight run above the bridge and before the first bend on a prince nymph. Numerous big (18-22+ inch) rainbows caught upstream from here on a streamer with more fish being caught the closer I got to the swing gate. I pulled 5 big bows out of the short section just down stream of the boundary fence. One or two big browns were also caught in the upper section. I had a fantastic day and my arm was sore. Thanks to South Park Trout (July 30, 2007)!

Fished from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Water was high and off-color most of the day. Caught browns and rainbows 6-12 inches most of the day on nymphs (hopper and copper john). Nicest fish were 16-18 inch rainbows and 18 inch brown. Afternoon green drakes hatched and the fish were on a size 14 nymph. Will be back again! (July 29, 2007).

A number of small fish and some larger ones in the AM, all on various wolly buggers. Afternoon led to some whoppers, all deep on copper johns. Great place - beautiful views even when the fishing is slower (July 22, 2007).

Angler #1: Not much action until I figured out how to fish here. Large (#6) hare ear trailing a small (#16) pheasant tail produced many browns and rainbows in the deep pools, usually on the lift. The largest fish was a 3-pound brown that went ballistic (July 20, 2007).

Angler #2: This property is amazing! Landed at least ten fish over 17 inches, including a 22-inch rainbow, and lost an equal number of other large fish. No surface feeding at all, but took many fish on weighted muddler minnows around the pools. Also, several strikes on wolly buggers (July 20, 2007).

I will bring a bigger net next time. One brown: 24 inches; 3 bows: 20, 24 and 26 inches. Small fish on PMDs and BH pheasant tail. Big fish deep on BH wolly in olive & brown. Ill be back (July 16, 2007).

Browns and rainbows to 21 inches. Wolly bugger and Clouser minnow (July 15, 2007)

50-percent browns and 50-percent rainbows. Browns to 20 inches and rainbows to 16 inches. Copper john fished deep (July 13, 2007).

We caught many browns in the 12-14 inch range, and several rainbows over 20 inches. The neophyte in our group landed the biggest fish...a rainbow we estimated to be 30 inches (July 8, 2007).

Numerous browns to 16 inches; three 20-inch rainbows. Great Fishing! (July 7, 2007).

Caught most fish near upper boundary on elk hair caddis and red/black nymphs...18 inches and smaller but saw larger fish (July 2, 2007).

WOW - Trout on Steroids. Hi-stick nymphing in tails of pools. Some fish were 18, 19, 20, 22, 24 inches; many smaller fish. What a treat! (July 1, 2007)

Three anglers; lots of 9-13 inch browns on stimulators and caddis. One fat 17 inch rainbow on a #14 orange stimulator. Wild flowers were pretty but water could be a little lower (June 30, 2007).

Two hours of fishing produced twelve fish, including one 15 inch brown and two 18 inch rainbows (April 4, 2007).

Not much action but a few nice browns and rainbows were landed in five hours of fishing. One cuttbow was about 19 inches. Wolly buggers worked the best but we never found a pattern that produced consistently (April 9, 2007).

We didnt see or catch many fish all day. Either there arent many fish in this section or they are holding down deep in the new pools. Not worth the money (April 16, 2007).

Very slow fishing...only one fish was caught all day between three anglers (4-21-07).

Additional data available from the Colorado Division of Water Resources.