Big Lost River 5-28-11
Flows out of Mackay Dam are about 270 cfs. That makes wading possible. Midge and BWO life cycle patterns make for good PM fishing. Again, don’t overlook small beadhead, small leech and peacock woolly worm patterns.
Author: cheeseburger
Yellowstone Park 5-28-11
General fishing season opens today. We expect to have licenses and information folders early next week. Firehole River is your best bet for stream fishing. BWO, PMD, and caddis life cycle patterns are standard fare for this time of year. Don’t overlook small bead head nymphs. Lewis Lake will offer some streamer fishing from both shore and from boats. Dress for not the best weather!
Small Streams 5-28-11
Birch Creek is by far the best, but wait for the holiday crowds to leave by Monday. It’ll be a while before waters drop on most others—we’ll let you know when these shape up.
Southwestern Montana 5-28-11
Best stream fishing here is the Beaverhead. Sallies, BWO, caddis have made for great recent action for top water enthusiasts. Nymphing produces, too. The Madison remains muddy below Quake Lake. Beaver and Cabin creeks are the reasons why. They have muddied Quake Lake and a part of the Madison above.
South Fork 5/26
Flows are still at 21,000 cfs we are not recommending anyone float the river at this time.
Henry’s Fork 5/26
Flows have gotten pretty large on the Henry’s Fork. The lower river starting from Warm River confluence is pretty dirty and muddy. The river at St. Anthony is at Flood Stage. Water from the Box Canyon down to the Warm River is in pretty good condition. Fish nymphs under an indicator. Stonefly nymphs and caddis pupa are working well. There should be some dry fly caddis buzzing around but no report of fish actively feeding on the surface.
With the Holiday weekend coming up there will be a lot of people who migrate to The Box Canyon mostly cause its the only game in town. Just remember to be courteous and use some common sense.
Today at Jimmy’s 5/26
Yesterday was a gorgeous Idaho day no wind and highs in the upper 60’s. Woke up this morning to temps in the mid 30’s and winds expected to reach 40 mph! This is spring in Idaho, seems like winter just doesn’t want to let go. We have been getting a lot of questions about water and flows so I thought I would talk about that situation.
Let me start by saying the information I am passing on is a mix from the Bureau of Reclamation and our general thoughts here at the shop. The only real fact that holds merit in this discussion is we have a lot of water this year. Period. The BOR is predicting flows at a minimum of 23,500 cfs at the Heise measure station for 5 to 6 weeks. As of right now the river is flowing 23,200 cfs at Heise. All of this is dependent on weather conditions. So there is no clear answer to when we will be able to fish the South Fork. However we counted out the weeks and best case scenario puts the flows at a reasonable level around the 4th of July. We will keep you all informed as soon as we find out more.
Allow me to debunk a few myths that seem to float around fisherman. First off there will be a Salmon Fly Hatch on the South Fork. If the hatch is huge or small will depend on weather and flows, but those bugs will hatch. Last year I didn’t see Salmon Flies on the upper till mid July, but they hatched. Second, all of this water flowing down the river will change things but it will not flush all the fish away and the insects will be fine. We had huge flows in 97′ and the river fished great once the flows went down. The fish will move into areas with decreased flows and the nymphs will crawl deeper into the rocks. There have been no talks of the river reaching 30,000 cfs or above and to our knowledge the BOR has not predicted those type of high flows. If temps get cold it will reach that level for sure so lets all hope the weather continues to stay warm.
Still Waters 5-25-2011
Even though Hawkins, Daniels and Springfield reservoirs are fishing well, bad weather can interfere. Try midging deep on Daniels. Damselfly nymphs will work on all these. And pray for some good weather because with warming all these reservoirs will pick up fishing-wise.
Big Lost River 5-25-2011
Flow out of Mackay Dam is back over 300 cfs. Makes for tougher wading, but midges and BWOs are still active.
Henry’s Lake 5-25-2011
Ice went off days ago–now the question is how good the weather will be to allow fishing.