Use Our Fly-Fishing-Specific Filters to Find Your Perfect Adventure
Whether you love chasing gorgeous cutthroats in pristine high mountain streams and solitude, or bumping elbows on the famous tailwaters as you chase trophy trout, the River Explorer is your perfect companion. The magic of the River explorer is we help you find the right spot for your goals before you go. Don’t waste time on the wrong adventure, make the most of the adventure you want to haveÂ
We have the most fly-fishing specific filters of any trip planning tool as it was designed by fly fishermen, for fly fishermen. See a list of our filters below that will give you the best results for your next fishing adventure.
Click on any of the filters below to learn more about them:
Enter a specific city, address, or use the geo-locate button to find rivers near that location within a 25 – 200 mile radius. We also have an interactive map on the filter page that plots the locations selected on a map to easily find and understand their locations.
Not all access is equal on rivers. This helps you understand how easy or difficult the access will be so you can decide, based on your mobility and desire for adventure and solitude, where you’d like to fish.
Easy – You can park and fish without much effort to the water.
Medium – You have to walk or hike a bit to the river for less than 20 minutes and the trail is easy
Hard – Hope you brought a machete. Â The access on these spots are difficult and require significant effort to access due to elevation or vegetation
This filter helps give you an idea of what the best techniques are for the river or help you find places where you can practice that specific technique.
These techniques will catch you the most fish based on the water conditions and fishable seasons.Â
Dries – Best fish with dry flies
Dries & Nymphs – Dries, Nymphs and Dry/Dropper Rigs
The fish size filter helps you select the size of fish you want to chase for your trip. You’ll be able to select from three fish size ranges (inches) to choose the size of fish you want to chase.Â
Small – Likely catch is less than 14 inches
Medium – Likely catch is 12 – 18 inches
Large – Likely catch is 16 + inches
Of course everyone wants to catch big fish, but as you’ll find in Colorado, big fish come with big crowds. Part of the magic that is the river explorer is it helps you decide what’s most important to you. If you can deal with crowds because you want big fish, then great, we got great spots for you. If you decide you just want to be alone in a beautiful place and are willing to chase smaller fish with the chance at a few bigger ones, then we have that too. The key is we help you decide where to go based on what you want ahead of time, saving you time and putting you on the adventure you want.
One of our most popular filters and most useful, the popularity filter helps you figure out how many anglers you will be sharing your fishing day with. Â
Low – There are few to no people when you fish. Â Weekends you’ll only see a few people at most with plenty of room to fish.
Medium – There are a few people and you still have room to fish, but you won’t find complete solitude. Â On weekends you’ll have some company, but won’t feel crowded.
High – There are people fishing here every day and even at night sometimes. Â During the weekends, it’s a social setting as much as it is a fishing location.
This filter will help you understand the river structure. We have a tips section included on every river specific to that river as well as a general tips section on fly fishing freestones, tailwaters etc.
Freestone – Unimpeded waters from snowpack with a crystaline rock stream bed (normal river rocks)
Not all rivers are teeming with trout. We have explored a ton of Colorado’s waters and worked with biologists and DWR to determine fish counts in many of the major rivers and their tributaries. Using this filter will help you avoid the less desirable spots, or find hidden solitude. The filters are:
Few – You’ll have to work to find and catch fish
Some – With proper technique, you’ll find a good amount of fish
Many – There are a ton of fish in nearly every spot of the river
Looking for a specific species to check off your bucket list? Use our fish species filter to find where certain species have been caught and go chase your unicorn.
Note: The size filter does not correlate to specific species.
Ex. there may be 20+ inch bows and browns in the river, but only 12” brook trout. Â See the river details to access more info.
For me personally, I value this filter the most. I have a strong preference whenever I fish to know the stream size as it affects my fishing gear I bring as well as the type of day I can expect. Sort by river size and find the right fit for you.
Small – You can usually cast across the river without wading
Medium – You can cast across most spots if you wade
Large – You are unable to cast across the entire river in most places
There’s nothing worse than getting to a river to only find it isn’t fishable or accessible at a certain time of year and wasting precious fishing time. Our seasonal filter helps narrow the results for the season you plan to fish. You can plan ahead for future seasons, or view the current season and what’s available.
