Browns Canyon is the reach the caddis built — the Mother's Day hatch comes up the river in late April and May and the brown trout lose their manners for a couple of weeks, which is most of the reason people circle this water on the calendar. It's classic, accessible, wadeable freestone through Buena Vista and Salida, and it gets a crowd because it earns one. The catch is summer: this is also one of Colorado's busiest commercial whitewater runs, so a perfect hydrograph in July might still mean dodging rafts all afternoon. Fish the mornings.
- Mixed
