Colorado's Taylor River

Starting above the timberline as a stream that spills into the Taylor Reservoir and then turns into a classic tailwater before rushing toward the upper Gunnison, the Taylor River gets plenty of pressure from anglers who know it for rainbows grown fat on mysis shrimp. That doesn’t keep locals from pursuing its big, often finicky fish. “The Taylor has a well-deserved reputation as being hard to fish. In addition to the abundant and summerlong ‘rubber hatch,’ the river is cold and the bottom mossy with boulders that could double as bowling balls. Also, it’s paralleled by a much-traveled paved road, which means the quality of the fishing drops whenever a pull-out allows easy access.” Dave Buchanan in the Grand Junction Sentinel.