I Need Your Help!

Despite the title, it's not life or death or anything like that, but I would like to get some feedback from anyone in Epic Land who might care to help.

As many of you know, I'm an avid fisherman.  There's a LOT of crossover between fishing and skiing, as it seems like about half the ski instructors and patrollers here in Jackson Hole are fishing guides during the offseason. 

I've done a few articles recently for a fishing publication called The Angling Report.  They have asked me to put together an article that would talk about ski resorts where fishing might be an additional option.  An example would be that when we lived in Salt Lake City, I used to often go skiing for a morning at Park City or the Canyons or Deer Valley and then spend the afternoon just down the road fishing for trout on the Middle Provo River near Heber City. 

Some other places I've done this include Aspen and the Frying Pan River, Vail and the Eagle River, Grand Targhee and the South Fork, and here in Jackson and the Snake River. 

I'm sure there are many other ski resorts where this would be an option and I'd love to hear any ideas you would care to share.  The Angling Report skews toward flyfishing, but any kind of fishing is just fine, as is any kind of fish (I love fishing for carp, for example).

I'm not asking anyone to give up their special secret fishing stashes.  Something as simple as a ski area and a stream or lake is good enough.  If you know of a local fly shop or guide you would recommend, that's great too.  You can also pm me if you'd prefer.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Big Sky and the Gallatin River... 

Mt. Baker and the Nooksack River as well as lots of mountain lakes in North Cascades National Park.

Stevens Pass and the Skykomish and Wenatchee rivers and their tributaries as well as the lakes of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and the Big Sky Wilderness.

Skykomish from Mt. Index down to Monroe is way cool...

Winter Park and the Fraser River - I was planting douglas fir trees along it a few weeks ago and people were out there with their fly rods.   They were mad at us for making noise but hey, we were trying to replace beetle kill trees.

Durango, and the great San Juan

I've heard there's some pretty good mountain stream trout fishing around Blowing Rock, Boone, and just about every western NC ski area.
That would be Appalachian Mountain, Sugar Mountain, Hawksnest, Beech Mountain, Cataloochie, Wolf Ridge, Saphire Valley, etc..

http://www.skinorthcarolina.com/

Mt.Bachelor,Oregon-The Deschutes and a number of high Cascade Lakes.

Snowbasin & the Ogden river.  I see lots of fly fisherman around there.  Also Pineview has all kinds of fish, tiger muskie being the prize.  Not sure about the Weber river, but probably some good fishing there as well.

The Tahoe resorts are all surrounded by fishing streams & lakes.  The big lake has Mackinaw fishing & Kokanee salmon, nothing like AK though!
JF

Hunter mountain and fly fishing on the Esopus. 

BK

A fly fishing school has long been promoted by Whitetail ski area in southern PA. See here for details/link:

 

http://www.skiwhitetail.com/flyfish.htm

Keystone and the Snake River (with demos in Lake Keystone), Breckenridge and the Blue.  Lots of fly fishing goes on in Summit County.

You all are great!  Thanks so much for the overwhelming responses. 

I hope you'll keep 'em coming.  There are some here I've never even heard of and a bunch that I would love to try.  The ones in the East are really helpful too.

4ster - Pineview also has great carp fishing in early May.

Just to kind of clarify - I'm looking for places where you could actually fish DURING a ski trip.  That usually means winter or early spring.  I suspect that a lot of mountain lakes would still be frozen over (and hard to get to) by the time most ski areas are closing in the spring.

daysailer1 beat me to it.  There's a place on the Fraser that's said to be Dwight Eisenhower's fave fly fishing spot.  I've heard that there are dozens of guides that will show you exactly where that is.  Of course none of them agree with any of the other as to it's exact whereabouts.

Quote:
We need a "smack myself in the forehead" emoticon.  I can't believe I didn't think of that one, considering I've fished the Gallatin several times.

By the way, we need some "off" season tags.  Fishing or flyfishing, for instance.

 In Jackson you can fish on the Snake river.  You should try it.

Yeah, I've actually smacked into them while waterskiing !
JF

That sludge canal???

NOBODY fishes in the Snake.

Here you go

Or maybe this one?

Much of what I described for Mt. Baker and Stevens Pass is unavailable during ski season, especially the lakes, but there must be decent steelhead fishing in the Skykomish because I see those guys in the lowlands standing in crowds in the river when it's 40F and raining hard and I'm driving up to ski.  I prefer a powder day.

While a much smaller area than those mentioned, the Mccall, Idaho area skiing by morning at Brundage resort, and fishing by afternoon up near Riggins, on the Salmon River, and possibly many of the others in the area.  Tamarack is hit or miss for skiing as well.

I believe I also saw fishing in the Sun Valley area while there skiing last winter.


Edited by AWilde - 9/3/09 at 3:13pm

Bob, here's a quick link for winter trout fishing,open but unguided during ski season,, Tahoe area.  http://www.flyfishingtruckee-tahoe.com/  There much more for California. But it's a start.

Hey Bob, just added the tag: fishing-flyfishing

It will take about 5 minutes to get indexed by the system. Thanks for the suggestion!

The San Juan is open year round..It is the river that comes out of Navajo lake 50 miles from Durango, It is about 15 miles east of Bloomfield, NM,  and a top spot for lunker Trout

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_River_(Utah)

Would this work for you during the ski season????  It's possible in Grand County/ Winter Park.  Someone in SS found dinner out of a frozen lake.

Cataloochee, NC - Johnathon Creek & Cataloochee Creek - both rainbow stocking streams
Ober Gatlinburg, TN - Little River & Middle Fork Little Pigeon River - rainbow & native brook
Wolf Ridge, NC - Laurel River - rainbow, brown, & smallmouth bass

Incidentially all of the above also offer good Class 3-4 kayaking

Even though the Frying Pan is more famous, many of my friends prefer the Roaring Fork.   Scotty Nichols is a good guide. 

They fish the Blue all winter in Summit County, CO. You'll see the fishermen amongst the outlet stores and under I-70.

I'm not certain about the Snake.

MR

Schweitzer Mt. ID and Kokanee in lake Pond Orelle. 

Silver Mt. has the Upper Coeur d' Alene River and a lot of others. Still a Blue Ribbon stream I think.

Or how about just about everything in Western Canada.

Taos and the Rio Grande Gorge.  During the winter there is often a midge hatch around 3:30 - 4:00 pm if it's clear/sunny.  Bead head nymphs if it's cloudy or snowing.  In mid-March, caddis hatches start.  I've often stopped after skiing at Taos for a few casts as the sun climbs the vertical walls of the Gorge.  I rarely see anyone there, but if it gets crowded I'm blaming you.