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North Fork of Rio De Los Pinos Fishing Information
Main Section - near Conejos, CO
Don’t blink or you’ll miss the north fork on your drive over La Manga Pass. Though your eye catches the valley as you come over the pass, I’m sure it’s commonly overlooked due to the size of the river. In it’s widest points you could still jump across it and though there aren’t many trees to get hung up on, it can be difficult to land the fly in the river with any wind given it’s width. This small creek holds some small trout, but is a great place to throw a single dry fly and really enjoy some simple and uncomplicated fly fishing for a few hours. It flows through a gorgeous valley and in late June through August, the wildflowers along with the insects and green grass and trees makes for a charming and picture filled outing.
The North Fork doesn’t warrant a full day trip or even a trip down to the Conejos valley, but with all the fishing around, this is a great little gem to enjoy while exploring the area if you’re into small stream fishing and putting a few eager trout to net. There is some good camping around La Manga pass which is what first brought me to the area and after seeing the valley and knowing it was national forest, I just couldn’t pass up throwing a fly for a couple hours to explore this little creek. The bugs were pretty rough, but nothing some strong deet wouldn’t prevent or long sleeves and pants can’t resolve.
As far as the fishing, the trout weren’t stacked in there, but every likely holding place that had more than 1ft of water seemed to create a strike. It can be hard to land the fly in the water with any wind with it being such a small creek and you can’t stand right on top of the fish or you’ll spook them. This was the enjoyable challenge. You had to cast 25 – 40′ upstream over a variety of water and land to land the fly in the water far enough upstream that your presence didn’t spook the trout. Then when you hooked the trout, you had to guide him through the water downstream to your net. This may have just been the day I was fishing as it was high skies, but they seemed a little spooky so I gave them some extra respect and made some distance casts to ensure I didn’t spook them. Many of the fish are likely too small to hook on a standard dry fly, but that’s probably for the best as every 5th or 6th strike drew a larger fish in the 8 – 12” class. Their colors were great and it reminded me of my early days fly fishing when it was just about me, the fly and connecting it with any trout that was willing. It was cool to feel so nostalgic on a river that I had never fished before. Reminds me that all rivers share common threads and that is what we enjoy as anglers is finding those threads in every new stream we explore.
Standard dry flies like elk hair caddis, stimulators (smaller cause the fish can’t eat a size #10, try #14 – 16) or little hoppers that float well and keep things easy is all you really need here. Nymphs unless unweighted probably aren’t wroth the effort given they are so willing to rise to a dry. All kinds of hatches of caddis, mosquitos, midges, and mayflies were flying around when I was there in mid July. Check out this great little gem if you’re in the area and are camping nearby or just want to try it out for an hour.  Please treat the fish with extra care as they don’t get fished often and young trout like this need extra protection or they can die easily after being poorly handled. Use a landing net and keep em in the water as much as possible. Keep your hands wet when touching trout always, no matter the size.
Not hard to catch fish here on a variety of flies. Pick dry flies in sizes 14 – 16 of any kind and you should be fine. Match the hatch if necessary.
Fish: Some Small-Sized Fish
Popularity: Low
Difficulty: Medium
Accessibility: Easy
Best Techniques: Dries & Nymphs
Best Seasons: Spring - Fall
River Type: Small Freestone
Fish Types: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout
Dog Friendly: Yes
Located in the Rio Grande River Basin near Conejos, CO
Fishable Seasons & Current Weather
The best seasons to fish this river are Spring - Fall. See the current weather reports for the next 5-6 days listed below for the nearest city.
Knowing what flies to use is only have the battle. You have to know when the insects are active on the water and when it's likely the trout are feeding on them. Refer to our hatch charts below to understand when the insect categories and some of the possible hatches on the river.
Midge Hatches
Midges hatch year round, but their importance is from September through winter into April. During the warmer months, the trout often focus on larger insects as they are more active on the water like mayflies, caddis and stoneflies.
Aside from Blue wing olives, mayflies are active most commonly from May to August in Colorado. There are many different mayfly hatches found on most rivers and the most common are listed below.
Blue Wing Olive: September throut winter to April
Colors: Green/Olive
Sizes: #16-24
Pale Morning Dun: June to Mid September
Colors: White, Yellow
Sizes: #14 - #20
Green Drakes: June to August
Colors: Olive/Green
Sizes: #8 - #14
Caddis Hatches
Caddis hatch starting early in May and continue to the end of October.
Colors: Olive, Green, Yellow, Tan, Orange, Brown and Black.
Sizes: #10 - #20
Stonefly Hatches
We have some great stonefly hatches in Colorado and while not all rivers carry all species of salmonflies, you can often fish stonefly adult patterns with confidence from May to September. Start off in bigger sizes and get smaller till September hits (size 8 - 16)
Little Black Stone: January to May during warm sunny days.
Colors: Black, Grey
Sizes: #16 - #20
Golden Stone: June to August
Colors: Yellow, Tan
Sizes: #8 - #14
Yellow Sally Stonefly: Mid June to August
Colors: Yellow, Tan
Sizes: #12 - #18
Terrestrial Activity
Terrestrials don't hatch since they are out of the water, but they can have importance starting in Mid April and ending in September.
Not hard to catch fish here on a variety of flies. Pick dry flies in sizes 14 – 16 of any kind and you should be fine. Match the hatch if necessary.
These are the the top flies we sell for this river. Use the hatch chart above to know what flies you will want to have in your fly box during your adventure on the river and then select the flies here 30 days before your trip to get them at a great price. All of our flies are hand tied to each order to ensure quality and to keep our prices low for you.
Click on a fly below to select a size and color for purchase.
Our fly assortments make fly selection easy. We take our entomology knowledge and years of fly fishing experience on these rivers to bring you the right fly patterns, including the correct colors, sizes and quantities to set you up for success. A good selection of flies will prepare you properly for anything the trout may be eating on the river and our fly assortments are specifically curated to maximize your success. Take a look at the assortments we provide below and add one to your box today. Use coupon code AST50 for $50 off and free shipping on these as well, just to help make fly fishing a little more affordable!
Click on any of the pictures to see what flies, colors and sizes we recommend in each assortment.
View our access map for the North Fork of Rio De Los Pinos and learn public and private access points as well as other notable features around fly fishing this river. We include headwater and confluence data and in an effort to not "hotspot" river access points that are better than others, we list every access point available. This serves two purposes. First, it keeps us from hotspotting, which is just showing the best spots and bringing unwanted and harmful attention to the specific access point. The second reason is while we want to help you catch fish and find great places to explore, we don't want to spell it all out for you. If you get it all spelled out, we're doing the exploring, not you. Missing out on the journey of exploring places to fly fish is one of the more enjoyable aspects of fly fishing. While not everyone has time to go explore everything in person, we provide some of the top level data to help you know if something is worth your time, then pass it off to you to explore and find your own adventure. Now enjoy the info, if you're on this page then this river is worth exploring! Go out and find some memories.
North Fork of Rio De Los Pinos Tips & Resources
Use these epic resources to get ready for your adventure. Whether you're planning your trip, learning your insects, improving your fishing with expert tips or getting detailed resources from the USGS streamflows or DoW, we got you covered to help you find the river and find the success you want.