Best month to fish the Roaring Fork River

Month-by-month fishing quality

Why these months?

Two things decide your odds on the Roaring Fork River: flow and season. You need the river in its fishable-flow band — so a freestone in spring runoff is out no matter how good the hatch would be, while a dam-fed tailwater holds shape year-round. On top of that, the hatches and water temperatures line up best in September and October and August and July, which is why those months edge out the rest. The Roaring Fork River's season runs freestone — high in spring runoff; prime july–october.

The Roaring Fork runs 70 miles from Independence Pass through Aspen, Basalt and Carbondale to the Colorado at Glenwood Springs, gathering the Fryingpan and the Crystal on the way and growing from a pocket-water creek into a full drift-boat river. Most of it is Gold Medal water holding wild rainbows, browns and cutbows, and its early-July green drake hatch is one of the genuinely great dry-fly events in Colorado.

Where to fish the Roaring Fork River

Basalt down to Carbondale is the Gold Medal wade water and has less boat traffic; Carbondale to Glenwood Springs is the classic drift. The upper river above Aspen is small, fast pocket water for anglers on foot. Note that the Glenwood gage reads the whole river — the upstream reaches run far lower than the number here.

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