YOUR AD HERE »

Meeker area offers prime waters for anglers

Located on Colorado’s Western Slope, Meeker is the hub of fishing in Rio Blanco County.

From the White River winding its way down through town, to the lakes and streams filled with trout, Meeker is an angling paradise.

Stan Wyatt, owner of Wyatt’s Sports Center at the corner of Eighth Street and Colorado Highway 13, said the White River has rainbow and brown trout and whitefish, with the best fishing occurring from mid-May to mid-June. Early in the year, Wyatt recommends top-of-water flies like the blue wing olives and elk hair caddis.



The high mountain lakes upriver from Meeker are best to fish when the ice first melts off in the spring and early summer. The Marvine lakes offer excellent fishing if you are up for an eight-mile hike in the summer after the snow melts. Anglers can reach Skinny Fish Lake by driving up Rio Blanco County Road 8 and looking for the trailhead before reaching Trappers Lake.

Fishing guide John Wix said Lake Avery is a fish haven, stocked each year with rainbows for anglers using spinners, power-bait and worms.



The lake is 18 miles from Meeker and is open to small boats, but also works well with shore fishing.

Trappers Lake is premier high-country fishing at its best. Located in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, this lures-only lake is one of the largest natural lakes in Colorado. Its icy-cold, 180-foot depth is perfect for the numerous cutthroat trout that are milked of eggs each year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for raising as fry to be transplanted into other Colorado lakes and streams.

The lodge at Trappers Lake is scheduled to open this summer offering cabins and boat rentals to visitors, along with a hot meal.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.