Freestone · Mixed · Colorado

Gunnison River — Upper (Almont to Blue Mesa)

Two fly anglers wading an open valley stretch of the Gunnison River lined with autumn-coloured trees and distant hills.

Above Blue Mesa the Gunnison is a broad, friendly snowmelt freestone, gathering the Taylor and the East at Almont and rolling down through town as honest brown-and-rainbow water.

Marginal · Brown Trout
Parachute Adams · 12-18
Marginallive now
Slow going — pick your moments
River temperature is the limiting factor today, not the flow. Fish dawn or dusk if you go at all, and handle everything with extra care.
80% confidence
What moved it
  • Level0.34 m
  • Water temp18.4°C
  • ClarityClear
Today's fly
Parachute Adams
Parachute Adams12-18
High-confidence seasonal pick
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Level
Steady
0.34 m
Water temp18.4°C
ClarityClear
Weather24°C
WindNE 14 km/h
Pressure1013 hPa
Rain · recent0.0 mm
Rain · ahead0.5 mm

Live readings only. Trends shown where the gauge supports them.

Water temperature for Brown Trout
Warm — slow
18.4°Cideal 10–16°C
0°14°28°
How to fish it · for Brown Trout
When
Nymphing can work through most of the day.
Where
Cover mixed depths.
Method
Start with tight-line nymphs and adjust if fish rise or drift higher.
Kit
9 ft #4 rod, floating line, 12 ft tapered leader to 4–5 lb fluoro tippet.
Why this works
Water at 18.4°C — above the brown trout caution line (18°C). Fish dawn or dusk only. Land it fast, wet hands, no air shots.
Hatch timeline · todayQuiet day

Hatch predictions

Today's headline hatch shown — see all 4 active hatches hour by hour with Pro.

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Sub-surface · on the nymphunder the surface

Hatch predictions

See the full sub-surface read with Pro.

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Beyond the hatch · worth watchingambient prey

Hatch predictions

Top prey shown — see all 3 with Pro.

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Evidence
ModelledModerate confidence

Modelled from regional ecology — no survey or occurrence data for this water yet.

Through the year
0–3 scale · July highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
Western Green DrakeHatch
2
2
Flav (Small Western Green Drake)Hatch
2
3
2
Mahogany DunHatch
2
2
American March BrownHatch
2
3
2

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Brown Trout fly box
Permits & access
Permit required — see local rules.
  • Colorado licence
  • Gold Medal (Twin Bridges to Almont) — verify CPW rules
  • Handle headwater cutthroat gently.
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Water here at 18.4°C. Nothing cooler within range.
Gallery · 2
  1. Two fly anglers wading an open valley stretch of the Gunnison River lined with autumn-coloured trees and distant hills.
    Fishing for Kokanee
  2. Terrain map of the venue
    Terrain map
About this water

Above Blue Mesa the Gunnison is a broad, friendly snowmelt freestone, gathering the Taylor and the East at Almont and rolling down through town as honest brown-and-rainbow water. CPW made the Twin Bridges-to-Almont stretch Gold Medal in 2023, which surprised nobody who'd fished it. It's a big-water summer river — salmonflies and stoneflies, then caddis and hoppers once the runoff clears — with the easy float-and-wade character the canyon water downstream most definitely lacks. The high tributaries hold native cutthroat; treat those headwaters gently.

  • Mixed
Conservation note

Cutthroat trout (Colorado River lineage) persist in upper Gunnison tributaries and headwaters — conservation-sensitive, carried in prose rather than the mainstem scoring array. Kokanee influence near Blue Mesa seasonally.

Water quality · US Clean Water Act
  • Aquatic life: Supporting
What this classification means

EPA ATTAINS assessment unit 'Gunnison River, tributaries.' (COGUUG02_E), 2024 Integrated Report. Aquatic Life use: Fully Supporting. This is a Clean Water Act assessment-unit classification (the US analogue of WFD), not a live reading.

Status is for the Clean Water Act assessment unit covering this reach.

EPA ATTAINS (Clean Water Act) · COGUUG02_E

The full read · show the working · for Brown Trout · confidence 80%
How the 38 is built — score × weight = contribution
Temperature49 × 28%13.7
Flow80 × 22%17.6
Clarity95 × 18%17.1
Feeding Time40 × 13%5.2
Pressure80 × 7%5.6
Insect activity64 × 12%7.7
Conditions total= 67
Can you trust it?
Water temperaturelive gauge readinggauge
Level / flowon-river gaugeobserved
Prey activitymodelled from regional profilemodelled
What would change the calculation
Cooler water — back toward the 10–16 °C ideal band — would lift the score and ease welfare.
The dawn and dusk windows score higher than the midday lull.
Directions
Apple MapsGoogle Maps
Seasons & zones
  • Trout1 January → 31 December
Related guides
Euro Nymphingsubsurface methods
Booking & contacts