Colorado Freestone
Animas River Fishing Report, Flows and Hatches
A Gold Medal freestone running right through downtown Durango. Off-color snowmelt keeps it high from late April into mid-June, then it drops into prime from late June through fall, when mornings and evenings fish best in the summer heat.
Freestone
Colorado
6,490 ft
Gauge 09361500
Right now
Live conditions
The hatch chart
Animas River hatch chart
The emergences that come off the Animas by month, straight from the Rivus hatch model.
| Hatch | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Midge Midge, #18-24 | ||||||||||||
Blue Winged Olive Mayfly, #16-22 | ||||||||||||
March Brown Mayfly, #12-14 | ||||||||||||
Caddisfly Caddis, #12-18 | ||||||||||||
Salmonfly Stonefly, #4-8 | ||||||||||||
Golden Stonefly Stonefly, #8-12 | ||||||||||||
Little Yellow Sally Stonefly, #12-16 | ||||||||||||
Pale Morning Dun Mayfly, #14-18 | ||||||||||||
Flying Ant / Carpenter Ant Ant, #14-18 | ||||||||||||
Terrestrial Beetle Beetle, #12-16 | ||||||||||||
Green Drake Mayfly, #10-12 | ||||||||||||
Trico Mayfly, #18-22 | ||||||||||||
Grasshopper / Terrestrial Hopper, #8-14 |
How it fishes
A Colorado freestone
A freestone river runs free off snowmelt and rain, so it swings hard with the seasons. It blows out and browns up in spring runoff, then drops and warms into summer. The hatches track the water temperature more than the calendar, so you time your trip to the flow and the thermometer.
Flow and gauge
Reading the flows
The Animas is metered at USGS gauge 09361500. Watch the trend as much as the number: a river that is dropping and clearing fishes very differently from one that is coming up.
Access and regulations
Before you fish
Access and the right to fish are the angler’s responsibility, every time. Public access, private water, and seasonal closures vary along the river, so confirm where you can legally stand and wade before you go. We do not point you to a specific spot.
Read the current rules, license requirements, and any special-regulation water before you go. Regulations change season to season, so check them fresh.
Flow and water temperature from USGS, weather from NWS and NOAA, refreshed hourly. Real-time USGS readings are provisional and subject to revision. The hatch chart and river read are Rivus model output.