Weather has kept crowds down a bit, except for the Firehole River where PM caddis, BWO and PMD activity brings out fish to feed. Might be fewer folks fishing the AM PMD spinner fall. The Madison River is producing some streamer fishing. Fall River Basin and Lewis River drainage streams remain full of run-off.
Flows out of Mackay Dam continue to drop, now just below 350 cfs. Let’s see if flows get below 300 cfs making wading safer and fish more approachable.
Still spotty fishing with no particular place in the lake more outstanding than others. We have reports of a few fish being caught around cliffs, county boat dock, and northwest corner all on leech patterns. Best fishing is about a month ahead when fish get going big time on damselfly nymphs.
All our southeast corner reservoirs are improving fishing-wise, but better days will come with warming weather. Daniels offers the best fishing with damselfly nymphs, small leech patterns (intermediate lines) as well as migding. Stick to the shallows. Some fish are being caught in Chesterfield and Twenty-Four Mile reservoirs using the same techniques and in shallow water. Avoid the discolored water in both places. Springfield is producing with these techniques—Early AMs and evenings seem best. No reports yet on Treasureton. As for warm water fishing, Twin Lakes is slow as are most others.
There are many opinions right now about water flows on the South Fork. I called the Bureau of Reclamation to find out the real story. Flows on the South Fork will be dropped a few thousand CFS but you will not see flows below 19,000 cfs until after the runoff. Flows are being decreased to give a little relief to the flooding in Blackfoot and Shelley. Due to the forecast of rain, the demand for irrigation water is not high and that keeps water in the river systems. Flows on the South Fork will most likely increase once this push of runoff water from the Henry’s Fork comes through.
I asked about projections for July. No one can predict the weather but the Bureau of Reclamation was fairly confident that the river would be fishable with higher than normal flows around July 1st . They are now talking about the fact that Palisades Reservoir is still empty and they need to make plans to fill it. Higher than normal flows consist of flows between 15,000 to 18,000 cfs for July. As long as those flows stay consistent the river will be fishing well. So far this is good news we have lost some fishing in June but honestly we haven’t had good fishing in June for the last 3 seasons. We will have awesome fishing in July and August and into the fall season. Cold water is always good for insect hatches and fish.
Fishing right now is not recommended flows are extremely high and the water is muddy.
You can find Stoneflies from Chester Dam all the way up to the Lower Mesa Falls. Timing is the key for catching this hatch. If you are getting refusals on a Salmon fly, change up to a smaller golder stone. Caddis and Pale Morning Duns should start hatching any day now.
Looks like the main push of the runoff is here. The Fall River at Chester is reaching flows over 7,000cfs making the river below Chester basically in flood stage. Warm River and Robinson Creek have blown out as well. There is good hiking and wade fishing around Mesa Falls and Riverside campground. Rubberlegs, Caddis Pupa, Rollin Stones and CFO Hummer Stones should produce fish.
Every once in a awhile I get to go fishing with some friends. It’s a nice day off and I don’t have much to worry about. A few weeks ago I had this type of opportunity to float the Henry’s Fork. Just a little quick get away before I had some babysitting to do that afternoon back in town. We had a good few hours of fishing and I wanted to share some photographs from the trip. We floated from Vernon Bridge to the Chester backwaters. We were surprised to see a few of these lurking around when we kicked over a few rocks.
Caught a few smaller fish on rubberlegs and Moose had to get in on the action.
These two were by far the fish of the trip! I was rowing and Cory hooked up than Jordan hooked up. They were both really nice fish, you can tell by the smiles on their faces these boys were happy!
Firehole River is the place for stream fishing. It’s a bit high and tea colored, but fish take BWO life cycle patterns eagerly. Expect some crowding. The Gibbon River is high and discolored. Tons of snow remain on the Madison and Pitchstone plateaus. All this must melt and come down, so Fall River Basin and Lewis River systems will have high water for weeks to come.
Birch Creek remains the only one ready for fishing, and it is offering some great times for those bringing light weight fly gear. Wet and dry attractors, BWO and caddis life cycle patterns will bring afternoon action in the family area and in the diversion. These are mostly wild fish. The creek between Lone Pine and the diversion is heavily fished and is full of planters.
With flows out of Mackay Dam at 400 cfs, wading is quite tough. Look for backwaters where ‘bows will pile up. Then with care present BWO or midge life cycle patterns.