Temperatures have finally stabilized to a safe level to sustain fishing all day. Consistent rain has also brought flows across many rivers in the area up slightly but not significantly. The biggest news is that CPW has lifted both the closures on the lower Colorado River from Dotsero down through Glenwood Canyon as well as the Eagle River.  There are currently no closures on either river and fish on the Eagle haven’t been pressured in over two months so they should be hungry and eager to eat.  Flows on the Roaring Fork have also come back up to floatable levels, so if you are looking to get some fall fishing in on the Fork, now is the time.  While temperatures have dropped, recent rain and mudslides have made for extremely bad visibility and less than ideal fishing conditions on the lower Colorado.  Hopefully things will clear up for October streamer fishing if the weather stays relatively clear.  Fall can be one of the prettiest and most productive times of the year to be out on the water in Colorado.

STREAMER SEASON

Fall streamer season has started heating up on the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers with water temps dropping and rain decreasing visibility.  Lately it seems like black and purple have been the most productive colors.  It’s always good to have a variety of colors ready to go and change them often.  Start your day by matching streamer color to light conditions,  light colors on bright, sunny days and dark colors on overcast days.  Patterns that have thick deer hair heads will move the most water and give fish the best chance of finding your fly when visibility is low.  Slimmer profile flies like slump busters and wooly buggers are great when the water is clear or when fish are not fully committing to bulkier patterns.  Streamers are most effective when fished close to the bank and when there is a lot of structure for fish to hide in.  The name of the game in streamer fishing is moving fish, if you are not getting fish to at least look at your fly after 10 or 15 minutes it’s time to change.  Switch color and profiles until you find a combination that is consistently getting fish to follow your fly.  From there mix up stripping speed and rhythm until you get fish to commit.  Streamer fishing is not about numbers of fish, it’s about finding the biggest most aggressive fish in a section of river and showing them a meal they can’t pass up.

FALL HATCHES

As water temps cool in the fall, the bug activity picks back up.  The big two hatches to look forward to in the fall are Blue Wing Olives and October Caddis.  Blue wing hatches in the fall are often some of the heaviest hatches of the season but can be somewhat inconsistent.  Large hatches most often occur on cloudy and rainy days throughout the morning and late afternoon.  Even when there are no visible hatches occurring, BWOs are very active this time of year so nymphs such as the Barr’s emerger and BWO hunchback are extremely productive patterns throughout the fall.  During hatches, trout often key in on emerging insects stuck in the surface film rather than fully formed adults.  This means fishing an emerger pattern like a mole fly or sprout behind a parachute Adams or other dry fly can be extremely effective. October caddis are the other big hatch of the fall.  While you may not see them coming off in huge numbers like with many other hatches, October caddis hatch very consistently for several weeks, giving trout a reliable source of food everyday.  These are also some of the larger caddis we see throughout the season so trout are looking for them as they are a high calorie food to pack on some weight before winter.