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Home › Waters › Colorado › Gunnison River
Tailwater · Western Colorado · Colorado

Gunnison River Fishing Guides

Gold Medal water below the Black Canyon, from the Gunnison Tunnel through the Gunnison Gorge to Delta, floated and hiked into for big browns and rainbows.

A river meandering through open sage flats under big sky in the Northern Rockies

Map of the Gunnison River

17 numbered points: 12 access points, 3 campsites, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 8, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (12)
  • Campsite (3)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 17 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Crystal Dam
Bureau of Reclamation · Aspinall Unit		Dam / hazard38.51041, -107.62413The bottom dam of the Aspinall Unit and the top of this reach. No boat passage.
2USGS 09128000 — Gunnison River below Gunnison Tunnel
USGS streamgage		USGS gauge38.52915, -107.64895The flow that matters for the Black Canyon and the Gorge; read it before you walk in.
3East Portal Campground
Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP		Campsite38.52683, -107.64965The one place you can drive to the river inside the national park; steep road, length limit on vehicles.
4North Rim Campground
Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP		Campsite38.58528, -107.70996On the rim, not the water — the trailhead for the inner-canyon routes down the north side.
5Bobcat Trailhead
BLM · Gunnison Gorge NCA		Access / boat ramp38.62970, -107.87003Rim trailhead; the trail drops roughly 1,000 feet to the river. Coordinate is the parking, not the water.
6Duncan Trailhead
BLM · Gunnison Gorge NCA		Access / boat ramp38.64863, -107.86689Rim trailhead into the Gorge. Coordinate is the parking, not the water.
7Ute Trailhead
BLM · Gunnison Gorge NCA		Access / boat ramp38.68231, -107.86406The longest of the Gorge rim trails. Coordinate is the parking, not the water.
8Sun Cliff Canyon Trailhead
BLM · South River Road		Access / boat ramp38.76484, -107.88808River trailhead on the lower Gunnison below the Gorge.
9Cool Rock Canyon Trailhead
BLM · South River Road		Access / boat ramp38.76734, -107.87519River trailhead on the lower Gunnison.
10Orchard Boat Ramp
Shea Road · Delta County		Access / boat ramp38.76808, -107.90315Named ramp on the lower river.
11Crocodile Rock Trailhead
BLM · South River Road		Access / boat ramp38.77053, -107.86029River trailhead on the lower Gunnison.
12Boat ramp on I 30 Lane near Delta
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'Interstate Highway 30 Lane'		Access / boat ramp38.77173, -107.97282Mapped ramp on the county lane west toward Delta; no site name in OSM.
13Birthday Canyon Trailhead
BLM · South River Road		Access / boat ramp38.77615, -107.85283River trailhead on the lower Gunnison.
14Cottonwood Grove Campground
BLM · South River Road		Campsite38.77904, -107.85298Campground on the lower river with a ramp at the same site.
15Boat ramp at Cottonwood Grove
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'South River Road'		Access / boat ramp38.77915, -107.85366The ramp beside the Cottonwood Grove campground.
16West River Trailhead
BLM · West River Trail		Access / boat ramp38.78090, -107.83674River trailhead on the lower Gunnison.
17Boat ramp on BLM Road 5092
Unnamed slipway · OSM 'BLM 5092'		Access / boat ramp38.78371, -107.83808Mapped ramp on the BLM road above Delta.

Guides on the Gunnison 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 Gunnison River

The Gunnison runs west from the Gunnison valley through three reservoirs of the Curecanti National Recreation Area, drops through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and comes out below the Gunnison Tunnel into the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. That gorge reach, from the Chukar Trail down to Pleasure Park, is Colorado Gold Medal water and one of the best trout floats in the state.

Getting there is part of the story. The gorge has no road access at the top; boats are packed in by horse or hand-carried down the Chukar Trail, which keeps traffic low and the fishing quality high. Wade anglers hike in on the Chukar, Bobcat, Duncan and Ute trails. Below the gorge the river opens up through the North Fork confluence at Pleasure Park and runs to Delta and eventually the Colorado at Grand Junction. Upstream, the Black Canyon itself is a serious hike-in fishery for anglers willing to descend the canyon walls.

Salmonflies in late spring and early summer are the famous event here, followed by strong caddis and then a long, excellent fall of blue-winged olives and streamer fishing for big browns. The rainbows are wild and the population has rebounded well from whirling disease.

The Gunnison Tunnel gauge reads the release below the Black Canyon and above the gorge. Guides look for something in the several-hundred to low-thousand cfs range for comfortable floating; big spring releases from Blue Mesa push the gorge into expert-only water and can close it to fishing traffic entirely.

Montrose, Delta and Gunnison are the towns; Montrose is the base for gorge trips.

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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).

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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.

Fished this water? Add a photo

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Posting to Gunnison 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 Gunnison River cfs

Now: 213 cfs, read 2:00 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 09128000, GUNNISON RIVER BELOW GUNNISON TUNNEL, CO).

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

Access

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: East Portal road access and the canyon hike-in routes.
Gunnison Tunnel and the Chukar Trail: the top of the gorge float, boats packed in.
Bobcat, Duncan and Ute trails: BLM hiking access into the Gunnison Gorge.
Pleasure Park at the North Fork confluence: the standard gorge takeout and a ramp.
Austin and Escalante: lower river accesses toward Delta.
Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal reservoirs: Curecanti access upstream.

Seasons

April and May: pre-runoff fishing, then rising water; salmonflies begin in the lower canyon.
June: salmonflies move upstream, high water, the most famous weeks of the year.
July through September: prime float and wade season, caddis and terrestrials, warm days and cold nights.
October and November: blue-winged olives and streamers for big browns, very few people.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Gunnison River?

As of Oct 19, 2:00 am, the USGS gauge GUNNISON RIVER BELOW GUNNISON TUNNEL, CO reads 213 cfs, the 20th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Gunnison River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee Salmon, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Gunnison River in Colorado.

Are there fishing guides on the Gunnison River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Gunnison River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Gunnison River?

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: East Portal road access and the canyon hike-in routes. Gunnison Tunnel and the Chukar Trail: the top of the gorge float, boats packed in. Bobcat, Duncan and Ute trails: BLM hiking access into the Gunnison Gorge. Pleasure Park at the North Fork confluence: the standard gorge takeout and a ramp. Austin and Escalante: lower river accesses toward Delta. Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal reservoirs: Curecanti access upstream.

When is the best time to fish the Gunnison River?

April and May: pre-runoff fishing, then rising water; salmonflies begin in the lower canyon. June: salmonflies move upstream, high water, the most famous weeks of the year. July through September: prime float and wade season, caddis and terrestrials, warm days and cold nights. October and November: blue-winged olives and streamers for big browns, very few people.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Gunnison River?

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