Box Elder Reservoir Number 3 Fishing Guide, Moffat County, Colorado

• Overview

  Look for Box Elder Reservoir Number 3 in the Moffat County part of Colorado. The water sits 5,591 feet up. A pocket of water where every cast reaches cover. On size it sits at the modest end of our Moffat County list. Start from Rangely, 13 miles down the road. Provo sits 158 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. Being near a boundary, it pays to know which side you are fishing.

• Where to Fish on Box Elder Reservoir Number 3

  We hold no survey for this water; read the slope of the shoreline instead. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Open biodiversity records for Moffat County list flannelmouth sucker, bluehead sucker, white sucker, common carp and brook trout. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Fish this water where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-run averages give July about 72°F and January about 18°F. A full turn of seasons, with the strongest sport on either side of summer. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from late March. Average temperatures cross freezing around late March in spring and again near early December in autumn. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. This water runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. There is no recorded infrastructure here; expect to find your own way in. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. For a change of water, Box Elder Reservoir Number 4 is 0.8 miles distant. What applies at this water may have changed since it was mapped.