Colorado's newest Gold Medal waters - Gunnison and Taylor rivers

Years of consideration and conservation work all led to a golden moment for two pristine rivers in central Colorado.
During its meeting Jan. 18 in Colorado Springs, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approved the Gunnison and Taylor Rivers as the newest Gold Medal trout fisheries in the state. CPW’s Gold Medal Program showcases the most elite fisheries throughout the state.
The stretches nominated and approved include 20 miles of the Taylor River below Taylor Park Reservoir and 12.5 miles of the Gunnison River starting west of the town of Gunnison at Twin Bridges and extending up to the town of Almont.

[@kyle-ri5mz]

hey what would be really cool is if you would open up access to the Taylor fork... instead of letting that mining company just put fences up all along the highway, as if its super important for them to criminalize fishing next to the highway.

[@deanpesci8484]

I went to Western State in the late 70s, and memories of riding my road bike down to Cooper Ranch and flyfishing the day away are some of my best flyfishing memories.

[@jayemar001]

Wow! How Cool is that... Nice to see Adam and Ella doing what they Enjoy! @ 6:05 mark

[@TroutWest]

The taylor is mostly private land... tough to fish it.

[@SalSavia-y7x]

Gunni resident here,what took so bloody long?!

[@ImakeITHappEN510]

Does the Taylor river have a limit on which fish we can catch ? All I see is 4 limit but no size regulation?

[@ImakeITHappEN510]

I’m gonna visit soon

[@Wogger46]

What a horrible opening to a video than a fisherman holding a fish with gloves on. Seriously? That is a dead fish

[@Dryflydadguy]

i was going to watch this until i saw the angler wearing gloves.

[@ectorreza9616]

Gloves that are specifically designed to handle fish 😆. Your funny.

[@ColoradoParksandWildlife]

Cotton or wool gloves are typically used by our sampling crews to better grasp and handle the fish when weighing and measuring them. They are always wet which reduces the amount of slime that is removed from the fish compared to dry gloves. While we do recommend anglers use their bare wet hands to handle fish and reduce the amount of slime that is removed from the fish, sampling crews need to quickly and efficiently process thousands of fish at some sites so we need this aid to better grasp them.

[@Dryflydadguy]

@@ColoradoParksandWildlife why not use nitrile gloves? i totally get where you’re coming from

[@854RUN]

@@ColoradoParksandWildlife Maybe don't show it on a public video that will give people that don't know better the impression that it's OK because, look the CPW crews do it. And just because your gloves are wet doesn't mean you're doing less harm, The reason you're wearing the gloves is to cut through the slime to hold them without it getting away thus still potentially harming the fish. Also ditch the cloth Nets for the same damn reason. Do Better!

[@troutbumgypsy9169]

Should I wear gloves when releasing my fish?

[@bobohunter1776]

Just keep your hands wet and get them back in the water fast.

[@ColoradoParksandWildlife]

We do recommend anglers use their bare wet hands to handle fish and reduce the amount of slime that is removed from the fish.

[@deanpesci8484]

I do wonder how long it takes the riverbed biome to recover after 20 people slog through it.

[@deanpesci8484]

It is unfortunate that a very good stretch of the Taylor is off limits due to some bogus mining claim. Most of the biggies are in there, as they know they wont get harrassed by flyfisherman.

[@gmen1305]

Agreed, more than 1/2 maybe closer to 3/4 of the Taylor River from the dam to Almont is not accessible due to BS private land claims - if you want to reduce the pressure from the dam to the bridge - which is a cluster right now, more areas of the river should be accessible