The water remains a little higher and the fishing is excellent. Good reports all around although in the bright days it is a little more technical. Mid-river the fishing was great all week. On Monday, there was a strong midge and baetis hatch in the afternoon. The fish fed well until late afternoon. They primarily took midge emergers and baetis nymphs and emergers. One took a seratella although it was later in the afternoon after the traditional seratella hatch settles down. Tuesday afternoon was partiularly windy so it was tough getting to the fly to the fish feeding under the overhanging brush. Good BWO fishing though in tough conditions.

On Thursday from 4.30 for a hour the fishing was excellent. They responded to PMD emergers and cripples, as well as #12 royal stimulators. It is a beautiful time of year.

The order of service remains midges and PMD's in the morning. Then from 11 am there will be drakes high up. Then in the afternoon through the evening midges, caddis and PMD's with some BWO's higher up. So you can fish all day now well into the evening.

Recommended Flies: The river is perfect now even with the flow being fractionally higher. The fishing is excellent. For some the marginally higher water might make wading a little difficult so come by the shop to check if you need some directions. The water is very clear and the days are intermittently bright so make sure you are using light tippet – 7x. There is good midge activity in the morning. So look to see if any midges are hatching. Some of the midges mid-river are a little larger so we suggest trying #18 and smaller. Try parachute midges or adults. Put an emerger dropper behind the parachute; also try small emergers; olive biot emergers, size #18 - #22 and black special emergers #18 - #22. Also try #20 and #22 RS2's both gray and sparkle patterns. If nothing much is going on at the surface, it is also worth trying a sparkle baetis and midge larva together weighted down. If the fish are moving without breaking the surface, they will be taking emergers. In the mornings there have been PMD hatches which last for an hour or so. The green drakes on the Pan come off from 11 am through 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Try nymphs, duns and cripple patterns sizes #10 - #12. In the afternoon if there is good cloud cover and possible rain, there may be a good BWO hatch.  If so try Lawson's no hackle #18 and #20, Adams #18 - #22. There is a range of good BWO patterns so be well stocked and try them all. The fish will be fussy and will key into a particular size or color so be prepared to change quickly if you are getting refusals and you are happy with your presentation. Sometimes the hatch will be so thick it is just a probability question whether the fish will see your fly. The caddis are coming off in the evenings so fish the pupa patterns earlier and the emergers later. Try any of the caddis dry patterns as well as the stimulators. The best results on caddis have been the pupa and emergers although they will now give the dries a good run as well. For pupa and emerger patterns try – Sparkle pupa #16, peeking caddis #16, emergent sparkle caddis #16. The PMD's are coming off so try both emergers and dries – Barrs emerger #16 - #18, Pink Cahills #16 - #18, Melon Quills #16 - #18 and the PMD Comparaduns #16 - #18. Also try cripple patterns. As noted above, if the fish are feeding but are rejecting your fly, change to a different size. Try to match the size as best you can. The fish will key in on a particular size and nothing else with interest them. For the spinner fall try parachute patterns and spinners. Try stimulators close to town in the pocket water and drop a nymph off. As a general observation, now that the fish are under a lot of pressure, be a little selective with your flies. Try older patterns which the fish might not have seen. Now the fishing is getting more technical so you will have to bring all of your skills to bear. In the absence of the right fly and correct size with the correct presentation, refusals will be the order of the day. Try terrestrials if it is a little quiet and the wind is blowing.

Roaring Fork

Current Flow: near Emma - at Basalt 585 cfs. (if you want more uptodate figures check out current readings on our "Links" page).

The cooler weather and the additional rain have kept the flows in the Roaring Fork up nicely continuing to give limited rafting access from Basalt. The fishing has been excellent, Ed, Harry, Travis and Chris reporting great days out floating this week. Above Basalt there are PMD's, caddis and BWO's. When there is cloud cover Ed has had great results on streamers.

Today Alan and I floated from Basalt to Carbondale and report an excellent day. This is currently Ed's favourite place to float. There was basically no surface activity but we fished with royal stimulators and hoppers with a selection of baetis droppers. The best success was a sparkle baetis dropper #18 behind the stimulator. One of the fish is pictured below.  We caught a lot of fish. Some were larger than that in the photo, while a lot were smaller. There was not much insect activity throughout the day except for a few BWO's, a brief PMD hatch and a few midges and caddis. But persistence with the baetis patterns, including RS2s worked a treat. I used 6x and 7x tippet and lost a number of big fish, but the combination worked well in the clear water. If you can get onto this water it is excellent. Ed and Travis fished ahead of us. They also had an excellent day. Ed's client landed a 20" fish above Carbondale. All day we only saw three fishermen wading and not a single person floating.

Lower down between Carbondale and Glenwood, the water is a little more discolored but the conditions are still excellent at the moment. With the cooling weather, the recent rain and the colder water, fishing is good through the day. The fishing will only get better from here.

Recommended Flies: Above Carbondale use the same flies as the Pan (See our report for the Frying Pan). There are however better caddis hatches on the Fork than the Pan. Use stimulators sizes #10 to #16, In the faster water, use nymphs with flash or attractors like the prince – size #12 - #20, sparkle baetis #18, RS2 and Sparkle RS2 #18, pheasant tails #18 - #20 black and brown, beadhead and non-bead head, and Caddis emergers. Also 20 inchers size #10 - #14. Use hopper patterns with droppers. Streamers are also working.

Colorado River