The Colorado River originates in Rocky Mountain National Park. We generally fish the sections from Gore Canyon to the town of Rifle bridge. The Colorado is generally a wider and slower river with some faster canyon stretches and excellent hatches and beautiful scenery along the river corridor. The sections below Glenwood Springs are the first to be available in the early season for float fishing. As the spring gives way to summer the focus shifts from Glenwood Springs and Dotsero, upstream to State Bridge and just below Gore Canyon and the Pumphouse boat launch. The Colorado offers more remote stretches of water and a slower pace to the day with an opportunity to view wildlife and unique geology along the way.

Last Updated by JP Modderno on 4/30/2026

Spring time is here and we have some very bizarre and constantly changing conditions on the Colorado. The Upper C has leveled out at around 700 cfs on the Kremmling gauge which has lead to some pretty consistant fishing with BWOs and Caddis showing up. I only have on the river reports from Rancho down so I'm not sure how far up the caddis hatch has made it. As of now, Rancho is running shuttles on Weekends from Two Bridges up and Confluence Casting is Running shuttles from State Bridge down to Dotsero.

The lower C below Glenwood is a different beast. For you fun floaters, Grizzly to Glenwood is fishing great, just make sure you are aware of the spawning closures! Below Glenwood the conditions are variable and the clarity is very dependent on what the Roaring Fork is doing. We're seeing it range from a few feet or so of visibility to full on blown out depending on what the weather and rain is doing so keep an eye on the Roaring Fork Glenwood Gauge. The hatches are great though with a some blue wings hanging around and a lot of caddis. This is also my favorite time to streamer fish for some of those bigger browns. There is a new shuttle service called driftline shuttle that you can book online. They seem very reliable so far

SPAWNING CLOSURES: Please be aware of and respectful of the Spawning Closures on Grizzly, No Name, Canyon and Elk Creek from March 15-May31!

Keep Em Wet: If you must take a photo, leave the fish in the water

Keep your rod tip almost in the water when stripping your streamer back in.

NYMPHS: Tungsten slim shady BWOs, olive zebra midges, neon nightmare, black rainbow warriors all in 18-20. Big hare's ears and similar flies like the Taz Devil and hot wrap duracell in 12-18. Red and Pink Worms, chartreuse and oregon cheese eggs.

DRIES: Decent dry fly activity on BWOs and Caddis. Beefus Emerger 18-22, Christianson's BWO 18-22, Parachute adams 16-20, Renegade 16-20, Film Critic BWO 18-20, Garcia's mini hot may in black and olive 18-22, Black sedge caddis dries in an 18, double duck caddis 16-18. hot mess caddis 16-18, missing link caddis 16-18.

STREAMERS:  Cream, Black and Gray Dungeons, Rainbow and Black Heisenberg, Game Changers, D&D Deceivers. Whatever you are confident in will work best though!