STUNNING VIEWS AND AWESOME TROUT

Float fishing the Dolores or "Big D" offers anglers a unique fly fishing experience floating through a mind-blowing canyon.

This amazing canyon offers endless banks to drift a fly or rip a streamer. We float-fish over 30 miles of the Dolores River. The river is checkerboarded with Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife as well as BLM lands. This river and the canyon it flows through is very special. It is as wild as they come.

The River

The Dolores is a small river with the first 12 miles flowing through a mellow valley. Once the river drops below Bradfield Bridge it narrows up and the red-rock canyon quickly looming above. The red rock and Ponderosa Pines make the scenery more than worth the price of admission. The gradient becomes quicker and the slow runs and pools turn into pockets, slots, shorter runs and few glades. It is a lot of fun to fish. Boulder fields, riffles, pockets, runs and short pools make for no shortage of places to cast a fly. We fish the Dolores in decked out fly fishing specific rafts.

The Trout

Fish range from 10 to 15 inches with large 20+ inch thugs lurking about that can rip the rod out of your hand. Browns, rainbows and cut-bows are the primary species that live in the Dolores.

Our Guide Program

We offer guided floats on nearly 30 miles of the lower Dolores. Guide days are long on the "D" and you really feel like you earned that end of the day beer (or Dr Pepper).

Where to stay?

Many of our fishing guests will stay in or around Durango, Cortez or Dolores. Some will drive from other locations too.

The Day

Most guide days meet around 6:30 to 7:30 AM depending on meet location. There is not a reliable shuttle service on the Dolores so we ask guests to help with the shuttle. We meet guests and caravan to the river and then run the shuttle. If a trip has two or more boats the guests will jump in with the guides and the guides will run the shuttle. Depending on when we launch we fish all day finishing up around 5 or 6 in the evening.

The Season

The window of float opportunity for the Dolores can be as early as March and last til late June or early July. Just depends on the snowpack and releases from the dam.

Getting There

The Dolores is about an hour and 10 minutes west of Durango with shorter drives from Mancos, Dolores and Cortez.

Bookings

This is a great fishery and we have limited availability for this trip. This is especially the case for the Dolores due to varied conditions and tricky timing to "hit the window". Some years the Dolores does not see a spring/summer release. Just call if you have questions and to book this trip.