The best way to book a trip is to simply call 970-963-5741 or 970-379-5672. We check our messages as often as possible, but may not get back immediately if we're in the middle of a trip. SEND IFG AN E-MAIL

We will try our best to accomodate you on short notice, but your chances of getting a guide during peak seasons are greater if you give us at least a few days notice. CANCELLATION POLICY: If you need to cancel, please give us more than 48 hours notice and it's no problem. Cancellations received anytime within 48 hours of the scheduled trip are subject to a 50% late cancellation fee if the guide cannot be re-booked. Valid reasons for cancellation include missed/delayed flights, emergencies, muddy rivers, extreme weather, etc., but do not include rain, conflicts of clients' schedule, dinner reservations, hangovers, etc. Rain is usually good for fishing, and often passes through the valley quickly.

Your fishing license is not included in the price of your trip. You can save time and protect your personal info by getting your fishing license directly from the DOW online through the link below.  Fees: One day licenses are 9.00, 5 day licenses are 21.00, Non-resident annual is 56.00, Resident annual is 26.00 (CO DL required). The habitat stamp, which will get you access to all State Wildlife Areas (including the Carbondale and Westbank boatramps, and the Frying Pan SWA ) is $5.00 and required if you are fishing those areas.

We like to take a Visa/MC number to reserve your guide, but may make exceptions to this for return clients. We don't require a deposit. Your card will not be charged until after the trip, unless you decide to pay with cash or check. The price of your guide trip includes any rods or waders that you may need, but does not include the price of flies that you may or may not go through. Our guides are fully supplied with hundreds of effective and relevant local patterns to help ensure your success. It is customary to tip fishing guides, often like waitstaff if you haven't used one before. If your guide works hard, provides you with a good lunch, shows you a great time, etc., please consider that in your gratuity, if you would be so kind.

Most of our trips now go directly out of Crystal Fly Shop in Carbondale, but we might meet/ pick you up according to what best suits your needs and our plans for the day. We will also take care of arranging any gear needs. 

FLYFISHING CALENDAR FOR THE ROARING FORK VALLEY
BY DAVID JOHNSON

INTRODUCTION
Those of us in the flyfishing business are constantly asked the question, “When is the best time of year to fish?” There are many answers because there is a lot of great fishing at most times of the year. Fish must eat every day and do. What changes are conditions—water levels, temperature, insect activity, fishing pressure, etc. Therefore finding the best times of the year to fish is usually a matter of matching the conditions with the particular style preferences of fishermen.

The experience of many clients is often particular to the ups and downs of midsummer fishing—some good dry fly fishing at times, but competition in the form of other fishermen who’ve also planned their vacation at the same time. August can have some great fishing, but so can most other times of the year, without being so crowded. This calendar outlines the trends within a normal year so clients can plan ahead and try to hit some of the less known, but productive times of the year to fish. It starts here with our current time period.

JANUARY (MID WINTER)
January is hit-or-miss, frankly. The fish aren’t hard to find --they’re stacked in the deep pools. It’s a matter of being at a good hole when they’re eating, which is the warmest time of day (mid-afternoon). It’s also a matter of dealing with the elements—-ice and snow. Warmer days (above freezing) can be good, especially if you’re willing to hike to areas where no one has fished. Most days will have at least a little midge activity, but nymph fishermen will catch most of the fish. Experienced purists can catch fish on dries near the Ruedi Dam on the Frying Pan, and the release of mysis shrimp from the dam creates the most consistent daily winter “hatch” in the valley.

FEBRUARY-MARCH 15 (LATE WINTER)
February is more consistent as the weather warms. It’s a good time to explore new areas on the big, mystical Colorado River. Low water levels make for easier wading and it’s often warmer than upvalley. The fish can be harder to locate than on the Roaring Fork (experiment with the depth of your rig), but they are usually bigger and more wild. We begin floating both rivers mid-Feb., though the boat is often used as access to spend time working over the deep holes.

