Salmonfly Madness in the Gunny Gorge

When we got our dates for the 2-night / 3-day Gunnison Gorge camp float, I allowed myself a brief moment of hope that there would still be giant pteronarcys stoneflies in the mix, but everything I had read told me that it was more of an early June hatch. As the early days of June were peeled off the calendar and the water levels remained high and cold, it began to feel like it may actually happen. When we reached the bottom of the Chukar Trail for launch on Saturday, it quickly became obvious that we were going to be right in the thick of the hatch.                                                                                      

The first morning it seemed as though the fish had yet to truly key in on the stonelfy adults. By that afternoon though, the feast was on, and for the next two days we fished nothing but big stonefly dries in tandem with golden stonefly dries and various stonefly nymph droppers. Early in the morning, and during the mid-day sun, we would fish dry-dropper setups with as many fish coming on the dropper as the dry fly. When the hatch really got rolling late-morning and early-afternoon though, a salmonfly dry with a golden stone dry behind it or a single salmonfly dry was the rig of choice. 

To be frank, there may not be a better option for trout fishing anywhere in the western US right now than in the Gunny Gorge. The access is tough, but if you want to experience a truly remarkable event, go check it out!