Great for anglers of varying skill sets, the difficulty app is based off of a wide range of angling experiences to help you manage your expectations for your trip and the challenge it will present in catching fish.
Easy – Anyone can catch fish on this river with a fly in the water
Medium – An intermediate angler can expect a successful day
Hard – A good learning opportunity for most, only the experts will thrive
Know before you go if the river you’re going to fish is pet friendly. Some places in Colorado don’t allow dogs, while other places just aren’t safe or too crowded for dogs. We help you know ahead of time where to go to keep your favorite fishing buddy happy.
No – Dogs are not allowedÂ
Yes but Leashed – For the dogs safety or due to crowds, it’s best to leash or voice command control your dog
Yes – Dogs can roam freely under voice control
Filter Examples
You can mix and match these filters as much or as little as you want to get your desired results. To see how this works view the examples searches below on the free version of the river explorer to get an idea: *Note: the below results only show 3 rivers on the free version each, but the pro version has 30+ results on each of these listings
We filtered medium to large fish size, easy and medium access and dog friendly locations for an excellent list of summer destinations that are sure to make memories.
Looking for the catch of a lifetime? These locations show the many spots that fish over 18” can be caught as well as the places where 28″+ monsters reside…
Once you’ve used the filters to narrow down your results and find a few rivers. You can click on each one of them and get detailed information to help you plan your trip:
River Descriptions
Learn about the river and it’s surroundings
 Current Weather Conditions
Get a 5 day forecast with temps, cloud cover and wind detail
Hatch Charts & Insect Info
View hatch charts and detailed size, color and stages for insects in each river
Print out our write ups or send the data to our partner offline app to view private and public property boundaries against your real-time GPS location as well as other map layers to maximize your adventure.
Accurate Public/Private Access
View hatch charts and detailed size, color and stages for insects in each river
Real-Time Offline GPSÂ
Use your phone to track your location and stay on track
Additional Map Layers
Camping sites, stream gauges, trail markers and mileage and more to make your trip epic.
River Explorer Pro
From: $5.00 / week
RIVER EXPLORER MEMBERSHIP
CURRENTLY ONLY FOR COLORADO
Description
RIVER EXPLORER MEMBERSHIP
CURRENTLY ONLY FOR COLORADO
River Explorer Pro
Find a River | Plan Your Trip | Catch More Fish
Already a Member? Login Here
River Explorer Membership
Currently Only for Colorado
Only $4/Month
Paid Annually
How We Help You Find the Perfect River
Use Our Fly-Fishing-Specific Filters to Find Your Perfect Adventure
Whether you love chasing gorgeous cutthroats in pristine high mountain streams and solitude, or bumping elbows on the famous tailwaters as you chase trophy trout, the River Explorer is your perfect companion. The magic of the River explorer is we help you find the right spot for your goals before you go. Don’t waste time on the wrong adventure, make the most of the adventure you want to haveÂ
We have the most fly-fishing specific filters of any trip planning tool as it was designed by fly fishermen, for fly fishermen. See a list of our filters below that will give you the best results for your next fishing adventure.
Click on any of the filters below to learn more about them:
Enter a specific city, address, or use the geo-locate button to find rivers near that location within a 25 – 200 mile radius. We also have an interactive map on the filter page that plots the locations selected on a map to easily find and understand their locations.
Not all access is equal on rivers. This helps you understand how easy or difficult the access will be so you can decide, based on your mobility and desire for adventure and solitude, where you’d like to fish.
This filter helps give you an idea of what the best techniques are for the river or help you find places where you can practice that specific technique.
These techniques will catch you the most fish based on the water conditions and fishable seasons.Â
The fish size filter helps you select the size of fish you want to chase for your trip. You’ll be able to select from three fish size ranges (inches) to choose the size of fish you want to chase.Â
Of course everyone wants to catch big fish, but as you’ll find in Colorado, big fish come with big crowds. Part of the magic that is the river explorer is it helps you decide what’s most important to you. If you can deal with crowds because you want big fish, then great, we got great spots for you. If you decide you just want to be alone in a beautiful place and are willing to chase smaller fish with the chance at a few bigger ones, then we have that too. The key is we help you decide where to go based on what you want ahead of time, saving you time and putting you on the adventure you want.
