River Bachelor Party Locations....

Hey guys,

I looking to solicit ideas for a good river location for a bachelor party this summer.

Buddy is a big river guy, avid fisherman, has run the Grand multiple times, etc. We live in Gunnison/Crested Butte CO and want to get out of Colorado.

He's not into strippers, so we are trying to find a cool location to travel to, with the intent of doing some half day float trips. Day of fishing, day of booze cruzing, day of gold panning, etc.

We have spent a fair bit of time in the Jackson area, so hoping for other suggestion of rivers within ~8hrs Gunnison which might provide for a couple cool days of rafting/fishing/biking, etc.

Good fishing is a +, good rapids is a +, other stuff to do in the area is a +.

Any suggestions?

How about going the Big Horn in wyo a shot? Or hit up the Cody, wyo area if you can spare the extra miles.

BH - ring up WySplit at http://www.dunoirfishing.com/ . Great guy. No ww on the Big horn below the canyon but http://www.windrivercanyon.com/ can hook you up on that dept. private float trips are not permitted on the canyon. Fun water. Awesome fishing. Good for a day.

The Cody area kicks ass and Cody is fun ...at least to me. But I dig small town bars. http://www.eastgateanglers.com/ can give you the scoop. All types of water there.


Something different than the Tetons.

Probably too far away, but if not, you should check out the lower Salmon River. There are some options that take multiple days, but some that take a day, with option to camp on the river. Riggins is a fun town in the summer time, too.

Rio Grande near Taos?

Thank you for the great suggestions so far guys/gal!

We have never spent any time in Cody/big horn, so going to look into that. We like small town bars too. Only way to stay out of trouble.

Tye- What's the Rio like in that area? Only times I have been in New Mexico are comps at Taos and races and Angle Fire.

Steamboat or Cody if you want a short drive but I think Bend, OR sounds like a match if you want to hop on a plane.

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Originally Posted by backcountry1pr

Tye- What's the Rio like in that area? Only times I have been in New Mexico are comps at Taos and races and Angle Fire.

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been years, but the Box is a classic Class IV(+) early season run, and there's some fun small town bars. Not sure of the fishing...

What time of year? You can't really go wrong with the Green. A section for straight fishing, B & C for floating with fishing. Really depends on time of year and how you value the camping and and scenery and such vs. the fishing. On longer trips I usually go for the surroundings over the world class fishing but that's me.

Fishing and rafting on the Rio Grande are pretty much mutually exclusive... Fishing can be fantastic, but it's a wild river and flows need to be lower than 500 cfs for the best fishing (fall & spring). There are lots of other local, small stream options. Rafting in the box is pretty great bordering on crazy during high flow years, but things aren't looking good at all for that.

How about the Rio Chama? No much whitewater though.

http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/rec...chama_wsr.html

I saw your comment about having already been around Jackson, but have you been up to Driggs and Victor ID? It's the quiet side of the Tetons with great small town bars, fishing on the oft-overlooked Teton River, South Fork of the Snake, Henry's Fork, and tons of creeks. Biking is sweet too.

How is the fishing on the Chama? Been trying to score a smith permit for years to take the family and the Chama looks like a other mellow scenic option.

On the b-party side, I did the green. Not much white water but great fishing with easy riverside camping. If you have the time, Henry's with a night on the south fork would be killer. Maybe an upper green float on the way up/down.

Because of this thread, I actually went to the Chama 3 weeks ago before the flows went up, but didn't have any luck. Fishing below El Vado can be very good at the right flows for big browns, there are a lot of bait fishermen. 5 miles or so down the habitat declines, there are still fish but they are damn tough to catch (that's where I went recently). Fishing can be good before Abiquiu primarily in the fall.

Chama is super-scenic, I would definitely bring a rod but to be a hard-core fishing trip, one would have to slow roll the first couple of miles. The Chama has very deep holes in the banks dug by muskrats or whatever that are inhabited by huge browns. When they do electro shocking incredible pigs drift out. Getting them to hit a fly fair and square is a different matter -bait, night fishing, noodling or dynamite.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/DSCN1359.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c...0/DSCN1356.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...0/DSCN1334.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z...0/DSCN1352.JPG

All in the timing. For more reliable fly fishing, the stretches above El Vado are good to great, but not in a boat.