Animas Lunch Report – 12/5/16 – Snapping Ice Fidgeting with small flies, threading tippet, twisting knots, plucking said flies from trout mouths, and snapping ice from fly rod guides. Fingers get worked the on the river in winter. The rest of the body just stands there, a roll cast here, a mend there; but the…
Animas Lunch Report – 12/2/16 – Winter Guide Special Hey you! We are now offering winter guide special rates to fish the best part of the day from now until the end of February. This is a perfect opportunity to take a break from your week of skiing, hit tie water, and catch some trout…
Animas Lunch Report – 11/30/16 – Hello Winter While not technically winter yet, it might as well be here in Durango. It went from 50’s and sunny last week to 0 degrees and snowing this week. Hello winter. So far, ice on the Animas has been kept to a minimum and fishing has been pretty good…
Animas Lunch Report – 11/9/16 – Post-Election Hangover Cure Did last night’s election not turn out how you wanted? Or perhaps you are feeling the effects of a celebration party gone awry. Either way, you may be suffering the effects of a “Post-Election Hangover”. You know what will cure that right up? Probably water, or coffee,…
Animas Lunch Report – 10/14/16 – The Swing of Fall It’s been nice out lately. Really nice. Almost t-shirt weather. It has been a great reprieve from the rains from a few weeks ago. This warmer fall weather has brought about some welcome sights on the Animas river in the past week. Namely, tricos, BWOs,…
Animas Lunch Report – 9/19/16 – Summer, where did you go? With a heavy heart, we must relinquish the summer of 2016 to the annals of history. It has been one for the books, really it has. Full on flushing flows on the San Juan River which we have not seen for about 6 or…
Animas Lunch Report – 9/15/16 – San Juan After Party The Sportsman is the go-to for the after party: but the Ranch is often our final destination. Sometimes it can be the Billy Goat if we are in it for the long haul. Perhaps Sidekicks if one is truly desperate. Tonight, it’s the Balcony in…
Animas Lunch Report – 9/14/16 – Swung Lunch When September rolls around, and there is a crisp bite to the morning air; I start to dream of chrome on the swing. Being one with few funds to travel to the PNW, I often settle for the local two-hander scene on the Animas River. This scene usually…
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…
