It’s a hit or miss situation here. For every success story there seems to be a “goose egg” story or close to it. It appears that fish have mostly moved away from shoreline. Midge pupa patterns under an indicator may provide your best chance for action until the fabled damselfly hatch begins around the beginning of July.
With flows out of Mackay Dam around 700 cfs into river below, wading is not easy. Be careful!
High water and all below American Falls Dam, but the river there offers some success to those presenting streamer patterns. Try shallows where you find them and along overhangs.
Damselflies are hatching in great numbers on all reservoirs (Chesterfield, Daniels, Hawkins, Twenty-Four Mile) to the southeast. Densest hatch is on Twenty-Four Mile Reservoir. So try your favorite damselfly nymph patterns, and do not overlook trying midge pupa patterns as fish remain interested in them, too. Now is the time to try these reservoirs because if draw-down comes along with warming weather, action will slow. Springfield Reservoir with its discolored water seems to offer the slowest action of these.
No real change since our June 8th report. With recent warm weather streams draining high country are roaring a bit, so stick with those we recommended on June 8th. Look for the same flow increases as we warm up on streams carrying irrigation water. We have word of some good fishing because of caddis activity on the Blackfoot River below the dam, but flows can fluctuate and impact fishing success.
Warm weather is melting snow on Pitchstone and Madison Plateaus. This means flow into Fall River Basin streams is increasing. Ice has been off Shoshone and Lewis Lakes for weeks. We will be packing float tubes down the DeLacey Trail to Shoshone Lake in a few days (hoping for some of those gorgeous browns, but sure to get into juvenile macks), so look for a report on fishing there afterwards. Lewis River between Shoshone and Lewis Lakes is a great choice now for fishing streamers. Firehole River is warming up, but fishing remains good as related in our June 8th report. Same with Duck and Cougar Creeks. U.S. Forest Service Ashton Office recommends only four-wheel drive vehicles from bottom of Calf Creek Hill east on the Flagg Ranch Road.
Firehole River is still producing with BWO, Caddis and White Miller patterns presented, but lots’a of fly-fishers are present. Duck Creek remains good, challenging fishing with small leech patterns and any thing resembling a worm cluster. Tough-to-fish, little Cougar Creek offers some good fishing if you do not mind bushwhacking. Fall River Basin streams will have added run-off with this warming weather, but when run-off is over look for some great fishing.
Small streams not carrying run-off or irrigation waters are really shaping up because of the reduced runoff this year. With the warmer weather, however, consider avoiding such run-off streams as the Teton River and irrigation water loaded streams such as the Blackfoot River below the dam. The Palisades tribs on the south side of the reservoir (Bear & McCoy creeks) would be very good choices ( C&R fishing) with such as wooly bugger and leech patterns. The Salt River tribs (Jackknife, Tincup, Stump, Crow creeks) are also in great shape, so try your favorite bead head nymphs, small leech patterns and caddis life cycle patterns. Robinson Creek is now a good bet with the same types of patterns.
Flows on the South Fork have been increased this week. Currently the flows this morning are 12,300. The rise in flows are due to irrigation demand that is being called for downriver. We haven’t heard of these increases hurting the fishing. The water is beginning to warm up and we will see stoneflies in the next few weeks. Everyone in the shop expects the stoneflies to be early this year with the water conditions and how low the reservoir is. We will update you when the flows level out.
Flows have remained steady at 10,800 cfs. The river is fishing good with nymphs. I realize we have written the same thing for the past few posts but we want to keep this report updated and let you all know whats going on. The water quality is really clear and fish have seemed to start to move to the banks and pile up in the riffles. Stonefly nymphs and San Juan worms have been the ticket for hooking lots of fish. The streamer fishing is also good as well. The overcast days are going to be the best days for streamer fishing. If you don’t mind fishing indicators you can catch a lot of fish right now.