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Tarryall Creek Fishing Information
Middle Section - near Fairplay, CO
The middle section of Tarryall creek is a great little creek to fish in the South Park area and seems to be often overlooked in comparison to the south platte and other creeks. People “in the know” will always tell you that solitude isn’t hard to find in south park if you know where to look. With the River Explorer, we open up those doors to you so you know and one of the spots they speak of is the middle fork of Tarryall Creek. The reason you get solitude in the upper access of the middle section is due to the way the parking is structured. The Cline SWA area has 4 parking spots and 4 corresponding beats. You can only fish the beat you park in and that’s it. No cheating (they rangers check often). This ensures you get you’re own little public stretch in privacy and is awesome. I really wish they’d do this at some of the more popular streams to better spread out the access. It’s a great way to handle the fishery and keeps pressure low and privacy/solitude high.
The middle section is an easily missed section cause the SWA sign is hidden behind a hill and you drive by it going 50 mph and most are headed to the reservoir and miss it completely. On a weekday it’s rare to find another person and you get this middle section all to yourself. This kind of solitude is something special that you can find in Colorado and in my opinion, is an essential part to fly fishing.
The fishing in this area is fair to good and most days, you’ll catch bows and browns in 8 – 14” ranges. There is a lot of private water in Tarryall though and I have it on good authority and experience it is well stocked and some big bruiser trout meander this stream. You can find some big fish if you get lucky, which makes a small creek like this fun. Fish around 20” have been caught here and offer a real surprise when you come across them. Most of the fish are on the small to medium size however and offer a pleasant day in solitude with a decent chance at double digit fish days.
The fishing can be a bit technical in both spots for different reasons. In the Cline SWA, willows and brush dominate the side of the river making casts difficult. The good news, is the creek is small so if you get hung up, you can often just wade in to retrieve the fly and watch the fish swim off as they laugh at you for you’re poor casting. This makes it a fun challenge with little chance to lose your flies. A single dry fly or dry dropper set up is often best. I find in tight quarters like this, a single fly is my best chances and allows you to cast tight against the foliage where fish are often expecting insects to land and 1 fly can be better than 2 in this arena.
In the lower beat of the middle section, the river is wide open and a meandering meadow stream. This makes casting easy and spooking fish easier. Walk quiet and low to the ground making presentations over the water only on your final cast. (i.e don’t false cast over the water) this makes a big difference in the numbers of fish you’ll see. Nymph the deeper holes and runs and dry dropper the riffles and banks. I like to have 2 rods and set ups for these creeks so I can switch back and forth. Often with no one there, I’ll start at the bottom, work my way up with one rod while leaving the other behind where I started. After I fish 50-100 yds, I’ll come back down and switch rods now leaving the other rod at the top of where I finished and in this way you can fish the same stretch of river two times with different techniques and often pick up fish you missed due to the inability to access them with good presentation.
Fly selection is pretty standard here and for anyone who fishes Colorado, go with your favorites and you should do fine. If you need some guidance on flies, check out the list below. Sizes #14 – #18 perform best in summer and #16 – #22 in spring and fall seem to be the ranges that produce. Go explore Tarryall and the access points showing below and enjoy a day in relative solitude!
Fish: Some Small-Sized Fish
Popularity: Low
Difficulty: Hard
Accessibility: Medium
Best Techniques: Dries & Nymphs
Best Seasons: Spring - Fall
River Type: Small Freestone
Fish Types:
Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Brook Trout
Dog Friendly: Yes
Located in the South Platte River Basin near Fairplay, CO
Hatch Charts
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.
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 Tarryall 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.
Tarryall 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.
