Colorado River at Lees Ferry

Lees Ferry is the trout water at the bottom of Lake Powell — about fifteen miles of cold, clear tailwater running from the base of Glen Canyon Dam down to the boat launch at the head of Marble Canyon, where the Paria River comes in and the Grand Canyon begins. It's the only real trout fishery in the Colorado's canyon country, and for decades it was one of the more productive rainbow factories in the West: a wide, gravel-bottomed, spring-creek-like river full of wild rainbows in the 14-to-18-inch class with a genuine shot at fish past 20. There are no brown trout to speak of and no other trout species here — this is a rainbow show, sustained by dam releases rather than a natural cold-water source.

The catch is that almost none of it is bank-accessible. Below the dam the river runs between 1,000-foot Navajo sandstone walls, so unless you're wading the short walk-in stretch at the launch, you need a boat — outfitters run jet-powered skiffs up from the ramp and drop you on gravel bars to wade, or you fish from the boat. Flows are pure hydropower: Glen Canyon Dam swings the river daily with power demand, commonly 7,500 to 11,000 CFS but ranging from a roughly 8,000 CFS overnight base up past 20,000 during peak generation, and the water can drop fast around midday, which changes where and how you wade within a single trip. The fishing is technical in the spring-creek sense — small midges (18-26) and scuds year-round, with a real Blue-Winged Olive window in spring and fall — but the wading itself is forgiving on the gravel flats. Winter and early spring are the classic prime windows for numbers of fish on midges, with the fewest boats.

Be honest with yourself about two things before booking. First, this is a remote, logistics-heavy trip — the nearest town of any size is Page, about 40 minutes away, and the fishing itself is boat-dependent unless you're content with the crowded walk-in. Second, the fishery is not what it was. Arizona Game & Fish monitoring recorded some of the lowest catch rates in three decades around 2022, and the deeper problem is temperature: with Lake Powell drawn down by drought, releases have run far warmer than the historical 46-to-50°F — a July reading near 65°F is possible now — warm enough to stress trout and let smallmouth bass slip through the dam into the tailwater. It's still a genuinely good fishery with big fish in it, but go in reading current reports rather than the old 40-fish-day reputation.