The Yampa runs right through downtown Steamboat, tubers and all, and somewhere under the summer circus it's a decent brown-and-rainbow freestone with whitefish for company. The honest story here is heat: the town reach is one of Colorado's poster children for summer voluntary closures, going low and warm enough that the right call most July afternoons is to leave the trout alone. Spring and autumn are the times — pre-runoff and the cooling weeks of fall — and when the river's running low and warm, the honest call is to leave it alone rather than fish bathwater.

• Mixed

• Aquatic life: Supporting