Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
The Green River below Dutch John fishes best around 2,000 cfs, when back eddies work and boats spread out. The water is gin clear, so presentation beats fly selection: a 13 to 14 foot leader with a fluorocarbon tippet, a drag-free drift well away from the boat, and a downstream presentation.
Colby Crossland is a longtime guide for Spinner Fall Guide Service on the Green River out of Dutch John, Utah, and spends his winters fishing and traveling in Mexico and Central America.
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What flows fish best on the Green River?
Around 2,000 cfs is the number Colby Crossland wants on the Green River. At that level the back eddies move, every bank carries flow, anglers spread out, nymph fishers and dry fly fishers both have room, and nobody is being pushed downriver like a freight train. Below about 800 cfs the long multi-section floats simply beat you up, and high water for the Green means 8,000 to 11,000 cfs, which he lived through for roughly six weeks during his rookie season.
Why is the Green River called the aquarium?
The Green River earns the nickname because the water is gin clear and the fish sit right beside the boat, particularly on the A section. That clarity cuts both ways: the trout see a great many flies, they are used to boats, and they will follow a streamer for 15 feet in plain view. It also means anglers set too early constantly, because you watch a fish come three feet to a dry fly and pull it away before its mouth ever closes.
What leader does a Green River guide use?
For dry flies Colby Crossland starts with a nine-foot nylon leader anywhere from 0X to 5X depending on the season and the hatch, then adds a couple of meters of fluorocarbon tippet, ending up with 13 to 14 feet total. He drops to 6X during the Baetis and pseudo hatches and has no problem fishing 0X on the big midsummer cicadas. The reason heavier tippet works is the drift boat: a clean, drag-free presentation well away from the boat means the fish sees only the fly.
When do the Green River hatches actually happen?
Baetis start around mid-April on the Green River, and mid-April is reliably Colby Crossland's highest fish count of the year on nymphs. Cicadas show up lightly around mid-May and come in force in June if they come at all; the small ones, which he calls minis, run size 10 to 12 and sometimes 6 to 8, while the rare mondos are size 2 to 4 and turn up maybe every five years. After that the hatches overlap almost continuously into caddis, yellow sallies, PMDs in July and terrestrials, with midges and grain-of-rice-sized scuds present year round.
How do you fish streamers on the Green River?
Colby Crossland fishes a floating line with a heavy, aggressive, medium-length sink tip rather than a full sink line, because a floating belly is far easier to mend and control. Off the tip he runs a short three-foot section of straight 12 to 15 pound mono to a loop knot, and almost all of his streamers are foam-headed gurgler or diver styles borrowed from redfish and bass fishing. The foam is the trick: heavy tip drives the fly down, but on the pause the fly floats up rather than snagging, so you can strip to the edge of a shelf, let it settle, and work it down the drop.
What is the etiquette for wading and anchoring on the Green River?
Fishing off anchor mid-river is heavily frowned on and genuinely dangerous on the Green River, because the corridor is narrow, the traffic is constant, and an anchor hung in the wrong current line will sink a boat. Colby Crossland's rule of thumb is to never drop anchor anywhere you could not stand up. The A section carries a trail its full seven-plus miles and about three more miles into the B, but there are very few safe crossings, so most wade traffic is on river left; rowing across and fishing river right gets you your pick of holes.
What should be in a drift boat before you launch?
Colby Crossland has broken four oars in 11 years, so a spare oar, ideally a breakdown that stows under a bench, tops his list, along with a spare drain plug and a spare oarlock. He never puts a knot in the end of an anchor line, because the only reliable way out of a pinned boat is letting that rope run free, and he keeps a serrated knife on a high-power magnet stuck to the side of his seat so it comes into his hand in one motion. He also checks trailer bearings the weekend before a trip by putting a foot on top of the tire and shaking it, and keeps a dry bag with a spare change of clothes he has loaned to a dozen swimmers over the years.
Key takeaways
- Target roughly 2,000 cfs on the Green River; at that flow the eddies work, boats spread out and both nymph and dry fly water fishes.
- In gin-clear water, presentation outranks tippet diameter: a 13 to 14 foot leader plus a drag-free downstream drift lets you fish heavier than you would expect.
- Mid-April Baetis produce the highest fish counts of the year on the Green River; cicadas peak in June, with the size 2 to 4 mondos appearing only every few years.
- Fish streamers on a floating line with a heavy sink tip and a foam-headed fly so it rises on the pause, letting you work a shelf edge without hanging bottom.
- Over-rod and over-line yourself for streamer work; a heavier rod loads easier, saves your shoulder and gets fish landed and released faster.
- Never tie a knot in the end of your anchor rope, and keep a serrated knife within one motion of your rowing hand.
- Check trailer wheel bearings the weekend before a trip, not the morning of, by shaking the top of the tire for play.
