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Pass Creek Fishing Information
Main Section - Willow Creek of Taylor Creek - near Almont, CO
Pass Creek is truly a creek for the veteran angler. This creek is really, really small and requires an immaculate presentation to extremely spooky fish. A 6-inch brown trout is truly a trophy on this tiny creek. The upper reaches of Pass Creek require moving through a series of backroads that aren’t well depicted in a lot of cases. Braiding quite a bit near of its confluence with Willow Creek, the lower reaches of this creek provide many excellent opportunities to present your fly to very spooky fish. Even anglers of Expert skill can expect to get beat here on Pass Creek. Whether you hit the windy backroads in an epic pursuit of small, invigorating, wild trout or simply cast your fly into a few holes to test your skill, Pass Creek has an opportunity for you to grow as an angler.
Pair lower Pass Creek with Willow Creek to test your skill a bit while enjoying the accessible, fun fishing Willow Creek has to offer.Â
Pass Creek truly operates off of a small selection of insects. Anglers should focus right in on the small midge and mayfly species with thin tippet and perfect presentation. Bringing fish to the surface is possible, but highly unlikely on Pass Creek, so be sure to have a subsurface imitator in your fly box.
Fish: Few Small-Sized Fish
Popularity: Low
Difficulty: Hard
Accessibility: Hard
Best Techniques: Dries & Nymphs
Best Seasons: Spring - Fall
River Type: Small Freestone
Fish Types: Brown Trout, Brook Trout
Dog Friendly: Yes
Located in the Gunnison River Basin near Almont, 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
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)
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.
Pass Creek truly operates off of a small selection of insects. Anglers should focus right in on the small midge and mayfly species with thin tippet and perfect presentation. Bringing fish to the surface is possible, but highly unlikely on Pass Creek, so be sure to have a subsurface imitator in your fly box.
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 Pass Creek 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.
Pass Creek 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.