Down through Bighorn Sheep Canyon and into the Royal Gorge the Arkansas is bigger, lower, and warmer than the high water up at Granite, and it behaves differently for it. Early season and autumn are the times here — browns and rainbows in a long, rock-walled freestone that holds good fish but heats up fast once July arrives. This is the reach where the thermal-welfare call gets real: a warm low-water afternoon down in the canyon is a poor choice for the trout, regardless of what the calendar says. Go early or go higher up the river.
- Mixed