One of our most popular filters and most useful, the popularity filter helps you figure out how many anglers you will be sharing your fishing day with. Â
This filter will help you understand the river structure. We have a tips section included on every river specific to that river as well as a general tips section on fly fishing freestones, tailwaters etc.
Not all rivers are teeming with trout. We have explored a ton of Colorado’s waters and worked with biologists and DWR to determine fish counts in many of the major rivers and their tributaries. Using this filter will help you avoid the less desirable spots, or find hidden solitude. The filters are:
Looking for a specific species to check off your bucket list? Use our fish species filter to find where certain species have been caught and go chase your unicorn.
Note: The size filter does not correlate to specific species.
Ex. there may be 20+ inch bows and browns in the river, but only 12” brook trout. Â See the river details to access more info.
For me personally, I value this filter the most. I have a strong preference whenever I fish to know the stream size as it affects my fishing gear I bring as well as the type of day I can expect. Sort by river size and find the right fit for you.
There’s nothing worse than getting to a river to only find it isn’t fishable or accessible at a certain time of year and wasting precious fishing time. Our seasonal filter helps narrow the results for the season you plan to fish. You can plan ahead for future seasons, or view the current season and what’s available.
Great for anglers of varying skill sets, the difficulty app is based off of a wide range of angling experiences to help you manage your expectations for your trip and the challenge it will present in catching fish.
Know before you go if the river you’re going to fish is pet friendly. Some places in Colorado don’t allow dogs, while other places just aren’t safe or too crowded for dogs. We help you know ahead of time where to go to keep your favorite fishing buddy happy.
Filter Examples
You can mix and match these filters as much or as little as you want to get your desired results.
To see how this works view the examples searches below on the free version of the river explorer to get an idea:
*Note: the below results only show 3 rivers on the free version each, but the pro version has 30+ results on each of these listings
We filtered easy access, beginner difficulty rivers with some and many fish selected on the fish count filter.Â
We filtered medium to large fish size, easy and medium access and dog friendly locations for an excellent list of summer destinations that are sure to make memories.
Looking for the catch of a lifetime? These locations show the many spots that fish over 18” can be caught as well as the places where 28″+ monsters reside…
Only $4/Month
Paid Annually
How We Help You Plan Your Trip
Once you’ve used the filters to narrow down your results and find a few rivers. You can click on each one of them and get detailed information to help you plan your trip:
River Descriptions
Learn about the river and it’s surroundings
 Current Weather Conditions
Get a 5 day forecast with temps, cloud cover and wind detail
Hatch Charts & Insect Info
View hatch charts and detailed size, color and stages for insects in each river
River Features & Details
Learn the key fishing features of the river
Real-Time Streamflows
Streamflows updated every 15 minutes
(learn about streamflow importance here)
Access Maps & Points
Dozens of access points plotted on a map. Simply click to get directions and drive times
Fishing TipsÂ
Get fishing tips from our personal experience
Fishing Fly Recommendations
Top flies recommended for each river
Additional Premium Content
Get catch & release guides, detailed streamflow graphs and DOW fishing survey reports (*where available)
Save & Favorite Your Rivers
Revisit the rivers you find during your research to put multiple fishing trips in your bucket list.
Find a River
Â
Favorite That River
Â
View Your Favorites
Â
Only $4/Month
Paid Annually
Take the Info Offline and On Your Smartphone
Print out our write ups or send the data to our partner offline app to view private and public property boundaries against your real-time GPS location as well as other map layers to maximize your adventure.
Accurate Public/Private Access
View hatch charts and detailed size, color and stages for insects in each river
Real-Time Offline GPSÂ
Use your phone to track your location and stay on track
Additional Map Layers
Camping sites, stream gauges, trail markers and mileage and more to make your trip epic.
Only $4/Month
Paid Annually
Fish Caught Using the River Explorer
The Catch and The Hatch © 2023 | View Our Privacy Policy Here
Related products
Epic Angler Membership
$239.99 / year Join NowFly Explorer Lifetime Access
$149.00 Add to cartFly Fishing University
From: $8.00 / month Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageFly Explorer
From: $12.00 / month Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page