Late Spring on the Upper Colorado: Nymphs, Soft Edges, and Dawn-to-Dusk Action

This is Artificial Lure with your Colorado River, Colorado fishing report. We’re in classic late‑spring conditions on the upper Colorado: cool nights, mild days, and rising flows from snowmelt. No tides to worry about up here, just river levels and clarity. Expect cool, clear to lightly stained water in the headwaters around Granby and Hot Sulphur Springs, with more color as you drop toward Kremmling. Weather today: crisp start in the high 30s to low 40s, warming into the 60s and low 70s with light winds in the morning and a bit more breeze mid‑afternoon. Skies running partly cloudy; watch for a few building clouds after lunch and the usual chance of a quick mountain shower. Sunrise around 5:35 a.m., sunset close to 8:30 p.m., so you’ve got a long, fishable window. Fish activity has been best at first light and again the last two hours of the day. Midday is slower unless you’re nymphing deep seams. Browns and rainbows are the main players, with a few cutbows and the odd whitefish mixed in. Local chatter from the fly shops in Granby and Kremmling has anglers reporting decent half‑day totals: 10–20 trout per rod for those who work the soft edges and keep changing patterns when the bite cools off. For fly anglers, subsurface is still king. Think **stonefly nymphs**, **hares ear**, **pheasant tails**, and **Prince nymphs** in sizes 12–18 under an indicator or tight‑line rig. Add weight—those fish are hugging the bottom in the heavier runs. When the sun is off the water, small **caddis emergers** and **RS2s** have been quietly filling nets. On the hardware side, spin anglers are doing well with **1/8 oz marabou jigs** in olive or black, and small **spinners** in gold or copper. Tiny **crankbaits** in brown trout or rainbow patterns worked across current seams have produced some thicker browns in the low‑light windows. If you’re bait fishing where it’s legal, drift **nightcrawlers** or **salmon eggs** just off the bottom with enough split shot to tick, not drag. A couple of current hot spots: • **Pumphouse to Radium:** Classic Colorado Canyon water. Work the inside bends, soft pockets behind boulders, and the slower tailouts. Great stretch for both wade and float anglers. Focus on nymph rigs in the deeper slots and switch to small spinners when the light drops. • **Below Byers Canyon toward Hot Sulphur Springs:** When flows are reasonable, this section offers good holding water with less pressure. Hit the shaded banks early, then move to riffle‑run combos mid‑morning. Euro nymphers have been picking off nicer fish in the choppy knee‑to‑thigh‑deep water. Best windows: dawn until about 10 a.m., then again from 6 p.m. to dark. Midday, slow down your presentation and go smaller and more natural on both flies and hardware. With runoff still in play, don’t ignore the soft edges—some of the better fish are packed tight to the bank out of the main push. That’s your Colorado River rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn