Dolores River

The Dolores below McPhee is the most fickle tailwater in Colorado, and its whole story is written by a dam gate. When McPhee Reservoir fills, the Dolores Water Conservancy District releases cold, clear water into the canyon and the river fishes like the premier tailwater it was built to be in the early 1980s — wild browns pushing 16–18 inches, fat rainbows, size-24 Baetis clouds in the fall, and easy wading through shallow riffles and slow bends. When the reservoir doesn't fill, the district cuts releases to a bare-minimum fish-pool trickle, water temperatures climb in the exposed shallows, and the fishery contracts hard. That swing is the single most important thing to understand before you drive here: this is not a river you check the calendar for, it's a river you check the gauge for.

It fishes as a wade-only tailwater — 20–35 feet wide with a modest gradient, forgiving and user-friendly when flows cooperate. The premier water is the first several miles below the dam past Ferris Canyon and Cabin Canyon campgrounds, all of it artificial-only, catch-and-release, running about 12 miles down to Bradfield Bridge. Technique tracks the season and the flow: midges and small Baetis under an indicator through winter and early spring, then a genuine dry-fly window in June–July right after the spring release drops back into fishable range, with caddis, PMDs, stoneflies, and terrestrials into summer. In the low, warm mid-day shallows of high summer the fish get spooky and stack in the few deep buckets, so early and late is the play. Fall is the sleeper — cooler water, aggressive pre-spawn browns, and reliable BWO.

Be honest with yourself about timing, because right now the news is bad. As of July 2026 the district is releasing only about 5 CFS through the remainder of the year — winter-minimum water in the middle of summer — because McPhee didn't fill. The tailwater is scenic but marginal: ultra-spooky trout crammed into what deep water remains, warm shallows, and a poor experience until a snow year refills the reservoir and normal 60–90 CFS summer releases return. The river boomed 1984–1986, then a 1990 drought dropped flows to roughly 20 CFS and killed about half the trout; pool management since has stabilized things, but in a dry year the allocation is small. Access is remote — Cortez and the town of Dolores are the closest services, Durango is about an hour, and the canyon roads below the dam are dirt. Come when the reservoir has filled and the gauge reads real water; skip it when it's on the fish pool.