The rain is keeping us in the game! We are seeing flows bump almost every night or at least holding consistent. Our guides have been having great floats with clients and the fishing has been productive. We have openings in our schedule for trips so contact the shop for available days. Click HERE to go to our guided fly fishing trips on the Rio Grande River.
Where to fish? The fishing has been best from Lower Collar all the way up to the Reservoir. There are lots of hoppers around and we encourage everyone to throw dry dropper rigs. People really can’t go to big on their dry fly. We are catching fish on size 8-14 hoppers. Don’t shy away from changing your size if you aren’t catching fish. It seems to be more of a size game than a color game. Everything from pink and purple hobbers to natural yellow and cream has been working.
What time to fish? Early bird gets the worm. This has been true on the Rio recently with warmer evenings and water temps. our water temps are improving in the evenings with all the rain but 7:00-1:00 has been prime time.
Nymphs! The water color is slightly tinted in the morning due to rain fall. This is fantastic for the fishing. There is a lot of dislodgment happening under the service and many worms/ants being pushed in the river system. This time of year we love throwing large prince nymphs (old pattern but lethal as ever), pats rubber legs (we like black or black and brown), olive hares ear, black/blue or brown/gold perdigon, or whatever caddis or stone fly pattern that you seem to always fall back to.
Where are the fish? August fishing can get tricky on the Rio. Some days it seems they all got together and decided to leave Dodge. Not the case. Focus on the deeper water and heavy riffles. They are piled in to this type of water. Whenever the river gets low, the fish are looking for cover. Focus on the water that has more volume and faster speeds. A tip we like to tell our clients is look for color change. Where the river goes from a brown bottom (gravel or small rocks easily visible) and transitions to green or dark green you know there is a depth change. The fish (not all, but the majority) are stacked into these long runs or buckets. Another tip for reading water and finding fish is look for water texture. When there are short/sharp waves we know there is a drop off and the water is shallow. As the waves get longer and rounder we know we are looking at the main channel and the deepest water. This tends to be found right after the short/sharp waves.
To learn more about the area in and around Creede, Colorado click here.
