2001 Rio Grande Fly Fishing Report Archives
Historically
the Rio Grande fished best in the Fall{September-October} and maybe 2 years
out of 10, when runoff was low or later than usual we have the Caddis Hatch
which starts in mid to late April. The mild dry winters of the late 90's
have made this an almost annual event and we have been seeing the first bugs
in the first week of April. In September our summer rains subside and with
the end of the irrigation season in Colorado flows stabilize and fishing
is the best of the year on the Rio.
Spring: First Caddis spotted in Pilar on 4/2. Flows were about
400cfs {State Line} and not quite clear but fishable. Altho there wasn't much
snow this year the water never got real clear and fishing was fair at best.
You had to work hard for your fish. I did a lot of sight fishing {casting only
to rising fish}. They had more snow in the upper reaches of the Rio Grande
Basin so there was some runoff and fishing was only fair thru April.
Fall: By mid September the flow
was about 120cfs {State Line} and clear. Lots of anglers in the Box this
year and fish were spooky. We fished a lot with
a 2 nymph combo and an indicator {Weighted Stonefly nymph or Cranefly Larva
with a Caddis larva dropper 14" below}.With clients I fished on 9/22,
9/26, 9/27 and 9/29 and fishing was good depending on their skills. We got
some nice Cutbos in the Box in the 2nd half of September.. In October water
temps were better and fishing picked up but so did the fishing pressure. I'd
never seen this many anglers in the Box and crossing to the west side improved
the action. In the wilder sections of the Box fishing was excellent on Moth-Caddis
Larva D&D combos. There were lots of natural Moths around this year..We
had some good rains also and this tended to discolor the water a bit.
Rio Grande
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