MARCH 15-APRIL 30 (SPRING)
Spring may be my favorite time of year to guide. The numbers of fish caught by clients are probably more consistently large than at any other time of the year. This is because the fish often feed all day long on thousands of hatching midges and baetis without the occasional down times that occur between hatches of larger insects in the summer. The rivers are uncrowded and the fish are easily located. The weather can and often does change drastically during the course of the day, and nasty weather usually means great fishing. Temperatures can reach 60 degrees however, so a day of fishing in between days of spring skiing is a great addition to your vacation.

FLOATING THE MIDGE HATCH ON THE COLORADO: This can be a phenomenal experience, and is one of the surest bets of the year on this notoriously hot/cold river. In late March the baetis hatch takes off and makes for easier dry fly fishing as well.

LOWER ROARING FORK AND COLORADO: Look for the midges to begin sharing airtime with baetis, moving up the river from Glenwood and creating dry fly opportunities. Nymph fishing is very good and the float fishing really picks up as fish move into the pockets. The rower should still be working over deep holes with the boat, but fishermen are able to pick up more fish from a moving boat as the trout begin spreading out for the season.

FRYING PAN: There is usually a flurry of very good dry fly fishing up and down the river at the beginning of March. This is also a good time to catch unselective fish migrating to and from the Roaring Fork down low in the Canyon of the Frying Pan.

Be aware of spawning rainbows in the Spring and leave them alone in their spawning beds to replenish your resource. Rainbows spawn earliest downvalley on the Colorado and Lower Roaring Fork in mid-March and later in April and May on the Upper Roaring Fork and Frying Pan.

MAY-JUNE 20 (LATE SPRING/RUNOFF)

With most freestone rivers swollen and peaking at this time from mountain snowmelt, finding fishing opportunities can be a bit challenging sometimes. However, we almost always have low, clear water on the Frying Pan, and there are other neat experiences to be had by the creative and adaptive angler

FRYING PAN: This is the most obvious choice for most people, being a tailwater that is rarely impacted by high water flows. Baetis hatches are strong on cloudy days, and caddis activity picks up with sunny days. PMDs show up late in May. The lower river has greater numbers of brown trout that aren't spawning, and is often less crowded.

Private fishing opportunities include GIANANETTI'S SPRING CREEK and BAR Z-X RANCH at this time.   Both are well worth the rod fees for the opportunities at large trout. 

MOTHER'S DAY CADDIS HATCH ON THE FORK: This is the largest insect hatch of the year, in terms of masses of protein emerging from the water, and usually starts around the beginning of May. It can be phenomenal, especially if you move upriver with it, staying just ahead of the biggest swarms of insects. It can be tough if there is too much mud in the river. You will also do best nymphing it and fishing it earlier in the day before the fish have gorged themselves.

FLOATING: At this time the Fork below the Crystal River can be unfishable because of mud, but you can float above Carbondale in a raft and stay above it. The fish get pushed into the calm pockets on the banks by the high water, so you have to get your fly in there if you expect to catch fish. When the fish get on streamers at this time, anglers don’t have to be so quick on the draw, and the action can be quite good.

LAKE AND RESERVOIR FISHING FOR PIKE, CARP, BASS, AND PANFISH (and trout...): Ruedi, Harvey Gap, Rifle Gap, Paonia, and Crawford Reservoirs provide interesting opportunities for fishermen to catch a lot more than trout. Stocked fisheries such as these are also good places to keep a few fish for dinner. Many trout guides find carp to be one of the most challenging and hardest fighting freshwater fish to catch on a fly. Access to high mountain lakes opens up now after mud season as well.

JUNE 20-JULY 31 (EARLY SUMMER)
Most clients with children vacation in the summer, and if you do I recommend the first half of summer more than the second half (August). This is the peak of the dry fly season on our freestone rivers, as every bug species hatches with the warming water. When the fish begin rising on Green Drakes and continue rising through other hatches in July, the action can be truly insane. In August, unless you’re on the Frying Pan (a tailwater), expect less bug activity, more heat, more fishermen, and the need to often go down deep after fish that have become less active and more wary.

FLOATING THE GREEN DRAKE HATCH ON THE COLORADO AND ROARING FORK: The Drakes begin on the Colorado around June 20, and us guides are too often stuck in the boat together to fish the sickest dry fly action of the year with each other instead of with clients. Come before the Fourth of July when no one is here and the fishing is incredible!  Cancel your dinner plans so you can fish right up until dark when every fish in the river is feeding on the surface. Mid-day hatches can be found as well, with the Drakes giving way to Yellow Sallys, and Pale Morning Duns later in July. Clients willing to hang a dropper off of their dry fly in the afternoon catch more fish (and bigger fish) than the stubborn dry fly purist.

FRYING PAN: Mid June through July the action on the Frying Pan becomes less technical as caddis and PMD's join the ranks of baetis and midges. There is a very large caddis hatch mid to late June, PMDs thicken upriver in early July, followed later Drakes moving up from the confluence. PMD spinner falls in the morning and evening can be very good if you have Red Quill Spinners in your vest and a little finesse. Overall though, the easiest dry fly action for many fishermen on the Pan is in late summer when the Drakes have taken hold.

AUGUST-SEPT 15 (LATE SUMMER)
FRYING PAN: Because it's a tailwater, the cold water temperature sustains insect hatches through late summer after they have passed through the Roaring Fork. I have seen fish caught on Drakes well into October on the Pan, but anglers should be prepared to throw a variety of PMD, Baetis, and Saratella patterns in various life stages as well. Also be prepared to be sociable with other anglers, to work on your reach cast and drag-free drift, and to deal with 7X tippet.

ROARING FORK AND COLORADO: Be prepared to nymph these warm freestone rivers and to catch a few whitefish while you do, since much of the major bug activity has passed. There can be good baetis hatches however, and anglers can get fish to take hoppers on the surface. I find the best trout fishing during this warm period happens around weather events (rain). Trout react to barometric pressure like any other fish, and rain and somewhat muddy, cooler water turns them on to streamers and larger attractor nymphs.  Anglers who can adapt to where the fish are feeding, which is often subsurface, will be rewarded.

SEPT 15-OCT 31 (AUTUMN)
A lot of experienced anglers come in the fall--they know that the fishing and weather are great and the crowds have gone home.

FLOATING THE FORK AND COLORADO: The lower water begins concentrating the fish for winter again, and the colder water gets them active again. It seems a lot of big rainbows come out to play now, or they’re just easier to locate. Pre-spawn browns aggressively take streamers, and the spawning runs of whitefish get trout involved as well. The Colorado can be great again this time of year--most all of your action will be subsurface. This is when to hunt down CARP on a flyrod on the Colorado as well.

FRYING PAN: If you still want to catch fish on dries, you can do it here--any month of the year if you’re good. It was a freak occurrence, but I caught a fish on a hopper on Thanksgiving Day midriver years ago.

Another great time for BAR Z-X RANCH, or for taking a trip to CRESTED BUTTE FOR THE KOKANEE SALMON RUN (which begins around Labor Day).

CRYSTAL RIVER WHITEFISH AND TROUT: Whitefish migrate en masse from the Roaring Fork in the fall to join the ranks of native whitefish in this river if there is enough water in it for them to make the journey. Following them are large numbers of spawning browns and egg-eating rainbows. It’s a great river on which to learn how to nymph since whitefish are usually bigger and not as smart as trout. You might catch some nice trout while you’re at it.

NOV-DEC (EARLY WINTER)
Even though it’s generally colder, there are many days here that get up into the 50’s and make for great fishing. If you like to nymph and fishing in isolation, now is the time to get out before the cold really sets in. The fish are feeding hard in preparation for winter and are often unharassed and unselective. It’s hard to go wrong, wherever you go.