Gold Dust Lakes Fishing in Eagle County, Colorado

• Overview

  Gold Dust Lakes belongs to Eagle County, Colorado. The water sits 11,280 feet up. You can fish the entire water from one spot if you pick it well. It is a small entry by Eagle County standards. Nearest place of any size is Avon, 10 miles away. For a city, Boulder is 78 miles off. The nearest boundary is a fair way off. Access points are few, so the middle stretches see little traffic.

• Where to Fish on Gold Dust Lakes

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Open biodiversity records for Eagle County list brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and black-spotted cutthroat trout. The list covers the county rather than this water alone, so treat it as a guide. Gold Dust Lakes responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-term averages put July at about 50°F and January near 14°F. The year splits cleanly: hard water, then open water. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early June. The water is typically free of ice between early June and early November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Time your trip to Gold Dust Lakes by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. Formal access is not mapped, so the last stretch is likely on foot. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. If the gate is shut, Big Pine Lake at 0.4 miles is the nearest alternative. Check the position at Gold Dust Lakes before loading the car.