Water flows through a stretch of the Lower Blue River that cuts through private land at Blue Valley Ranch.
As any traveling angler knows, Colorado has some of the strictest water-use rights in the country, so anglers must constantly be aware of the rules they need to follow to stay legal. A new proposal for a well-known stretch of the Blue River is pitting several water-use constituencies against each other:
Blue Valley Ranch, a more than 2,000-acre property owned by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II, and the nonprofit Friends of the Lower Blue River say a permit system is necessary to manage the negative impacts of increasing fishing pressure.
On the busiest days in recent years, the Lower Blue River — stretches of which are designated as Gold Medal fishing — has seen up to 45 boats on the river, according to data provided by Blue Valley Ranch. Meanwhile, the ranch’s data also show that fish mortality has increased while the number of fish per mile has dropped significantly in recent years. . . . But the proposal has some anglers upset that a potential permit system wasn’t discussed in the years leading up to the closing of the land swap, despite their concerns about losing public access along the river.
Click here to read the full story in The Aspen Times
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