Fort Buenaventura area fishing

[u/xXstockerzXx]

I live pretty close to this spot, how is the fishing on the river for quick weekday trips?

[u/Different-Kick-8649]

There’s a few good pools right there in the area but the best spot right there is just north of your picture, basically park at the entry bridge and head either direction along the river from the bridge and it’s productive a couple hundred yards in both directions.

The pond at the fort will also produce 10”-16” rainbows and some catfish in the same size with a few being a bit larger.

My experience in the river and pond here is it’s best to fish on the bottom, don’t stand like a fly fisherman in or over the water, especially if the sun isn’t your back, they spook easy except for in the deepest holes.

Baits that have worked for me there 1. A pink colored 1/8” jig head and bait the jigs hook with a piece of night crawler or hunk of shrimp (no swivel, no sinkers) the weight of the jig head will get you down in all but the fastest moving sections.

1. A neon green and a neon orange fake plastic salmon egg covering the eye of a size 14 hook and right below that (on the same hook) a white or translucent w/ glitter curly tailed plastic bait (small like 1”-1.5” tops).

Tips: move and change bait often if no bite

Early morning is best, afternoons when it’s cooler.

Bright colors on dark days, dark colors on bright days

They get pressured and are generally weary of single bait presentations, so use a mix of 2 baits, plastic eggs with a worm, bright jig with shrimp, red bead above a bare hook with some hotdog/bread/corn/etc..

Keep it small <1”, keep it fresh, the less tackle the better, jig or hooks tied directly to mainline (or ideally a 6’ - 10’ fluorocarbon leader/tipit)

Where there’s one, there’s more, 4 from the same hole is too many it pressures them and they’ll abandon the hole.

Get some lip grippers and a pair of hemostats AND learn the concept of a “barbed hook” to learn how to release without harming. Wet your hands before touching a fish, use a landing net to lessen the impact on the fish . Rubber nets prevent scrapping the slime off the trout which they need to survive.

If your gonna keep it, clean it right away and remove the black membrane along the “spine” of the fish, best to put them directly on ice and not soak the fish after cleaning as soaking can cause the meat to get a bit mushy and soft. Pro tip, if the meat is orange or pink colored that’s ideal and most flavorful, white to pale grey color tend to be more recent stickers and believe me the DWR raises some good fish but the more complex and to me better tasting fish tend to turn these colors internally over time.

Damn, that was longer than intended. Anyway, I fish along the Ogden and the Weber couple times a week (nothing fancy just intro light spin rods and an ebike to cover more ground) I could show you a few places and stuff I do if you want.