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Home › Waters › Colorado › Arkansas River
River · Central Colorado · Colorado

Arkansas River Fishing Guides

A hundred miles of Gold Medal freestone from Leadville through Buena Vista and Browns Canyon to Salida, the most-rafted and most-fished river in Colorado.

An angler working a wide sagebrush river valley at dusk in the Northern Rockies

Map of the Arkansas River

19 numbered points: 14 access points, 1 bait & fly shop, 2 parks and conservation areas, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 8, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (14)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (1)
  • Park / conservation area (2)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 19 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Railroad Bridge Recreation Area
AHRA · Chaffee County		Park / conservation area38.92326, -106.16997State-park river site above Buena Vista.
2Boat ramp on the Arkansas River Trail, Buena Vista
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'Arkansas River Trail'		Access / boat ramp38.84717, -106.12225Mapped ramp in Buena Vista at the whitewater park.
3The Trailhead
Outdoor shop · East Main Street, Buena Vista		Bait, tackle & fly shop38.84295, -106.12919Gear and tackle shop two blocks off the river in Buena Vista.
4Boat ramp on County Road 300 at Nathrop
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'CR 300'		Access / boat ramp38.75221, -106.07085Mapped ramp on CR 300 at Nathrop, at the head of Browns Canyon.
5USGS 07091200 — Arkansas River near Nathrop
USGS streamgage · at Hecla Junction		USGS gauge38.65222, -106.05113The Browns Canyon gauge; read it before you commit to the canyon.
6Hecla Junction
AHRA · County Road 194		Access / boat ramp38.65185, -106.05127State-park take-out at the foot of Browns Canyon.
7Stone Bridge Takeout
AHRA · Road 191		Access / boat ramp38.61153, -106.06339Named take-out below Hecla Junction.
8Boat ramp on the Salida River Trail
Unnamed slipway · Salida		Access / boat ramp38.53805, -105.99107Mapped ramp in Salida at the town whitewater park.
9Boat ramp on US 50 below Salida
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'US 50'		Access / boat ramp38.50960, -105.96343Mapped ramp on the highway below Salida.
10Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area — Point Bar
AHRA · Howard		Access / boat ramp38.47144, -105.87084State-park river site at Howard.
11Boat ramp on County Road 45 at Howard
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'County Road 45'		Access / boat ramp38.47270, -105.86602Mapped ramp at Howard beside the Point Bar site.
12Boat ramp on County Road 45 below Howard
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'CR 45'		Access / boat ramp38.39155, -105.77440A second mapped ramp on the river road, downstream of Howard.
13Trading Post River Access
AHRA · Trading Post Road		Access / boat ramp38.36762, -105.71533Named state-park access with parking and toilets on site.
14Lone Pine River Access
AHRA · US 50		Access / boat ramp38.39106, -105.65192Named state-park access above Texas Creek.
15Ford's Landing River Access
AHRA · US 50, Texas Creek		Access / boat ramp38.40970, -105.59084Named state-park access at Texas Creek.
16Texas Creek River Access
AHRA · County Road 27		Access / boat ramp38.41056, -105.58451Named state-park access at the CR 27 bridge.
17Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Colorado Parks and Wildlife with the BLM		Park / conservation area38.48592, -105.38890The state-park corridor that manages most of the accesses on this sheet; this marker is the mapped centre of the boundary near Howard, not a site.
18Boat ramp at 4th Street, Canon City
Unnamed slipway · OSM '4th Street'		Access / boat ramp38.43688, -105.24057Town ramp in Canon City below the Royal Gorge.
19Minnequa Dam
Diversion dam below Canon City		Dam / hazard38.41445, -105.15987Diversion structure on the river east of Canon City; no boat passage.

Guides on the Arkansas River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Arkansas River

The Arkansas runs south out of Leadville under the Sawatch fourteeners, through Buena Vista and Browns Canyon National Monument to Salida and on into the Royal Gorge. Colorado designates most of it Gold Medal water, which reflects a brown trout population that recovered dramatically once mine drainage upstream was cleaned up, and it is now the longest Gold Medal stretch in the state.

Brown trout dominate, wild and abundant, with rainbows filling in and whitefish throughout. The river fishes well from a boat and from foot, and the calendar is built around the caddis hatch, which starts near Canon City in April and moves upstream over several weeks in one of the great migratory events in western fly fishing. Summer brings hoppers and heavy commercial rafting traffic, and fall brings the best big-brown fishing of the year once the boats go home.

The Nathrop gauge is the reference number for the Buena Vista and Browns Canyon water. Roughly 300 to 900 cfs is comfortable wade and float water. Runoff in late May and June can push it well past 2,000, which is prime whitewater and difficult fishing; the Voluntary Flow Management Program keeps summer flows in a boat-friendly range for the rafting season, and flows drop sharply in fall when that program ends, which is exactly when the fishing gets good.

Buena Vista and Salida are the base towns and both are full of outfitters running both rafts and drift boats. Leadville sits at the top of the river, and the Royal Gorge is at the bottom, so a week here can cover a hundred miles of very different water.

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

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Posting to Arkansas River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Hayden Meadows and Leadville: the upper river, small water and cutthroat.
Granite and Clear Creek confluence: upper canyon access along Highway 24.
Buena Vista and Fisherman's Bridge: town access and popular float launches.
Nathrop and Ruby Mountain: access near the gauge and the Browns Canyon put-in.
Browns Canyon National Monument: the classic float, class III whitewater and good fishing.
Stone Bridge and Salida: mid-river ramps and town water.
Rincon and Parkdale: lower river access toward the Royal Gorge.

Seasons

Year-round on most of the river.
April and May: the caddis hatch moving upstream, the signature event of the season.
June: runoff, high water and peak rafting; fish the edges or wait.
July through October: hoppers and terrestrials, dropping flows in September, the best brown trout fishing in October.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Arkansas River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Arkansas River in Colorado.

Are there fishing guides on the Arkansas River?

GuidedFloats lists 4 guides and outfitters on the Arkansas River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Arkansas River?

Hayden Meadows and Leadville: the upper river, small water and cutthroat. Granite and Clear Creek confluence: upper canyon access along Highway 24. Buena Vista and Fisherman's Bridge: town access and popular float launches. Nathrop and Ruby Mountain: access near the gauge and the Browns Canyon put-in. Browns Canyon National Monument: the classic float, class III whitewater and good fishing. Stone Bridge and Salida: mid-river ramps and town water. Rincon and Parkdale: lower river access toward the Royal Gorge.

When is the best time to fish the Arkansas River?

Year-round on most of the river. April and May: the caddis hatch moving upstream, the signature event of the season. June: runoff, high water and peak rafting; fish the edges or wait. July through October: hoppers and terrestrials, dropping flows in September, the best brown trout fishing in October.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Arkansas River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Colorado agency site: https://cpw.state.co.us/rules-and-regulations