I only fished the Cita on 9/2 & 9/6 as the Rio Grande turned on early this year. Flows were 20cfs and we had a nice Trico {Para-Adams #18} hatch in the morning. Afternoon fishing picked up as the temps improved.
Rio Grande River Guide
Rio Grande Fly Fishing Report 04/25/2002
Another dry year and when the first Caddis was spotted on 4/6 the flow was 100cfs {State Line}. In April the fishing around Pilar was good from 3pm til dark on Caddis dry #14. Best fishing was sight casting to rising fish. The Box was also excellent in April, May and early June until water temps got into the high 60*s.. On 5/26 I had my best day ever on the Rio Grande and counted 86 hookups, 5 or 6 nice Cutbos {one 20″er that took a dry}and 6 Browns over 17″..The flow was 59cfs and temps 64-66*. Lots of rising fish..I used a Moth with a Caddis larva dropper. We had a few good days in early June also and it is exceedingly rare to be able to fish the Rio Grande at this time of year but maybe not so rare if the drought continues.
Rio Grande Fly Fishing Report 04/25/2001
First Caddis spotted in Pilar on 4/2. Flows were about 400cfs {State Line} and not quite clear but fishable. Altho there wasn’t much snow this year the water never got real clear and fishing was fair at best. You had to work hard for your fish. I did a lot of sight fishing {casting only to rising fish}. They had more snow in the upper reaches of the Rio Grande Basin so there was some runoff and fishing was only fair thru April.
Red River Fly Fishing Report 04/25/2001
I fished alone on 4/1 and had a great day.. I got the usual Browns and a few Cutbos to 18″…Lots of Caddis about and no people on a Sunday…Caddis hatch is happening on the Rio Grande so I won’t have any reports on the Red for a while.
Red River Fly Fishing Report 11/25/2000
On 11/1 I fished the Red with my daughter and the Browns have moved up out of the Rio Grande and Rita got a 19″ Brown among a bunch of other nice fish. The bigger Browns were done and gone back to the Rio Grande by 11/20 but action remained good for Browns 11-14″ and a few Cutbos to 16″.
Rio Costilla Fly Fishing Report 09/25/2000
They shut the flow off on 9/9 and the last day we fished here was 9/7 at a flow of 45cfs and had a great day. Very few people around and a client took a 17″ Cutbo and a few Rio Grande Cutthroats to 14″
Red River Fly Fishing Report 05/25/2000
I didn’t fish the Red this month as the fishing on other streams that usually don’t fish this early such as the Rio Grande, Embudo and the Pueblo have been keeping me busy. Th Red is the most consistant stream in my area and this year a lot other opportunities have arisen and the Red almost always fishes well. With the drought I am not optimistic about the later season on the Costlla, Conejos and Cimarron.
Red River Fly Fishing Report 04/25/2000
No runoff again but I only fished the Red once this month on the 23rd and it was excellent. The Caddis hatch on the Rio Grande was the best in years so I spent the month on the big river..See the Rio Grande Archive.
Red River Fly Fishing Report 11/15/1999
The Browns are right on time and I saw the first ones working redds on 11/2. This year they finished their spawning by 11/15 and seemed to disappear back to the Rio Grande and the second half of the month was not very productive.