Anywhere you venture on the upper river terrestrial patterns will bring your best chance for daytime action. This includes fishing along banks and around overhangs in canyon reaches. During evenings look for caddis swarms and spinner falls to produce action.
Jimmy fished the lower river this weekend. Hoppers and chernobyl patterns, sometimes with a small nymph trailing, brought good action. So did Bennett’s Rubberlegs. From around 7:30 PM to dark he experienced a very good PMD emergence and spinner fall. Riffle fishing this season has been sporadic, so might not hurt to consider fishing riffles in the evening, based on Jimmy’s experience.
Presently Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Dept. has no plans for mandatory fishing closures other than those (2PM to midnight) on the Dearborn, Smith and Sun rivers. Best way to see closure details and if any new come into effect is to visit their web site then click on the Restrictions and Closures button. Hebgen Lake gulpers are providing good morning action.
Some of these are beginning to drop below normal flows because of our warm, dry weather. Others are “lucky.” Palisades Creek, for example, has two lakes, Upper and Lower, in its drainage. The upper lake has an almost total subsurface outflow, and the lower lake has a good subsurface component to its outflow. These just about guarantee that water levels will remain good through the season. So Palisades Creek is less impacted by the warm, dry weather than most other area streams. Consider visiting this great small stream. Yellowstone cutts dominate with a few cut-bow hybrids present below the lower lake. Right now terrestrial, caddis life cycle, and traditional attractor patterns will bring success. Flavs should soon become important to foraging fish. Best fishing will be during the afternoon hours, and an excellent trail parallels most of the creek.
No real change since Everet’s report a couple days ago. Action is at creek mouths, and use the flies he suggested. If you head to these locations, be ready to accept plenty of company that will increase if you get into good fishing.
Personnel are monitoring water temperatures throughout the Park to detect any waters where a closure may be necessary to protect hosted trout . Because we are a Park fishing license vender we receive up front information on any closures. If we hear of any, (hopefully we will not) we will surely post them in this report. For now, best days to fish almost all streams will be when thundershowers threaten, and your best bet should be placed on terrestrial patterns.
If you are a still water enthusiast and not happy that many of our reservoirs are at unpleasant temperatures for trout, maybe it’s time to think about visiting our high mountain lakes. There are only a few, such as upper Palisades Lake in this part of the state. But to the west, Copper Basin is loaded with lakes. Even closer, there are some lakes at the head of Antelope Creek just above Moore, Idaho. A few lakes are in the Lost River and lower Lemhi mountain ranges. Come in and get information because we have visited some of these.
Flows out of Mackay dam are decreasing, now at 437 cfs. Looks like the river below will be safe for wading (with caution) in time for the trico emergence.
Fishing on the upper river is best when terrestrial patterns are presented. Evening caddisfly swarms also bring action. With flow out of Henry’s Lake decreasing, larger trout are going to move downstream and out of the Outlet reach of the Henry’s Fork. Look for them to be present in the Tubs and on down through Coffee Pot to Island Park Reservoir. Streamers presented in the evening would be the best way to encounter these fish.
Please wear that life preserver you are required to have in your boat when on the water. Another tragedy happened on the South Fork. A lady drowned Thursday above Heise when a boat ran into difficulty on a side channel. Life preservers were in the boat at the time of the incident. Had they been worn it is likely that the futures of the persons involved would not have been impacted by this tragic turn.