The Animas is sitting around 750-850 CFS and will likely increase throughout the coming days with low elevation rain. Due to warm weather in March, we have seen significant flows for this time of year. This can be a great time of year to target fish on streamers and large nymphs under an indicator. The Animas river will fluctuate a lot during the spring and offers great opportunity to catch fish as the water drops. This Animas river fly fishing report should get you started on being more productive on the water.
Streamer’s on the Animas River
With early runoff we will see flows increase over several days and then decrease as cold snaps come into play. The water will clear and fish are generally pushed into slow pockets and soft water near the bank. This is perfect for anglers to anticipate where fish are holding and target these slower zones. When the animas drops 75-100 CFS it’s almost certain to turn fish onto streamers. Short leaders with a fast sink rate will get the fly in the zone and trigger aggressive bites.
Some of our favorite streamers on the Animas river for this time of year are:
Cheech Leech – Black, olive, fall color
Conehead Ziwi – size 4-8 in black
Rusty Trombone- size 4-8 olive
Galloup’s Sex Dungeon – size 2-10 olive, black and purple, white
Sparkle Minnow- size 6-10 cream, olive
With an abundance of sculpin in the Animas river these fish key in hard during big water fluctuations. Bait fish are displaced and larger fish take advantage of this time frame to pile on the protein. Focus your time tight to the bank or in boulder fields to elicit hard strikes. Most sculpin when spooked will dart upstream for 3-4 feet and then peel off into the fast water at a downstream angle. Imitating this movement will generate strikes right as your fly turns down stream.
Streamer Technique
A good way to replicate this is cast downstream with 10-15 feet of line and use your rod to jerk your flies up the bank and then do a large rod turn downstream and OUT towards the current. Be ready for a strike as your fly turns downstream as this is a great time for fish to eat baitfish head on. Cover a lot of water and slow pockets in and out of boulder fields.
A preferred streamer leader for our guides is roughly four feet long. We will have a two foot butt section of 20LBS thats connected to two feet of 15LBS fluorocarbon. This short leader will allow you to roll over heaver flies and stay tight to your fly when doing direction changes. Anything under 15 lbs to your fly and you’re flirting with snapping off when you connect with the fish you’ve been after. It also helps when you snag sticks, logs, rocks, or whatever other random metal or shopping carts are living in the river.
Nymphing the Animas River
Nymphing is a go to during this time frame. Get deep and get deep fast is the name of the game. With big water there are stoneflies, caddis, and mayfly crawlers getting dislodged and filling the lower water columns. Our guides keep it very simple this time of year on the animas with bug selection.
Common nymphs:
Pats rubber leg – Size 8,10,12 in black, coffee, or brown
Prince nymph – Size 12,14,16
Hares Ear – Size 10,12,14 in tan, olive
Pheasant Tail – Size 10,12,14
When nymph fishing the Animas river our guides will throw 3x to 4x this time of year. Being on stout line will increase the number of fish landed and they are not leader shy this time of year. Get deep fast. If bugs aren’t occasionally snagging bottom this time of year you are missing a lot of opportunity. Place split shot roughly 12-14 inches above lead fly and continue to add weight and depth until snagging bottom occasionally. Focus your time above big boulders that are still exposed and the top of chutes leading into rapids or between big boulders.
We are always happy to talk fishing and get people ready for their day of fishing. Always feel free to give us a call and we can point you in the right direction with bug selections and locations to hit.
