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Author: cheeseburger

Jimmy's All Seasons Angler / Articles posted by cheeseburger (Page 56)

Henry’s Lake 7-18-2011

Creek mouths are the best places to try now.  Intermediate lines may be the best to use in these locations of shallow water.  Olive Crystals, Peacock AH’s, Mity Mites, beadhead peacock leeches, and your favorite damselfly nymphs work well in these locations. If you are successful catching fish, expect to have company!

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South Western Montana 7-18-2011

The Madison River is back to its fabled self for the time of year. The big stoneflies have arrived in the reach between Hebgen and Quake lakes, so fly-fishers are concentrating there. Below Quake Lake a great strategy is to concentrate on presenting nymphs (From rubberlegs to caddis pupa) in the AM, then with early PM warming switch to dry fly fishing where caddis and stoneflies of all sizes are bringing up fish.  Don’t overlook presenting ants and beetles. Hebgen Lake trout seem to be taking midge pupa and some on the surface.  Maybe they are getting in practice for the upcoming gulper season.  Fishing on Clark Canyon Reservoir is improving but spotty. Midging seems the best approach. The Beaverhead River with a bit lower than normal flows offers some of the best fishing around with golden stones, PMD, and caddis bringing trout up.

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Yellowstone Park 7-18-2011

Waters are finally beginning to recede. The Madison River drainage remains in the best condition.  Afternoon PMDs and evening caddis activity result in action. The Firehole River is warming to levels where fish can become stressed while being played. Let’s give ’em a break until we cool off in September.  If you are up the Firehole’s way, why not try the Gibbon River. It’s a smaller version, but it holds fish just as large, if not larger.  That’s right: the official largest brown trout caught in Yellowstone Park is from the Gibbon in the meadow reach.  Going north out of West Yellowstone, Duck Creek in the meadow is every bit as challenging as any water around. Right now beetles and ants would bring the best chances for big resident ‘bows and browns, but you had better be a “Henry’s Fork Hunchback”.  Fall River Basin and Lamar River drainage streams remain high, but are dropping and clearing. The Lewis River is high, clear and suitable for fishing.  Pelican Creek is open to fishing, but few fish are present. Right now some of the fastest fishing in the Park is in Beula Lake.  It is all Yellowstone cutts, and they range up to near twenty inches.  Riddle Lake may be a close second, but the cutts are smaller.

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Small Streams 7-18-2011

Give streams draining the west slope of the Grand Teton Range another week or so, and they will join our huge variety of small streams offering great fishing.  There is a perception that because a stream is small it will not hold large trout.   Don’t believe it!   Most of the larger creeks in the South Fork-Palisades Reservoir drainage hold cutthroat that would qualify as large in the South Fork and the reservoir.  For sure there are not as many large ones present, but there are much fewer folks fishing these, no boats to intrude on your riffle, and terrific scenery. It’s the same with small streams in the Henry’s Fork drainage and the Salt river drainage.  And there are many more small water that hold large trout.   Want to get away from the crowds and still have a chance at some large trout in moving water?  We can recommend several places where you will have chances. Come in and listen to what we can suggest.

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Still Waters 7-18-2011

Currently damselfly nymphs are the best way to fish everywhere these days. Pick any reservoir, and that is what’s working.  Keep an eye open for takes on the surface as some adult damsels deposit eggs there and others dive to the bottom to do so. Rises to those on the surface or to those returning to it make for fun fishing with adult patterns. Sand Creek Ponds opened to fishing from boats without motors on July 15th. Damselflies are emerging in big numbers there, but we hear that some speckled duns are beginning to show there just as from such as Chesterfield, Twenty-Four Mile, Daniels and other reservoirs.  With respect to warm water species, its been a slow and strange season so far.

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Henry’s Fork 7-18-2011

Looks like the upper river has caught up to the lower river with respect to fishing success. It’s about the time during a normal season that fishing on the lower river begins to slow, even though this year has been anything but normal.  Caddis and PMDs (evening spinner falls) are present in good numbers on the lower river, but nymphing is becoming more important as the best way to fish.  It’s a bit early for hoppers, but with warming and drier days, ants and beetles are more active and therefore important in a trout’s diet. On the upper river a big variety of mayflies, caddisflies and terrestrials are attracting fish.  PMDs and afternoon flavs are the most numerous mayflies with a few evening brown drakes emerging.  And as with the lower river beetles and ants are more important.

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Still Waters 7-14-2011

Here’s a blanket statement: Damselfly emergences are going on everywhere. If you want action on any of our still waters,  you should have patterns for them. Fish ’em in shallower waters and at depth around submerged vegetation. If you see rises, try dry damsel adults.   Also best to have a few speckled dun life cycle patterns near by, they are beginning to show on many waters.

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South Fork 7-14-2011

Inflow to Palisades Reservoir is dropping with a few delays from rain storms, but at around 26000 cfs today is higher than today’s outflow of  23500 cfs.  It will be a while before we have the fishing that puts the South Fork on the map.   For now if you must try this great river, remember that fish don’t need to spend energy coming to the surface; there is plenty of food drifting subsurface. So rubberlegs, streamers, wooly bugger types, SJ worms (tough to disguise, isn’t it!) in singles and clusters, all fished deep will get some action. Isn’t what we are use to this time of the season, but better days are ahead.  We’ll keep you posted on when they arrive.

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