Early arrival tips? Fly fishing?

[clusterpluck]

Hi!  First timer here!  I will be arriving the friday before the festival and camping in town park.  After setting up camp saturday morning my buddy and I hope to leave our site set up and head to do some epic hiking.  Any MUST SEE trails/views you all would recommend?  any tips and suggestions appreciated!

FLY FISHING

I would love love love to get some hours in fishing in the greater telluride area.  any river sections, nearbye area that you lovely people can recommend?  I am a dire hard streamer fly fisherman but i also enjoy traditional dry fly fishing!  lets link up and catch some gold!

Thanks in advance for the tips!

(side note) I am looking a couple additional Town Park +festival tickets as well as greenskybluegrass nightgrass!  i have red knuckles and friution towards a trade+cash!

 Listening to: Billy Strings

[troutbum]

Great fishing in the San Juans, but that time of year might be tough to find a spot on the San Miguel around Telluride. The runoff is still pretty strong that time of year, and with more snow coming now it might not be worth the time to find pockets, let alone treacherous. I would recommend going down towards Ridgway State Park and fishing the Uncompaghre below the dam. Flows might be lower depending on the levels in the reservoir and there is a lot of good water. Look for the parking lot for Pa-Co-Chu-Puk campground. It will be about 45 minutes from Telluride. Otherwise if you have some AWD you can find some high country lakes aplenty in that area and they love dries.

[pburke5]

I plan on fly-fishing as well, if I can find fishable water. We'll be camping at Mary Ilium. Trout Bum's suggestion of Pa-Co-Chu-Puk is a good one, it's been years but I used to fish there all the time (wife is from Montrose). I doubt I'll be able to leave town, since I can't move my rig once we set up camp at Mary E. But I'm looking into options, I'll PM you if I figure anything out.

[tupelohoney]

In terms of hiking, Bear Creek Fall is always a good one and it's accessible right from town. About 5 miles RT.

Jud Wiebe trail is also pretty, taking you up out the north side of town.

[clusterpluck]

BUMP for more fishing and hiking suggestions!