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Home › Waters › Colorado › Uncompahgre River
Tailwater · Ouray County, the Uncompahgre valley below Ridgway Dam between Ridgway and Montrose, in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado · Colorado

Uncompahgre River Fishing Guides

The San Juan tailwater below Ridgway Dam, a short stretch of managed cold water between Ridgway and Montrose with year-round flows and some of the best public access in southwest Colorado.

A river meandering through open sage flats under big sky in the Northern Rockies
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Uncompahgre River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Uncompahgre River

The Uncompahgre River below Ridgway Dam is southwest Colorado’s most accessible tailwater, and the stretch immediately under the dam has been deliberately built into a trout fishery rather than merely allowed to become one. Ridgway Reservoir releases cold water from depth year round, which holds the river within a trout-friendly temperature band through a high-desert summer that would otherwise push the free-flowing river above the reservoir past comfortable limits. The result is a short reach of consistently productive water in a valley framed by the San Juan Mountains, twenty minutes from Montrose and an hour from Telluride.

The gauge below the reservoir reports discharge and stage, and on a tailwater those numbers mean something different from a free-flowing stream. Flow here is an operational decision, driven by downstream irrigation demand and reservoir management rather than by the previous night’s weather, and it changes in steps rather than curves. Anglers learn the release schedule as much as the forecast. Summer irrigation season brings the highest and most stable flows; autumn and winter run much lower, which concentrates fish, makes wading easy, and turns the whole reach into close technical water.

Rainbow and brown trout are the fishery, both in good condition on the steady food supply that tailwaters produce, and the state manages the reach with special regulations over parts of it. Cutthroat and brook trout drift down from the upper drainage and mountain whitefish are present in small numbers. What sets this water apart is public access: Ridgway State Park and the Pa-Co-Chu-Puk area put a considerable stretch of bank in public hands with formal parking, trails and campgrounds, which is rare on Colorado tailwaters and makes it a genuinely easy river to fish without a guide.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Uncompahgre River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Uncompahgre River cfs

Now: 65 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 09147025, UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER BELOW RIDGWAY RESERVOIR, CO).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Ridgway - the town just upstream of the reservoir, with lodging, food and the state park entrance.
Ridgway State Park - the park at the dam, with campgrounds, formal parking and trail access to the river.
Pa-Co-Chu-Puk - the developed tailwater reach immediately below the dam, the core public access.
Montrose - the nearest city, twenty minutes north, with fly shops, guides and supplies.
Highway 550 - the main corridor along the valley, giving access to the river at several points.
Ouray - upstream in the mountains, the base for the free-flowing upper river and the high country.
Special regulation water - portions of the tailwater carry gear and harvest restrictions and should be checked before fishing.

Seasons

Spring: rising releases as runoff fills the reservoir, with flows often high and the fishing best on the margins.
Summer: high stable irrigation-season flows, cold water and consistent fishing even in the hottest weather.
Fall: releases drop sharply, the river becomes low, clear and technical, and this is the finest fishing of the year.
Winter: minimum flows, open water through most of the reach, and rewarding cold-weather fishing with almost no company.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Uncompahgre River?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER BELOW RIDGWAY RESERVOIR, CO reads 65 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Uncompahgre River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Uncompahgre River in Colorado.

Are there fishing guides on the Uncompahgre River?

GuidedFloats lists 3 guides and outfitters on the Uncompahgre River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Uncompahgre River?

Ridgway - the town just upstream of the reservoir, with lodging, food and the state park entrance. Ridgway State Park - the park at the dam, with campgrounds, formal parking and trail access to the river. Pa-Co-Chu-Puk - the developed tailwater reach immediately below the dam, the core public access. Montrose - the nearest city, twenty minutes north, with fly shops, guides and supplies. Highway 550 - the main corridor along the valley, giving access to the river at several points. Ouray - upstream in the mountains, the base for the free-flowing upper river and the high country. Special regulat...

When is the best time to fish the Uncompahgre River?

Spring: rising releases as runoff fills the reservoir, with flows often high and the fishing best on the margins. Summer: high stable irrigation-season flows, cold water and consistent fishing even in the hottest weather. Fall: releases drop sharply, the river becomes low, clear and technical, and this is the finest fishing of the year. Winter: minimum flows, open water through most of the reach, and rewarding cold-weather fishing with almost no company.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Uncompahgre River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Colorado agency site: https://cpw.state.co.us/rules-regulations