Longtime Grand Canyon river guide and avid flyfisherman, Jerry, gave us a few pointers on fishing the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. He takes his rod on every trip in hopes to find a little free time for one of his favorite hobbies: fly fishing.

Main river fishing
Fishing in the canyon can be excellent! Primarily you'll be fishing from shore at camp in the evening, or during the day when stopping for lunches or hiking. This is a tailwater fishery; however, the Colorado through the canyon fishes more like a freestone in that the fish are not that picky in fly selection. That said, you can fish scuds and midges or just tie on a bugger and fish till it wears out. The only hatch will be midges - fish do sip midge clusters off the surface.

Sides stream fishing
There are two side creeks that offer great fishing in cold alpine like creeks flowing through a desert canyon :Tapeats Creek and Bright Angel Creek. The bad news is that we don't always stop at these places. However, throw in some attractors, big caddis or hopper patterns just in case.

Restrictions
Fishing is restricted in the Little Colorado River or 1/2 mile upstream and downstream of the Little Colorado River.

Gear
3-piece 5 or 6 weight , or two piece stored in hard-shell case
3- 6 X tippet
Bugs
Scuds- 12 to 16 green, pink, orange, tan
Midges- pupa, emergers, drys (if you are fishing midges just bring ones for whatever midge water you fish at home)
San juan worms
Buggers- 6 to 10 black, green, a little sparkle doesn't hurt

Misc-
Nippers, hemostats, weight, strike indicator

To summarize, I try to keep it as simple as possible. My setup includes a 3-piece 5 weight, a box or two of flies, tippet/leaders/indicator, gink, and nippers. I just put what I want in my pocket or throw it in my day pack.