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Author: Bruce_Staples

Fly Fish Food Jimmy's / Articles posted by Bruce_Staples (Page 24)

Small Streams, July 26th, 2023

July 26, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Small Streams

Summer is time for a fish fry, and we have several small streams that host the main ingredient for such. Without a doubt the best trout for a fish fry is the eastern brook trout. These were introduced to area waters over 120 years ago, and have eliminated native salmonids from many waters though being aggressive and able to out produce the native “cutty.” Where are the best streams to find these “brookies?”

Look for small streams that are easily approached because catching enough for that fish fry can be a family activity. Almost any small sized fly will work to fool these aggressive little devils. IDF&G allows a personal limit of 25 brookies per day in most streams. Let the number of your fish fry attendees decide how many brookies to harvest. Certainly after being cleaned, store them in a cooler while traveling home to retain their wonderful flavor.

Here are some candidate small streams that host numerous brookies. Elk Creek at the east end of Buffalo River Campground is a great candidate. So is nearby Tom’s Creek and other upstream Buffalo River tributaries. Not far from these, Little Warm River and Partridge Creek are great candidates. Above Kilgore, West Camas Creek and Cottonwood Creeks, although brushy in places host great populations. So does equally brushy Modoc Creek flowing out of Pauls Reservoir. In the Lost River area Copper Basin streams such as nearby Cherry Creek with stair step beaver ponds and upstream Antelope Creek are good places to try.

Recipes for preparing brookies and other fish abound on the internet. One way of tradition is coated with cornmeal and fried which brings great eating results. What accompanies your brookies? Such as slaw, baked beans, fried okra, corn on the cob, and hush puppies are leading candidates. No matter what you choose the results will make for a fish fry ” fit for a king!”

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Still Waters, July 26th, 2023

July 26, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Still Water

Horseshoe Lake

Nearly all our still waters are in the summer doldrums. Here is one with conditional exception if you have a flotation device and do not mind fishing early in the day or during evenings. That would be non-motorized Horseshoe Lake. Facilities here are totally primitive: no rest rooms, no developed camping/picnic area, no boat launch facility except the north side open shoreline. Why place this small lake on our fishing report? Because it is easily approached and is stocked each year with grayling ( and rainbow trout with holdovers being rare). The rainbow trout to grayling ratio is about 8 to 1, and a “braggin’ fish” grayling here is about 13″ long. They are active during AM spinner falls, damsel fly egg laying activity and PM speckled dun hatches. Use the lightest tackle you have and a floating line to present patterns imitating these life forms.

One gets to Horseshoe Lake by traveling the Cave Falls Road about five miles east into the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Just past the LDS church girl’s camp the turn-off to Horseshoe Lake is on the left side of the road and signed. The road is good enough for sedans and gently rises to the lake. Take a camera to capture the beauty of this rare salmonid.

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Southwest Montana, July 26th, 2023

July 26, 2023
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Fishing Reports, South Western Montana

Hebgen Lake gulpers have yet to get going big time. Madison Arm is the favored location and there are convenient launch sites along its south shore. Other lakes will have these in some intensity. Some include the south end of Elk Lake, east section shallows of Quake Lake and isolated bays of Wade Lake’s west side. We have been “blessed” with windy PMs all over the region, and this will put gulpers down as soon as it begins.

Widow’s Pool on Picnic Creek , Centennial Valley

The Madison River still provides some good top water fishing below Quake Lake with caddis, Sallys, PMDs and a few golden stoneflies around. Terrestrial insects are beginning to be important here and on such as the Gallatin River. Early AMs and evenings are the best times to fish as daytime water temps are high enough to slow fish activity, and mid-day offers much reduced overhead cover. Centennial Valley creeks are in good shape but are getting hammered by visiting anglers. Nothing puts fish down on small waters as much as bank-side traffic which sends not usual vibrations into the water.

