It’s great to be home after a few weeks in Wyoming. Yesterday (8/22/11) I  Guided Mike Buso and Eric on the upper Colorado. We did the long float Pumphouse to Rancho and caught fish all day, in a variety of water types from the put in to the take out. Flows are now at a comfortable 1,800 CFS which is just slightly above normal for this time of year. At this flow fish are spread out amongst a variety of water types unlike 3,000+ where virtually every fish in the river is near the bank.  If you want to catch fish throughout the whole river, you must really read it. If you find a bank with good bank structure and current close to it, fish it! However, just because you caught fish on one bank, this does not mean you can count on pulling fish off the edges through the entire stretch. This is a mistake I see a lot of people make. They simply ride the banks all day even if it’s probably dead water. If the bank lacks structure and is more or less stagnant, look for better water. We found fish in virtually every inside corner, riffle, and shelf. Fishing a variety of water types means you must adjust your depth and weight frequently depending on the water you are fishing. The rig of choice all day was a brown rubberlegs in size 6 as the point fly, a #10 coffee and black rubberlegs as the middle fly and whatever fly you feel like fishing as the third. We had four rods in the boat. 2 Rods rigged short for the shallow fast stuff (3 feet from indicator to weight) and two rods rigged to go deep (4-10 feet indicator to weight). TONS AND TONS of hoppers out and if you want to hit some up top the option is there.

Flow: 1,800CFS
Clarity: 3 feet of visibility
Tippet: 3x-4x
Weight: 1-2 BB’s
Flies: 6-10 rubberlegs in both brown and coffee/black, 8-14 prince nymphs, tungstones, sanjuans, soft hackle pheasant tail.