FLY FISHING THE SAN MIGUEL RIVER - TELLURIDE, CO (JULY 2014)

After an exceptional few days in the backcountry with my wife, we eventually made our way toward our hotel reservation at Hotel Madeline in Mountain Village above Telluride, where we quickly cleaned up and headed to the gondy ride into Telluride for dinner at 221 South Oak.

View of Mt Wilson (14,252 ft) and El Diente (14,160 ft) from the gondola between Mountain Village and Telluride.

Following two relaxing days in Telluride, Jen opted for a spa treatment and I opted to fish the San Miguel River about twenty minutes downstream of Telluride. The Telluride area is impressive. You can access 4 major rivers all within an hour’s drive from town or just fish downtown: San Miguel, Upper Dolores, Uncompahgre and Lower Gunnison (all with great tributaries). I spent about 2.5 hours on the river and managed to land 14 rainbows, all between 12-15” and never saw another fisherman. It was all subsurface action on nymphs (no dry flies), in particular #16 BH prince nymph and #16 red copper john that I tied, both subtle variations of the traditional patterns. Water temp was 52 degrees, but it was full sun and perfect for wading in Chaco sandles and board shorts.