Westcliffe
Fly Fishing Paradise
This quaint rural setting known as Westcliffe is a place where you can slip under the radar to spend long summer days enjoying the high meadow mountain weather while visiting with the company of the many friendly residents. The town is adjacent to the historic mining town of Silver Cliff Colorado. Westcliffe Colorado and Silver Cliff in Custer County, sit at approximately 8000 ft., and are surrounded by the majestic Sangre de Cristo mountain range ascending to 14,000 ft heights, to the west and the Wet Mountains to the east. The Collegiate Mountains can be viewed to the north, and the Spanish Peaks sit in the south. Though the town is small, there are a full range of dining and lodging services available.
(click on the link below for a full listing of services)
Westcliffe Lodging & Dining
Custer County is visited yearly by people from all over the world, for not only the views of the mountains, but for the many recreational activities found here; such as, hiking, fishing, camping, horse back riding, bird watching, and technical climbing, as well as the Wildlife preserve and observatory it has held intact.This particular area of the Colorado Rocky Mountains is known as the Sangre de Cristo's is famous for it's unparalleled views and endless miles of lush wilderness trails and mountain meadows bursting with wild flowers.
Local Fly Fishing
DeWeese ReservoirBrook trout and cutthroat trout are available in the lake but are not plentiful. Short sections of Grape Creek above and below the lake are accessible for stream fishing. Besides some vault toilets and a few picnic tables, few other amenities are available at this SWA. The lake is open to boating year-round if conditions allow, and fishing is allowed at all hours.
Deweese is primarily a trout fishery stocked regularly with catchable rainbow trout, but it also stocked with put-and-grow McConaughy rainbows that have been growing fast and large due to the reduction in the sucker population. 16-20 inch rainbows are not uncommon. The reduction in suckers is attributed to plentiful stocking of tiger muskie, which exist in the lake but not in large numbers. Many tigers are lost down stream during spillover, and make their way down to Pueblo Reservoir.
In addition to trout and tiger muskie, Deweese offers the opportunity for catching smallmouth bass, but it is more of a quantity fishery than a quality fishery. Smallmouth catches are typically small to average size. Grape Creek Running thru the town of Westcliffe into DeWeese Reservoir, then flowing into the high mountain meadows below the reservoir, Grape Creek is a small stream delight for fly fisherman. Containing Rainbow, Browns and Brook trout, it offers the angler a variety of game fish challenges.
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