Seems like you don't hear much about the Green lately, but I can tell you it's as popular as ever! We spent five consecutive weekdays drifting the "A" section the last week of April and were amazed at the crowds. Granted, late April and early May have proven to be very popular due to the excellent midge fishing on the upper stretch and the (usually) prolific BWO hatch further down the river.
It took us a few days to figure out that the heavy numbers were mostly due to the fact that just about every guide boat was launching within a short timeframe. Start before 815 AM or after about 915 and you could avoid the heavy traffic. Even if you did get stuck in the launch frenzy, a mile down the river and you'd have your space back.
Generally, the fishing is still excellent (at least on the "A" section since that's all we fished). The river is still suffering from low flows - stuck at 800 cfs for the foreseeable future (the drought continues). Consequently there seems to be a lot of "dead" water - areas where it's just too shallow or slow for good fishing. Also, my experience tells me that because of the low flow, the fish are more hesitant to come up to the surface for dries, unless a hatch is really on or you've got some cloudy skies. Our best dry fly fishing was the first two days when we had good cloud cover. Later in the week the skies were bright and sunny and the surface action diminished each day until on Friday it just about disappeared. When the hatch was on a #18 Sparkle Dun worked just fine.
Nymph fishing was great all week. We fished mostly with long leaders and extra weight so we would get all the way to the bottom, hoping to catch some of the fish that maybe don't see so many flies. Most of guide boats were fishing the traditional nymph rigs with large yarn strike indicators that act as bobbers, so they could suspend the flies off the bottom. The micro-ballon indicators seem to be growing in popularity. About the only flies you needed were midge and baetis nymphs. I used a Jujubee and RS-2 almost exclusively.
The mix of boats on the river seems to be undergoing a shift. I'd say over 90% of the drift boats were operated by guides. Ours was one of the few boats not displaying the GROGA sticker. There's seems to be an explosion of pontoon boats lately. I guess they're less expensive than a drift boat, but most of them seem to be just a way of transporting an angler down the river to the next spot where he can fish from shore. And the thought of dangling your legs in 39° water all day doesn't sound too appealing. Give me the comfort of a drift boat any day.
(Click on image at left for a better view of the results of the 2002 Mustang Fire)
The scenery was its usual spectacular self. Osprey just about every day, several otters, a golden eagle that was calmly feeding as we were drifting by (click on picture on left) and a herd of mountain goats looking very scraggly on the hillside above us (click on picture on the right).
So, the Green is still there as it's been for thousands of years (albeit with a few man-made alterations!). The fishing is as good as ever. The flows aren't where they should be, but the fish and anglers adjust. The fish are as healthy as I've seen - the browns are deeply colored, buttery-yellow and orange bodied with the most intense red spots. The majority of the fish we caught were browns, though they acted like rainbows with many exhibiting multiple jumps.
I guess we should be thankful the Green River is a seven hour drive from Boulder. Imagine the crowds if we had such a resource on the Front Range!
Here are a few websites you should look at when planning your next trip there: