Permanent Blockade At Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery

Many of you may have tried to catch the salmon run above Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery, and were left wondering where are all the salmon?  Kristen and I have gone up there twice, once around the end of September and the second time was around the middle of October, and both times there wasn't a single Koke in the East River above the hatchery.  We were relegated to fishing the Gunnison from the confluence down if we wanted to catch salmon.

The second attempt to find fish on the East we stopped and asked the guys at the shop in Almont where all the fish were, and they told us that there was a blockade put up at Roaring Judy preventing the salmon from migrating any further than the hatchery.  As far as anyone can tell the blockade is suppose to be up indefinitely, which means until further word there won't be any more opportunities to catch salmon on the East because all of the property along the river below the hatchery is private.  Good thing there was a decent run of Kokes on the Dream Stream which hopefully will see a resurgence.

From what I've been told a large majority of the stocked Kokanee in Colorado come from the milking program at Roaring Judy so anglers shouldn't be too upset as long as we see numbers rise in other areas.  Of course the blockade could have been put up in preparation for drought and potentially smaller runs do to climate change, and the fish might be allowed to run past the hatchery in the future during wetter seasons.  Also the Gunnison river fished fantastic for big Kokes and big Browns so it's not a total loss.

Kristen with a Gunnison River  Salmon

Again news of the blockade was just word of mouth and I haven't talked to CDOW or anyone that works for the hatchery.  When I find out something concrete and get all the details I'll give you an update.