The Willies Fork tailwater section is one of my personal favorites and no matter the time, always seems to produce some fish for me.  Midges, stoneflies, annelids and streamers are the go to flies for this area and fishing slow and steady, covering all likely water will reward you with some excellent fish to the next.

The Williams Fork River begins high up on the divide and works its way down into williams fork reservoir where a tailwater section below produces year round access.  Winter is tough to access since it’s a 1/2 mile hike, but the fishing can be a lot of fun any time you visit.  The upper reaches holds smaller fish that suffer from the mining issues up on ute pass.  Many fish can still be caught and it’s a good place to beat the crowds for the day or weekend.  You can easily get to the upper reaches from hwy 40 up past the reservoir on road 3, or you can come from silverthorne up Ute pass.

The tailwater itself has mostly browns with a few bigger rainbows if you find them.  The fish are healthy and hang out in the 14-16 range.  Some get bigger and a few get smaller, but you can catch a lot of medium sized fish here with consistency.  The river is full of stoneflies below and caddis above in the upper reaches so bring both during the spring to summer in both nymph and dries.  Mayflies and midges are also in the river creating a healthy insect population.  Mosquitos can be bad in the early summer after run off so bring repellant and pack accordingly.