My favorite place to fish in the Lake City area, maybe in the state of Colorado, is the Uncompahgre Wilderness , a primitive wilderness of 102,525 acres in the Uncompahgre National Forest north of Lake City stretching west to Silver Jack Reservoir. Bureau of Land Management land was added in 1993 and the name was changed from Big Blue Wilderness. The streams are clear, cold and small and have a short fishing season but they are teeming with brook trout and the occasional rainbow and cutthroat. The southern end of the Uncompahgre Wilderness is punctuated by rugged, steep peaks while the northern section is dissected by numerous creeks and streams.
Numerous trails follow the drainages most of which interconnect.
The backpacking angler can have a field day with all the pristine streams and alpine lakes along these hundreds of miles of trails. These fisheries are infrequently fished and are full of wild mountain trout. Drive deep into the wilderness on a dirt road and launch a days-long fishing trip from one of the trailheads. The Uncompahgre Wilderness is a good starter area for backpacking anglers. The main streams like Big Blue and Cimarron run for tens of miles virtually unfished, full of wild trout.