Fishing the Animas

[Justin Schiavone]

Hello everyone,

I will be taking a trip to Colorado at the end of June (21st through
July 1) to fish the Animas tributary.

Can anyone offer some tips? I have not fly fished out west yet so I am
pretty inexperienced.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Brad]

I haven't fished the Animas in a long time, but mainly because I tend to go in late June early July and that time of year can be peak run-off. If it is high and muddy, there are plenty of other streams nearby if you have a car and some time. From Durango the Delores River is an hour away to the west, the San Juan is about and hour away to the south (it is a tailrace so it is always fishable) and the Piedra is about an hour to the east. The upper Piedra takes a little driving on fairly well maintained dirt roads, but is an amazing place. I don't know where you will be staying, but Duranglers in downtown Durango is an excellent fly shop and pretty much the only one in that corner of Colorado.  They also send guides out to all these rivers and have really up-to-date fishing reports and hatch reports, which are posted on their website. They also have a much longer list of streams including small tributaries that may be fishable even if the Animas is high. I'd also suggest picking up a book on the area. Duranglers recommends Flyfishing Southern Colorado by Craig Martin and I can vouch that it is a good book.

[Brendan]

Have fun and post a report!  Hoping to get back there in August. I haven't fished the Animas since my first days of fly fishing, which combined w/ several other beginner errors and a 11am - 3pm time window didn't bring about any fish encounters. I was also probably still reeling the entire line back in at the time so that didn't help either.

It depends on where you're fishing, but the biggest challenge for me when i started fishing more out West was casting distance using 4-6wts and tiny flies. rarely cast my trout setups more than 30-45 feet here, often much less, but with the bigger water, unless you're drifting, you're going to want to be able to sling it out and still get a good lie. field practice, or even taking your trout setup to the potomac might be worth the effort just to get your distance up a bit. if you wade, be careful and consider bringing a thicker layer to line your waders! mostly super cold snow melt this time of year.