Big Lost River 5-8-12
Flow out of Mackay Dam was stepped down to 280 cfs Sunday. That means the river below can be waded. Midge and some BWOs activity should pick up as river stabilizes.
May 2012
Small Streams 5-8-12
Warm weather coming up will bring more run off into streams draining high country. This will put “kibosh” on fishing these for a while. Warm River is an exception if you accept that not many large trout are present. Same goes for the Birch Creek family area and diversion.
Henry’s Fork 5-8-12
Ashton Reservoir draw-down begins tomorrow and will take two weeks to complete. Expect discolored water during this event and for a while afterwards. However, discolor should not be as bad as last September when unconsolidated sediments up to 100 years old moved out. Impact on wet fly fishing is less likely than to dry fly fishing during draw-down. A streamer pattern of the evening presented in areas out of direct sunlight remains the best way to encounter a large fish until stonefly nymphs begin moving.
Still Waters 5-8-12
Here’s news lots’a folks have been waiting for. Chesterfield Reservoir is rounding into shape. Best fishing seems to be in shallows around shorelines holding willows and by the dam. Use midge pupa patterns under an indicator for best results. Find the taking depth. A black bead zebra midge (#12-#14) might be a good choice. Indicator fishing with midge pupa patterns has been good in shallow waters at Daniels Reservoir, too. No information on Treasureton Reservoir yet.
Henry’s Fork 5/4
Flows on the Lower Henry’s Fork have seemed to level out from that warm spell we had last week that raised the water levels that discolored the water. Caddis, March Browns and Blue Wing olives have been hatching and fish have been receptive to a dry fly presentation. Nymphing has also been effective. I would fish 2 rubberlegs below an indicator right now focusing on stoneflies starting to move around. Just a few more weeks till we start seeing a major move of stonflies to the bank for the Salmon Fly hatch. I haven’t heard much about the streamer activity but I assume you should be able to move some fairly large fish right now with a big fly.
South Fork 5/4
Flows have been bouncing around for the last few weeks. Right now they are at 9,000cfs. As it stands we will not get a huge flush of water this spring over 20,000cfs. So this means that any damage that we can do to the rainbow population will have to be through anglers harvesting them. Right now the fishing at the Dam has been really good. Some streamer action but the majority of fish being caught have been on mysis shrimp, scuds and egg patterns. Rubberlegs and dead drifted J.J. Specials will also catch fish. For the rest of the river, Rubberlegs, and Bead Head nymphs have been effective.
South Fork 5/1
Flows on the South Fork have been dropped to 9,000 cfs. There have been a lot of fisherman having good success at Palisades Dam. Mysis shrimp patterns and glo bugs have been the ticket. You gotta get them down deep and on the bottom. As far as the rest of the river is concerned glo bugs, rubberlegs and bead head nymphs have been moving a lot of fish. The streamer action is picking up but remember the water is still cold so be sure to slow down that presentation to entice a strike.
There is a blocked channel on the Lorenzo to Menan float. Its about half way into the float. The majority of the river banks to the right and the left channel is completely blocked by a log jam. I have not seen it but this was reported to us by some customers. Please check out every side channel before you float it this time of year. You don’t want to get stuck walking your boat out of a long side channel.