Rio Grande River: The Rio Grande is in low water right now but the water temps are cold. Whats this mean? The fish are happy and they are starting to put the feed back on. We have been getting rain every evening and its keeping the flows consistent.
Our guides are ready to take people on the water for guide trips. This is a great time of year to take a trip. The river has close to no pressure and you’re more than likely to have a section of river to yourself with our guides.
What are the fish eating? It’s mid August and the fish are keying into hopper patterns on the surface. When walking around, people will kick up a majority of size 10-16 yellow belly hoppers. A para hopper, morrish hopper, or Rio’s juicy hopper are our guide favorites. You can also skate smaller size madam x’s in size 14-16.
The Rio hosts a majority of caddis and stone fly nymphs. With the lack hatches happening, they are very keyed into big stone fly patterns like a pat’s rubber leg, 20 incher, prince nymph, and Montana stone. Vary your size but most fish are coming on sizes 8-12.
For our caddis patterns we like a hare’s ear, any olive or lime green case caddis, pheasant tail, olive perdigon, or caddis larvae. Size 12-18 under or above depending on what rig you prefer should be a productive setup.
North Clear Creek Update: Unfortunately the Forest Service is doing construction on a bridge downstream of Continental Reservoir. They have cut the flows to just about 0 CFS. We strongly advise as a fly shop and conservationist that nobody fishes this creek. We all love it and hope that it can pull through with no water helping these fish. Do your part and avoid this creek for the time being.
All other drainages of the Rio are fishing great. Whatever dry fly pattern you have confidence in should work. There are not many people in the area and the fish are seeing a lack of pressure. Keep in mind the higher elevation you go, the smaller the grasshoppers are… With that being said, a hopper pattern should do the trick.
For any detailed questions, please come into the shop and we would love to send you in the right direction.
