Colorado River Salmonfly Update – Saturday June 14
June 14th, 2014
The Big news today is the advancement of the hatch upstream to the more wade friendly water above Parshall. Yesterday we saw good numbers of adult Salmonflies in Beyer’s Canyon and below. More importantly, the fish were on ’em, with solid dry fly action in the afternoon.
River levels are still high, with a 1,500 cfs reading at Hot Sulphur Springs but, that is on the decline and some wading is possible. But don’t get crazy, there is no way you can cross at that flow and really in most places it will be enough to get just off the banks. Clarity is decent at about a foot and a half. Due to that amount of water, Beyer’s itself may be a little to fast. The access points just below the canyon through Paul Gilbert and Lone Buck State Wildlife Areas will offer good access as well as action.
As is generally the case with this hatch, the morning will start out slow on the surface, then build early to mid-afternoon as the adults start to fly. Good patterns yesterday were Half-Cocked Salmon, Clark’s Salmonfly, Foamulator, Loco Stone Salmon and Fuzzy Wuzzy Orange.
Down stream, below Kremmling, saw a noticeable lull in the action. It has now been 13 days since the main body of the hatch started to emerge and numbers of adults are declining. There were still a good number of adults present but, they are becoming more localized in the steeper canyon type terrain. The wide open valley areas seem to have seen an almost total end to new insects.
With that being the case, we think there is still a couple of days of potential for good action in Gore and Little Gore Canyon. And often times as the hatch wanes and even disappears, the interest in Salmonfly patterns can actually intensify as trout see less opportunities for big bugs on the water.
Flows at Pumphouse are dropping and this morning are at 4,670 with visibility still 20-24 inches.