Animas Lunch Report – 9/9/16 – Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping… It’s weird how fast things slip past us. Like summer. Where the heck did summer go? I thought we just fishing stonefly hatches on the Rio Grande 6 minutes ago. Now it’s all “fall this”, and “changing leaves that”, and “where did my life…
Animas Lunch Report – 9/5/16 – Day of Labors Hoppers, cased caddis, Tricos, and a few BWOs. Floatable at 520 cfs and a beautiful 80 degree day. On this Day of Labors, the Animas isn’t a bad place to be. Heck, the Piedra, Pine, Dolores, San Juan, and high mountain creeks are not a bad place…
Animas Lunch Report – 8/25/15 – This is Why We Fly Growing up in Iowa, there were few opportunities to catch trout on a fly rod. Even at the age of 11, fly fishing and fly tying was an intense pastime of mine and remains to this day (my mother might call it a “passion”…
Animas Lunch Report – 8/5/15 – Monsoonal Baked neck, dark and dry hands, and drinking “enough” an unattainable feat; our summer guide season had been grinding on through the heat of late July. It had been dry for nearly a month and 90+ degree days mixed with no cloud cover and low water had made…
Animas Lunch Report – 7/20/16 – Photos From Afield 1000 words. That’s what they say a picture is worth anyway. Sometimes its better to show a fishing report than it is to explain it…
Animas Lunch Report – 7/19/16 – The Spruce Moth-man Prophecies The spruce moth: the sleeper hatch of southwest Colorado. Spruce moths are a strange terrestrial that you don’t often hear about. Much publicity is given to the glory hatches of stones, caddis, and mayflies. Terrestrials such as ants and hoppers are even given their due.…
Animas Lunch Report – 7/15/16 – Sage X Gon’ Give It To Ya [call_to_action text=”Shop Sage X Fly Rods” btn_title=”SHOP NOW” btn_link=”/product/sage-x-fly-rod/” class=””] So unbeknownst to us at the shop, John has been fishing the soon-to-drop Sage X fly rod for the past 3 weeks over on the Rio Grande River. Sneaky, sneaky. Well now…
Animas Lunch Report – 7/8/16 – Throes of Summer Fly Fishing We are in it now, the throes of summer fly fishing. The Animas has dropped to just over 1000 cfs and is fishing fantastic with dry flies. We are seeing hatches of caddis and yellow sallies. It would also be worth your effort to…
Animas Lunch Report – 6/28/16 – Southwest Lowdown What is the lowdown of Southwest Colorado? Well, awesome. Summer is here, fishing is fantastic all over, and Durango is just an all around great place to be right now. The Animas has dropped to floatable flows and is very clear. Flowing at about 1,500 cfs; we…
Animas Lunch Report – 6/20/16 – Oarsman Are you an Oarsman? If you are, then this is a good time to be in southwest Colorado. The Animas, San Juan, Rio Grande, and Dolores are all going off for float fishing right now. We are seeing good hatches of caddis, stoneflies, and drakes on all our…
Animas Lunch Report – 6/14/16 – Float Season Training To get ready for our southwest Colorado float season, we have been training our oar skills on our local lakes and reservoirs. Not a bad place to be fishing either. The Animas has dropped to just over 3000 cfs today, guides are gearing up for the…
Animas Lunch Report – 6/8/16 – Salmonflies All over Southwest CO we are hearing reports of Salmonflies coming off: the Gunnison, Piedra, and now the Animas! Perfect timing for a mass emergence of big bugs, right through peak flows… Oh well, we have not actually seen too many on the Animas yet, and even though…
Animas Lunch Report – 6/2/16 – Upsides and Downsides The temps and flows this week are setting up a nice little weekend for the Animas River Days celebration. We are betting flows will hit 5,000 cfs by Saturday…but that remains to be seen. Durango is sitting on the upslope of runoff, and we are just waiting…
Animas Lunch Report – 5/25/16 – San Juan Dreaming Now I know this is the “Animas Lunch Report”, but the Animas is blown and muddy…whereas the San Juan River is absolutely righteous right now. As we stated in our post from yesterday, the the San Juan River is at 5000 CFS. Don’t let the…
Animas Lunch Report – 5/23/16 – Sunbathing Pike They say that if you can find a laid up pike who is warming in the spring sun, a good cast often illicits a the best visual eat of the year. You can often get these fish to eat topwater on poppers, sliders, and divers. At least…
Animas Lunch Report – 5/10/16 – Find Another Fishing Hole Well it has begun, runoff. Spring temps have rolled into town (finally) and the melting of the snow has begun. The Animas is at about 1500 cfs and climbing. It’s time to find another fishing hole for a few weeks. So what might these fishing…
Animas Lunch Report- 5/3 The Animas is looking good with the cooler temps we had this weekend. Flows have dropped to around 700cfs but will start to climb back up with the warmer temps over the next few days. This may be the last window to get out and fish the Animas before runoff. Streamers…
Animas Lunch Report – 4/25/16 – Zero Hour The zero hour has come and its time to go. High, off color water mean the Animas float season is in full swing. Most will look at the river and think “why that is far to high and muddy to fish”. Think again, gametime is now for…
Animas Lunch Report – 4/21/16 – Smutting Rob and I just learned a new word, like, 1 minute ago. John and Tom just taught it to us! It’s called “Smutting”. Sounds kind of dirty. It is a term that stemmed from our English fly fishing friends across the pond. The definition of smutting is when…
Animas Lunch Report – 4/15/16 – Pike Mood If targets of fly anglers have a soundtrack, then trout tend to crank up the bluegrass. Banjo and stand up bass for high country speckled specimens. Maybe the occasional streamer day requires some heavy hitting hip hop. You could probably figure out a soundtrack for every species…
Animas Lunch Report – 4/4/16 – Really Damn Good The past few weeks, the Animas has been fishing really damn good. Good baetis hatches with fish up in the water column eating emergers and even a few rising. Midges in plenty too. Not to mention the streamer bite has been pretty great as well. Let…
Animas Lunch Report – 3/28/16 – Snow and Rain We had a little snow and rain over the Easter weekend. It looks like more is rolling into Durango any minute. Tomorrow should be the same. Bring it on. Thanks to the weather, we saw a slight bump in the flows today…which isn’t saying much because…
Animas Lunch Report – 3/22/16 – The Pike Season Cometh Warm spring air, windy days, and muddy rivers…it’s pike season. The time of year where heavy predators lurk the shallows in search of an easy meal. While some are just starting to think about getting out for pike in a few weeks, Captian Mark Engler…
Animas Lunch Report – 3/21/16 – Fatten Up For Love Fest 2k16 That’s right, Love Fest 2k16. They yearly wet and wild festival where cheeks get rosy in anticipation of that sweet, sweet loving making. When you are slappin tail and bumping unmentionables, you gotta carb up if you want to keep that stamina going. And…
Animas Lunch Report – 3/16/16 – Spring Flowers Are Not Out Yet But BWOs Are I happened to venture to the Animas for a lunch sesh of lobbing heavy meat around today. Upon my arrival to the local fishin hole, my eyes did spy a dark bug-o-plenty. Upon further inspection, did I declare to myself, “Why,…
