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The Early Season

Good fishing on the upper Gunnison starts in February or March when the ice comes off the river. In these winter conditions you must nymph the slow-water lies methodically. The fish stack tightly together and you must search to find the pods. When you do find a fish, keep casting in the same spot and you will often produce another half-dozen just like it.

Green Drake Para-Drake

By April the river warms enough for midges and an occasional Blue-winged Olive hatch, but the best fishing is still subsurface until the spring runoff subsides in May or June. As the water clears and begins to drop, caddis, Golden Stones, and other smaller stonefly species begin to hatch, creating the first good dry-fly fishing of the year. Elk-hair Caddis (#14-16) and yellow, orange, or olive Stimulators (#8-14) with small beadhead droppers work best.

When the water warms and reaches 48 to 52 degrees F., the annual Green Drake hatch begins and progresses upstream from Blue Mesa for about six weeks. This is the main event on the Gunnison. The hatch usually comes off in the late morning or early afternoon and often lasts about an hour but may go as long as three hours on cool, overcast days. I fish a dry and an emerger through the early hatch, switch to two adults during the heart of the hatch, and finish with a drowned cripple suspended below a dry fly.
The upper Gunnison along Highway 135 near the town of Almont (shown above) offers excellent public access and good dry-fly fishing below the confluence of the East and Taylor rivers.

Pale Morning Duns (PMDs), Red Quills, and other mayflies hatch in sparse numbers all summer after the Green Drakes. You will also find caddis on the water every day from early May through October.

Kokanee Salmon

In early August the river hosts from 50,000 to 150,000 Kokanee salmon making their annual run from Blue Mesa Reservoir back to the Roaring Judy fish hatchery on the East River where they were produced.

These fish run from 1 to 3 pounds and fight well on 4-, 5-, or 6-weight outfits. When the fish are fresh and silver they can be difficult to catch, but the fight is worth the struggle.

After several days in the river, the salmon darken and become much more aggressive. Drifting nymphs and streamers through pods of sexually mature fish draws many strikes. Contrary to popular belief, there is no reason to snag these fish--they will chew your flies to pieces. Kokanee must be released unharmed from August 1 to October 31.

In late September the salmon begin dropping their eggs and this starts the best trout fishing of the year. Every fish in the river looks for eggs. A Glo-Bug with a Baetis nymph dropper draws strikes all day long in the riffles and pools below holding or spawning salmon. In fact, the trout get so greedy for eggs that I have caught the same fish three times in one outing. Later in the season when the salmon die, flesh flies catch trout and the river becomes like "little Alaska" in the Colorado Rockies.

During fall, Blue-winged Olive hatches provide good dry-fly fishing from early September through November. The water is low and clear and the fish are picky on top. I fish Befus BWO Para-emergers, quill-body parachutes, and floating Blue-winged Olive nymphs with 6X tippets and light 2- to 4-weight rods.

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