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South Fork, July 22nd, 2023

July 22, 2023
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Fishing Reports, South Fork

There has been no significant change in flow down the river (12800 cfs at Irwin, 13600 cfs at Heise, 6400 cfs at Lorenzo) for several days. Palisades Reservoir is a around 90% of capacity. So we are in summertime flow conditions where irrigation demands seem to stabilize a bit. The giant stone fly hatch, being closer to the dam, is not far from ending. The golden stone flies are not far behind with some green drakes and an increasingly active PMD population following. All this means boat launch facilities, especially on the upper river, are crowded , and recreational floaters coming on. Evening remains a best time to fish the river. Daytime heat is decreasing, wind is dying, caddis are active, big browns are foraging, and most anglers are heading home or to the nearest water hole/eatery.

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Still Waters, July 22nd, 2023

July 22, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Still Water

Aldous Lake

There is not much for fishing success on our irrigation reservoirs during these dog days. There are, however, a few places you can have better fly fishing success and tranquility if you are willing to leave the beaten path. One of these is Aldous Lake above Kilgore. That fact alone offers that it will not be populated, except for a few locals. The Continental Divide is just above the lake. From Kilgore go west, take the first turn to the right and proceed to the Ching Creek Road. It ends at a parking lot/trail head. The walk to the lake, which is no more than a tarn, is a bit more than a mile with about the last half going uphill. Aldous features submerged springs making the water level and quality good enough to offer hold-over conditions for resident trout. Submerged vegetation hosts scuds and leeches galore.

It is best to pack a flotation device to get onto the lake because the timbered shoreline offers little room for back casting excepting a tiny area on the west shoreline. If speckled duns and damsel flies are active, you will have little problem attracting resident cutthroat trout featuring individuals exceeding twenty inches. No surface action? Try small leech or scud patterns or even fly rod jigs and use about a five-weight system to present these.

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Yellowstone Park, July 22nd, 2023

July 22, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Yellowstone Park

Areal photo of Beula ( foreground) and Hering Lakes

You can experience perhaps the best still water fishing in the whole region by visiting Beula Lake at the head of Fall River drainage. Here is how to get there and how to fish once there.

Travel the Ashton-Flagg Road from where it leaves US Highway 20 just south of Ashton all the way to the east end of Grassy Lake Reservoir in Wyoming. After leaving pavement at the Caribou-Targhee N. F. boundary, There is a long, dusty, pot hole pocked drive but with great scenery. At this point there is a small parking lot on the left with the Beula Lake trailhead. Your first quarter mile will be uphill, but the two miles afterwards features gentle ups and downs until the last few yards where the trail drops to the southeast corner of the lake. If you have not packed a flotation device, use the above photo to guide your walk east to the Fall River inlet where a sandy delta and meadow offers room for a number of folks to cast to and land fish. Yellowstone cutthroat ranging to trophy size are the only fish present other than forage minnows. If speckled dun mayflies are hatching, something like a parachute Adams, size 14, is all you will need to have a day of landing as many as thirty cutties. The same result can happen if you present your favorite dry damsel pattern. If fish are not rising to these, try any small dark leech pattern, traditional nymph ( prince, gold ribbed hare’s ear, zebra, etc)pattern or a small fly rod jig, and you could have the same results. If you have packed a flotation device, you can fish the entire lake and expect the same results. No hard sided boats, no motors, no man made development: just a hard to find tranquility and plenty of eager fish.

Looking at the above photo that is Hering Lake in the background. We will look at it in a later report.

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Henry’s Fork, July 22nd, 2023

July 22, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Henry's Fork

The Tubs

Water Quality Information from Dr. Rob Van Kirk’s Henry’s Fork Drainage Report Filed Yesterday.

Water quality continues to exceed expectations throughout the watershed, especially given hot dry weather and very high reservoir outflow. Water temperatures yesterday were a little cooler than on Wednesday due to cloud cover and close to average. Afternoon high water temperatures exceeded 70 degrees at our usual warm spots—Buffalo River, Pinehaven, St. Anthony, and Parker—but the duration and magnitude of temperatures greater than 70 degrees was lower than on Wednesday. Water temperatures stayed within the optimal range of 53–68 degrees all day at all of our other sonde locations. Dissolved oxygen continues to stay good to excellent—and above the state cold-water standard of 6 mg/L—at all locations.

