Colorado Freestone
Dolores River Fishing Report, Flows and Hatches
The upper Dolores above McPhee Reservoir, a high-gradient San Juan Mountains freestone of pocket water and pools. Native cutthroat and brook trout hold up high, browns and rainbows lower down, and it fishes best once snowmelt clears from late June into fall. This is the free-flowing river above the dam, not the dewatered tailwater below.
Freestone
Colorado
6,940 ft
Gauge 09166500
Right now
Live conditions
The hatch chart
Dolores River hatch chart
The emergences that come off the Dolores by month, straight from the Rivus hatch model.
| Hatch | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Midge Midge, #18-22 | ||||||||||||
Blue Winged Olive Mayfly, #16-22 | ||||||||||||
Golden Stonefly Stonefly, #8-12 | ||||||||||||
Salmonfly Stonefly, #4-8 | ||||||||||||
Caddisfly Caddis, #12-16 | ||||||||||||
Pale Morning Dun Mayfly, #14-18 | ||||||||||||
Little Yellow Sally Stonefly, #14-16 | ||||||||||||
Green Drake Mayfly, #10-12 | ||||||||||||
Grasshopper / Terrestrial Hopper, #8-12 | ||||||||||||
Flying Ant / Carpenter Ant Ant, #14-16 | ||||||||||||
Terrestrial Beetle Beetle, #12-16 |
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 Dolores is metered at USGS gauge 09166500. 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.