River Explorer FAQs

This is the page where you can choose filters to get a set of rivers personalized for your adventure.  This is the place where you will select the river you want to fish.

To use the explorer page, you can touch or click any of the filter options.  For most of the options you can select multiple values and the results will include rivers that fit either criteria.  If you need to know what each filter means or the values, you can click on the label and a drop down will appear giving instructions on the filter.

Notice once you select an option, the numbers next to each option get less, this is the number of river results you have currently selected.  If you’d like to start over at anytime, you can hit the reset search button at the top.  If you really like your search results and would like to save them, the filters are saved in the URL and all you have to do is Bookmark them and name them something that you will remember so you can access them at a later date.

Once you’ve made your selections, you can view the set of rivers by touching the results button on smaller screens or on larger screens they are located on the right of the screen.  We’ve included a lot of info right in the result, but if you need more info like fly selection, access maps, weather and more, you can access it by clicking on the picture or the green button and you will get to the river page.  If you have questions on what the fields mean, you can find the related filter and touch or click the label for an explanation of the field and its value.  For example, if you aren’t sure what we mean by “medium” popularity, you can select the popularity label and get the definition.  When you are done, you can touch or click the label again and it will close.

The river page contains all the info you need to plan your fishing trip. It contains stream flows that are updated every 15 minutes, a range of flows that are best for fishing, a current rating out of 5 (5 being the best), general info on the river, weather forecasts, hatch charts, size and color lists from hatches, fly patterns that work best on the river, assortments, access maps and instructions with links to directions, and tips and resources for further reading to help you catch more fish.

Overview of River Page Resources

Once you click on a river from the explorer page, you can view river info, stream flows, fishable flow ranges, and the river rating. You can access the weather down the page a bit further which is also updated in real time along with the stream flows.

Hatch, Color, Size Charts for Fly Selection

The insect hatch area shares the colors and sizes that work on most rivers in Colorado and the fly patterns below are the specific flies that we have the most success with in the section of river you’re viewing. It’s best to find the hatches happening during the current month you’ll be fishing and use that as a guide to select your flies and sizes to tie or buy. You can always reach out to us with any fly selection questions.

If you want to make it easy, just grab one of our assortments and you’ll have flies for anywhere in Colorado.

Access Maps & Directions

The access map helps you find where the river is located, common access points and written instructions below about the river. Some are more detailed than others. The less info the better because it often means there is ample and easy access and all you have to do is find a spot you like as you drive along the river.

You can get directions which will open up a larger google map and provide all the great services google maps offers from directions, traffic times and more.

Tips and Resources

The last section is the tips and resources which shows some great fishing tips, a guide for catch and release and entomology, and a DoW fish survey and detailed stream flows. The fishing tips provides a ton of great tips on how to fish Colorado’s three river types, tailwaters, freestones and small streams. The catch and release guide helps you understand the best practices for catching and releasing trout. The entomology guide is our entomology course. This resource is a paid resource, but 6 month and annual subscribers will get 25% off the purchase.

The distance filter is one of the most useful filters.  This filter autocompletes if you type in a destination, or using the geo-location button, you can have it find your current location.  The drop down below sets the radius in miles from the location you entered.  This is a perfect tool if you’re travelling to an area and want to see what rivers are available that meet your criteria.  For example, searching the town of Gunnison within 50 miles yields many great results.

If you have questions on what the filter fields mean, you can touch or click the label for an explanation of the field and its value.  For example, if you aren’t sure what we mean by “medium” popularity, you can select the popularity label and get the definition.  When you are done, you can touch or click the label again and it will close.

You’ll notice in the river results, that some rivers are listed more than once.  Many rivers have different sections that are notably different from other sections of the same river.  Since they have different features, we’ve separated them out and provide different content for each section.  For example, the upper sections of the south platte are much different than the south platte down in Denver both in fish species, fly selection, distance and more.  This is the best way to help you find a river worth exploring vs spending weeks trying to find the right spot on a river as large as the South Platte.

If you really like your search results and would like to save them, the filters are saved in the URL and all you have to do is Bookmark them and name them something that you will remember so you can access them at a later date.  You’ll have to be logged in and have an active subscription in order to view them.

In addition, each river listing comes with a “favorite” button.  You can favorite the river and then view your favorites here, to come back to the rivers you have selected.

The river page contains all the info you need to plan your fishing trip including the access maps.  Click on any river or section to view the map located toward the bottom of the page.

The access map helps you find where the river is located, common access points and written instructions below about the river.  Some are more detailed than others.  The less info the better because it often means there is ample and easy access and all you have to do is find a spot you like as you drive along the river. 

You can get directions which will open up a larger google map and provide all the great services google maps offers from directions, traffic times and more. 

The streamflows are updated every 15 minutes for each river and section so they are always up to date.  For detailed streamflows, you can click on the river and scroll to the bottom and select the detailed streamflows link to search different date ranges and graphs.

The River Explorer has a sorting filter at the top of the results on the explorer page.

This feature allows you to sort by name A-Z or Z-A, by newest listing, since we release new rivers all the time, rating, showing the best rivers within a search result right now, and distance showing the closest places first to the furthest from whatever location you put in on the distance filter.  This will help you organize your list if you have a large result.  By default, we randomize the results so you aren’t shown the same rivers at the top every time.  This keeps the rivers evenly pressured and encourages you to explore new rivers, since this is the apps primary goal.

The hatch charts and fly selection tips are all located on the river pages.  Click on any river and in the middle of the page the hatch info will be there.  

The insect hatch area shares the colors and sizes that work on most rivers in Colorado and the fly patterns below are the specific flies that we have the most success with in the section of river you’re viewing.  It’s best to find the hatches happening during the current month you’ll be fishing and use that as a guide to select your flies and sizes to tie or buy.  You can always reach out to us with any fly selection questions. 

If you want to make it easy, just grab one of our assortments and you’ll have flies for anywhere in Colorado. 

Below each access map on the river page there is a “get directions page” that allows your current location and the river destination to pull up in google maps.  You can click that and adjust as needed per access point to get your drive times and other info supplied by google maps.  For some users, the google map itself has a direction button that you can use to instantly use the google directions tool.

Please refer to our pricing page here. https://thecatchandthehatch.com/river-explorer-signup/