Turbidity is still well below average at all locations between Island Park Dam and St. Anthony and among the lowest readings we have observed during mid-July since first installing our water-quality network in 2014. This is despite outflow through Island Park Dam gates higher than we have seen this time of year since 2013. The common denominators among the years with lowest turbidity—2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023—are near- to above-average snowpack and high Island Park Reservoir levels.

Timing of aquatic insect hatches is still around 5 days later than average in the river reach between Island Park Dam and Pinehaven, 8 days later in the Warm River to Ashton reach, and 4 days later than average between Ashton Dam and St. Anthony.

Rob Van Kirk, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Henry’s Fork Foundation

P.O. Box 550

Ashton, ID 83420

208-881-3407 CELL

There are a few comments on why we continue to place Dr. Rob’s observations on the fishing report. We do so because many of these give reasons for fly fishing success. They also help in deciding where and when to try your luck on drainage waters.

Consider that although aquatic insect hatches remain a bit late in much of the drainage, terrestrial insect populations are building and are becoming quite important as a trout food along the entire river and its tributaries.

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Small Streams, July 18th, 2023

July 18, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Small Streams

Bitch Creek

Most small streams are in great shape and access is good. The exception is Bear Creek where the road is open only to Calamity area.This means boating or hiking are the only means for getting to this creek which offers great fishing for cutthroat. Consult with the Palisades District Office to see if biking is appropriate along the closed section. Although caddis, PMDs and sallys remain, terrestrial insects are building everywhere, especially in meadow areas, where these are becoming a primary food source.

The Teton River in the Basin is rounding into good shape with aquatic insect hatches ( PMD, sallys, caddis, a few golden stones) going on and terrestrial insect populations building ( and so is recreational boating activity). The same can said for the upper Blackfoot River where recent stream habitation improvements appear to have increased resident cutthroat trout populations in the Blackfoot River Wildlife Management Area where there is little if any recreational boating. Warm River just below hits spring offers an escape from the nearby, but relatively crowded Henry’s Fork. The same can be said for the Palisades Reservoir Tribs and Palisades Creek compared to the nearby South Fork.

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Yellowstone Park, July 18th, 2023

July 18, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Yellowstone Park

Upper Slough Creek Meadow

Nearly all streams are in fishing condition, excepting the Firehole River where water temps have risen to the point making it difficult for caught, played, then released trout to survive. Major northeast area streams ( Slough and Soda Butte Creeks and Lamar River are in great shape). Drake mayflies, PMDs and caddis emerging and trout taking. Terrestrial insects will soon be dominant as a fish food especially in meadow areas which are plentiful on each of these. On the down side, much of these streams are roadside, and thus are heavily fished and visited. All the above comments apply to Fall River Basin streams, excepting the latter on crowding, which are physically equivalent in terms of meadow reaches. But Fall River Basin streams require some walking to approach. Thus they are less “hammered” waters.

On the Lamar River, crowds of anglers and tourists can be escaped the further one walks upstream above the Soda Butte Creek confluence. For Slough Creek, one must travel as far as the uppermost meadow to escape crowding. That requires a walk of several miles from the trail head. For Soda Butte Creek, there is no way to escape crowds on the best fishing locations.

Fishing in the largest Park Lakes, Heart, Lewis, Shoshone, Yellowstone ( excepting its endangered cutthroat) has slowed as warming waters mean fish are migrating to deeper areas until cooling fall weather brings them back to shallower waters either to spawn (lake trout ) or forage.

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Henry’s Lake, July 18th, 2023

July 18, 2023
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Fishing Reports, Henry's Lake

It’s been a relatively slow fishing season on the lake, so far. Here is a way that can improved results. Try fishing at creek or spring inlets. This is where cooler water enters the lake as well as bringing in sub-surface and surface food forms. The trick is to get to these locations as early in the day as possible, even at first light. East side inlets such as Targhee and Howard Creeks are good locations, and there are a number of such creeks an spring inflows on the west side. Floating lines apply as well as patterns suspended under strike indicators. Nothing beats Bill Schiess’s book ” Fishing Henry’s Lake” to find appropriate fly patterns for this or any other strategy for fishing the lake.

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