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July 2011

Jimmy's All Seasons Angler / 2011 / July (Page 5)

Henry’s Fork 7/5

If you haven’t fished the Henry’s Fork yet you are missing out on some great dry fly fishing. Don’t let the high water flows deceive you. The water has great clarity and the bugs are hatching. Wading is not as accessible as it has been in the past seasons because of the high water, but the fish are big and healthy.

Things on the Ranch continue to improve with Drakes, Green and Brown hatching. Caddis and PMD spinner falls in the evening.

Downstream from the Warm River Confluence  fish have been feeding on Goldenstone’s, Caddis, Drakes, green and grey. There is also a good PMD hatch during the afternoon. The best action for fishing is in the evening  hours. If you are fishing during the day stop your boat, get out and watch the water. Lots of people on the water because the South Fork is just not coming together as quickly as everyone wants. Show up to the river early or late. Beating the crowds or following behind them is a good strategy for avoiding people.

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South Fork 7/5

Flows on the South Fork have been bumped up to 17,00cfs out of Irwin. Flows into the reservoir have been fluctuating up and down with the warm weather. Its going to be about 6 days before the reservoir is full, so I talked to the Bureau of Reclamation today and they told me that the Flows out of Palisades will be increased to 19,000 cfs. Will the flows be increased more? Who knows, I hope not, but most likely it will happen. I wish I could give you better news for the flows on the river but I don’t have any to share.

Fishing on the river is all nymphing. I have had reports of Salmon Flies, golden stones and Yellow Sallies on the lower section of the South Fork. However these reports have not had any luck catching fish on the dry fly. Nymphing is producing the most amount of fish on the fly. With the water being increased you will want to fish deeper with your nymphing rig. I would have at least 10 feet between the indicator and your first fly. Also be sure to fish with some weight so you can get those flies down to the bottom quickly.

South Western Montana 7-5-2011

All streams around Yellowstone Park feature high water.   That includes the Gallatin River and most of the Madison River above Ennis Lake.  Big stoneflies may be active here, but big question  is will trout full of annelids respond.

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Still Water 7-5-2011

Damselfly activity is the name of the game on all reservoirs.   Big fish are responding now at  Chesterfield and Twenty-Four Mile reservoirs.  Concentrate on shallow waters and around submerged vegetation.  Same thing at Daniels Res. where midging remains just as effective.  When it comes to damselflies, don’t overlook  using dry adult patterns on the surface.  Can be a lot like gulper action.  Sand Creek Ponds will join the list of still water choices for non-motorized boating with fishing after July 15th.

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Yellowstone Park 7-5-2011

Firehole River remains star of the show in Park rivers with white millers and PMDs bringing most action. The Gibbon has cleared and lowered enough to offer good fishing.   Golden stones are around, and late evening brown drakes are bringing up fish in upper river meadow reaches. Duck Creek’s evening brown drake emergence is ongoing. The Madison River is fishing well during  AMs when PMDs are active, and evenings when caddisflies take over.   Shoshone Lake offers great fishing if you get out in the lake a ways with such as a boat or float tube.  Fish are scattered around the lake, but will soon move to weed beds as they grow and host more food.  For now, any small leech pattern will do.  Fall River Basin you ask?  The Ashton-Flagg Road is open, but trails to such as Beula Lake remain with snow.  All streams in the Basin are high with run-off.   Northeast corner of the park streams (Soda Butte, Lamar, Slough), too.  Kinda look like your AM coffee & cream.

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Henry’s Lake 7-5-2011

Most reports have fishing improving here.  Much of the reason is active damselfly nymphs.   Look for the channels around weed beds to present your favorite damselfly nymph patterns. This is mainly a shallow water emergence, meaning lesser need to get to depths of the lake, so intermediate or slow sinking lines are the ticket.

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Small Streams 7-5-2011

Any area stream that drains high country is full of run-off thanks to our recent hot weather.  This includes Grand Teton Range west slope drainages, Salt and Grey’s river drainages, Fall River Basin streams, and South Fork/Palisades Reservoir tribs.  Small streams that can be fished include Birch Creek (of course),  Tom’s Creek,  Chick Creek, Squirrel Creek, and  Warm River. This hot weather will mean run-off aplenty for a while yet, but when it ends the choice of quality small waters will be almost endless and each will offer great action.

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Yellowstone Park 7-2-2011

We walked into Shoshone Lake down the DeLacey trail yesterday packing float tubes to get out to weed beds where browns and juvenile mackinaw (macks) hang out.  Never have seen so much snow on the trail and water in Delacey Creek.  The first mile of trail is nearly half snow covered with drift remnants up to three feet deep. But trail is passable with a bit of blowdown. We got onto the lake and pitched wooly bugger types on full-sink lines and got into plenty of  macks ranging 17-22 inches.   Lake appeared to be in the turnover process as murky water prevented us from locating weed beds at about twenty foot depth, but it didn’t matter as fish seemed scattered all over resulting in hits almost everywhere except very near shoreline.  Nearly all Park streams remain high with several days of current warm weather needed to finish run off.   Lots of folks fishing the high and clear Firehole River. The Ashton-Flagg road remains closed form the Idaho side.

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Henry’s Fork 7/1

Fishing on the Lower River is good as it can get. There are great hatches of Gray Drakes in the evenings, Flav’s Golden Stones, Pale morning Duns, Green Drakes and Caddis are bringing fish to the surface. The Gray Drakes and Caddis are working well during the evening hours of the Day. Goldens, Flavs and PMD’s have been working well during the day. I suspect the weekend to be fairly busy because the Henry’s is pretty much one of the only rivers fishing right now. To avoid crowds start early in the morning with Streamers and fish the dries as the day gets warmer. I personally would put in about lunch and fish till dark.

On the Upper River, flows on the Box Canyon were dropped today 1,000 cfs down to 1120 cfs. Give this section about a day for the fish to get reorganized with that large of a decrease in the flows. The ranch has some Drakes hatching but most of the fish being caught on the Ranch have been during the late and evening hours. PMD’s and Caddis have also been good on the Ranch.

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