Rio Grande

The upper Rio Grande in southwest Colorado, above and below Creede and on down past South Fork into the San Luis Valley.

Freestone
San Luis Valley
Nearest town: South Fork

What the water is like

Remote by the standards of the rest of this list, with less pressure and a shorter comfortable season at altitude. Broad riffle-and-run water with meadow stretches and canyon sections.

Getting on it

National forest and public frontage in the upper reaches, with agricultural and private land increasing downstream. Irrigation demand affects the lower river.

Access arrangements are the single thing most worth confirming before you drive. Public frontage, parking, fees and seasonal closures all change, and on several Colorado rivers the boundary between public and private water is neither obvious nor forgiving. Check with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and, where the water runs through a national park or a federally managed area, with the agency that manages it.

Before You Go

What this page will not tell you

What the Rio Grande is running at today, what is hatching this week, and what the current rules are. Those are live facts with an official publisher, and sending you to them beats printing a number here that goes stale by April.

USGS current water data for Colorado

Live streamflow and water temperature, gauge by gauge.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Current fishing regulations, licences, and property and access rules.

CPW fishing conditions and closures

Voluntary and mandatory closures, including heat-related ones.

Water levels and weather change daily and can be hazardous, and nothing on this page is a safety assessment of this river or of conditions on any given day.

Gear for this kind of water

What a freestone asks of your kit, written for the situation rather than as a product list.

Any Colorado river, any season

Colorado fly fishing gear checklist

Everything worth having in the car and on your person for a Colorado day, what each item is actually for, and what changes by season.

Colorado rivers, season by season

Colorado fly box: what to carry by season

A working fly selection for Colorado water through the year, organised by what the river is doing rather than by a hatch calendar that cannot be promised.

Other waters

Front Range