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Blue River Restoration Project
In the late '90s, Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) electro-shocking surveys revealed that some sections of the Blue River no longer met the state's gold-medal standards. Low flows from a six-year drought, whirling disease, insect-choking sedimentation from tributary streams, and poor aquatic habitat were the suspected culprits in the gradual decline of this fishery that was once considered one of Colorado's best.

The river channel in the Silverthorne area was 80 to 100 feet across in many places, much too wide for the volume of water, creating a shallow river with little trout habitat. As Denver's water demands continue to escalate, water from Dillon Reservoir is diverted out of the Blue River system via the Roberts Tunnel and into the North Fork of the South Platte River.

Rather than wait for flows to return to their historic levels, the town of Silverthorne, along with the CDOW, USDA Forest Service, the Department of Transportation, Denver Water Board, and Trout Unlimited, secured a $94,750 grant from the National Forest Foundation that was matched with $99,898 in locally raised funds for habitat improvement (Trapper Rudd's Silverthorne fly shop--Cutthroat Anglers--is a major sponsor of the annual Blue River Festival, an important financial contributor for Blue River habitat work.)

This group of agencies produced a "river design" that would maximize trout and aquatic insect habitat during low flows and help restore the fishery to gold-medal status. The stream work took place in the summer of 2003 and included 16 major improvements and structures over .6 miles of river between I-70 and the Dillon Reservoir dam.

The Blue River Restoration Project also included signs to educate the public and protect the trout from excessive harvest in an urban environment. Regulations in the Silverthorne area are catch-and-release with flies and lures only.

After the habitat work was completed in the summer of 2003, CDOW began an aggressive stocking program to overcome population losses due to whirling disease and other factors. The Blue River was not stocked by the state between 1991 and 2003 but in 2003 and 2004, approximately 2,500 13- to 15-inch rainbows and 45,000 rainbow fingerlings were planted between Silverthorne and Green Mountain Reservoir. An additional 46,000 (20,000 5-inch, 25,000 6-inch, and 1,000 16-inch) Colorado River rainbows were to be distributed in the same stretch in the 2005 season. According to the CDOW there are also 1,100 wild brown trout 14 inches or larger per mile in the 4-mile stretch of river that runs through the Silverthorne area.

Silverthorne completed a similar restoration project in 2000 through a Colorado Fishing is Fun grant and planned to complete another 4,300 feet of river through a similar grant in the fall of 2005. With these substantial improvements to the aquatic habitat, and stocking by CDOW, the Blue is well down the road to recovery and already regaining its reputation as one of Colorado's best tailwater trout streams.

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Pat Dorsey is co-owner of the Blue Quill Angler in Evergreen, Colorado. He is author of the book A Fly Fisher's Guide to the South Platte River (Pruett Publishing Company, 2005).

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