We are in the part of summer when particularly the lower river gets real tough unless you fish early mornings and evenings. Terrestrials are out in great numbers up and down the river, and they now offer the best chance for top water fun. Presnt their patterns close to banks, especially those not in direct sunlight and those not far from deep water. Fish are spookier these days and will not venture far from cover during bright daytimes with warmer waters.
Creek mouths are the places to be. If not there, then try spring holes with Staley’s Spring being the most famous. Use the traditonal Henry’s Lake patterns along with midge pupa under an indicator when you visit all of these.
Reservoirs at lower elevations as well as those that are shallow: this means Chesterfield, Daniels, Hawkins, Tewnty-Four Mile, Springfield, Twin Lakes, are warming. Thus trout fishing in these is slowing. Your best bet is to try deep water with a full sink line to present leech and midge patterns as fish will go there to seek cooler conditions until we get to the fall months.
Flow out of Palisades Dam remains at 11200 cfs. It’s going in the right direction to help make fishing the riffles more interesting. Right now slamming chernobyls, golden stone, and other sizeable floating patterns towards banks seem the best way to enjoy top water fishing. Don’t forget that doing the same with slightly submerged super-x patterns also works. This holds true up and down the river. Any day now mutant stones will make an appearance to add to the fun of South fork top water fishing.
The flow dropped another 500 cfs to 11,200 the night before last. With each drop more gravel bars appear and the riffle fishing just gets better. The fish can real picky though so if you find your yourself in a situation where the fish comes up and bumps or swirls underneath your fly change the silhouette. If you are using a parachute pale morning dun switch to a comparadun, thorax dun or no hackle. If that doesn’t work move on to a cripple dun pattern or emerger. Just keep changing until you find something that works. Its not uncommon to catch two or three fish on three different life cycle patterns in the same riffle
The fish are taking both chernobyls and hoppers better now. The best action seems to be in the morning and into the early afternoon. Some parts of the river suffer through a “dead zone” beginning around 3 pm especially on bright sunny days. Things get better again later in the evening.
Looks like we are around the peak of action in many still waters thanks to damselfly and speckled dun hatches. Chesterfield, Daniels, and Hawkins reservoirs seem to offer the best, although they are warming as expected in mid summer. Take your favorite patterns dry and wet, for these. Early in the day is a great time to be on all of these, and before the wind comes up Daniels offers good shoreline fishing. So does Twenty-Four Mile but on a smaller scale. Twin Lakes is still produces fast action for warm water species.
Daniels Reservoir
Discolored water is from wave action caused by wind. When you see this discolor, fish at its outside edge. Fish will forage there for food forms washed from the banks. We can recommend taking fly patterns !
Last week we talked about Joe Allen’s double renegade. This week let’s look at another South Fork favorite with decades of popularity. It’s Wes Newman’s super-X, and few flies have proven as effective there. Wes took the old super renegade, first created in the late 1950s by Ardell Jeppson, and made changes. Wes’s modification initially was to replace the central brown hackle with rubber legs tied diagonally to form a horizontal “X”. Thus the super-X. Later Wes replaced the rear grizzly hackle with gray Antron yarn. Later changes by Wes and others were mainly in body colors. Wes saw that his fly was most effective when swept slightly submerged close to overhangs, sweepers and undercut banks, then pulled back into the stream. Trout lying under these features would interpret it as an escaping food form and chase it. Seeing that the super-X has never lost its effectiveness, we stock and highly recommend it. We also thank Wes for his wonderfully effective pattern.
Big story here is that the Madison River below Slide Inn is fishing as well as ever. PMD, yellow sally, caddis, attractor, and terrestrial patterns all are bringing success. Any day now gulper fishing will begin, not only on Hebgen Lake, but along the shallows of Wade and Elk lakes. Want to find light weight equipment action on a small stream? Drive up the West Fork of the Madison River where attractor, caddis, and sally patterns will bring bring sure-fire action.
The Yellowstone River in the Hellroaring and Blacktail areas has been featuring fish responding to the giant stonefly hatch. Look for terrestrial patterns to be important, and never overlook traditional attractors here. Some golden stones remain on the Gardner River. Terrestrial patterns are becoming most important on such as Slough Creek, Soda Butte Creek, Grayling Creek, the upper Gallatin River, and all Fall River Basin streams. With respect to still waters, Beula Lake is the best with Cascade, Grebe, and Riddle lakes also being a good choices with dry damselfly, midge, and speckled dun adult patterns bringing top-water action.
Flow out of Mackay Dam, 650 cfs, is still high for extensive wading. Give it a few more weeks.