Trico season and low water converge on Colorado's Gold Medal tailwaters

What's biting

What's next

Over the next few days on the South Platte and Arkansas tailwaters, the combination of clear water, low flows, and a Full Moon overhead creates a technically demanding but potentially productive window — for anglers who time it right.

The trico spinner fall is the marquee event on the South Platte right now. These tiny mayflies (sizes 20–24) typically hatch pre-dawn and fall spent by mid-morning, blanketing the surface in a film of wings and bodies that selective trout sip methodically. Gink and Gasoline has documented the South Platte's trico hatches as dense enough to leave an angler in a "frozen trance" at the sheer density of bugs on the water — and late June is squarely in the heart of that window. Plan to be rigged and positioned well before first light. The spinner fall generally compresses into a tight two-to-three-hour window before midday heat shuts surface feeding down. A flush-floating spinner pattern in size 22 or smaller, fished dead-drift on 7X fluorocarbon, is the standard approach.

From midday through early afternoon, nymphs and emergers take over. AvidMax Blog (CO) has highlighted the Chocolate Foam Back midge emerger as a go-to: the foam back keeps the fly riding just below the surface film, "imitating those vulnerable midges struggling to emerge — a favorite target for selective trout." MidCurrent spotlights the GFC Fly as another tailwater workhorse, describing it as "a spare midge-style pattern that excels in the clear, pressured water of stillwaters and tailraces." Drop tippets to 6X or 7X, slow your drift, and work the seams and edges of deeper pools where fish will be stacked in low-water conditions per Cutthroat Anglers (CO).

The Full Moon can push feeding activity toward the early and late bookends of the day, with midday often slower. A trico session at first light followed by a rest and an evening return — targeting any caddis activity at last light — is a smart structure for a weekend outing. Late June afternoons in the Colorado high country routinely produce thunderstorms that can spike turbidity on nearby tributaries; tailwater releases from reservoir dams tend to stay stable, but always verify current conditions and flow releases before the drive out.

Context

Late June is one of the most anticipated windows on Colorado's Gold Medal tailwaters in a typical year. On the South Platte, the combination of post-runoff clarity, reliable midge activity, and the arrival of the trico hatch marks the beginning of the technical summer dry-fly season. On the Arkansas tailwater, flows historically stabilize after spring runoff and summer patterns settle in as the fishery enters its most accessible stretch of the year.

2026 is anything but typical. Cutthroat Anglers (CO) described this past winter's snowpack as "historic for all the wrong reasons," and that reality shapes conditions on both drainages heading into summer. Lower overall flows mean less thermal buffering — water temperatures can climb on sunny afternoons — and fish stack in deeper, cooler sections rather than spreading across riffles and shallow flats. Trout Unlimited's coverage of Colorado's San Luis Valley underscores how these Gold Medal drainages exist within a broader watershed facing ongoing agricultural and conservation pressure, adding long-term context to a single difficult water year.

Against that backdrop, there is a meaningful positive: Colorado Trout Hunters reported that the Dream Stream delivered "one of the best runs of migratory fish we have seen...in quite some time" this past spring. Strong spring migratory runs typically translate into quality resident trout through summer. MidCurrent also noted Colorado's Tolland Ranch land acquisition as a significant expansion of fly fishing access to previously private water — a sign that angler-access opportunities in the state are growing even in a challenging year.

For anglers comparing expectations to prior seasons: calibrate for precision, not volume. Low water means more visible fish but also more spooked fish. Colorado tailwaters historically fish well through drought conditions precisely because regulated releases moderate the worst effects — but it demands finesse, fine tippets, and disciplined early or late timing rather than all-day pressure.