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Fishing Reports

Fly Fish Food Jimmy's / Fishing Reports (Page 195)

Henry’s Fork 6-10-14

The lower river below Ashton Dam is beginning to shape up with PMDs emerging in good numbers and golden stoneflies appearing. Look for green drakes to start here any day. The same for gray drakes in the Chester backwaters.  The Warm River to Ashton reach is fishing well for those using caddis life cyle patterns, rubber leg nymphs, and streamers in the evening. At Last Chance PMDs are making an appearance and some march browns remain. The big stoneflies have just about finished their emergence with a few remaining in Box Canyon and a Coffee Pot.  Waters throughout the river below Island Park Dam are low as Island Park Reservoir is being filled. This means warmer water making for earlier emergences. Henry’s Lake is full with only 14 cfs coming into the Outlet. For now fishing there is slow.

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Henry’s Lake 6-10-14

It appears that fish are moving away from shorelines and out into the lake. Trolling and presenting wooly bugger and peacock leech types is successful in deeper water. Use a fast sinking line to get down for the best action.  Beware of what the wind can during otherwise nice days.

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Henry’s Fork 5-30-14

If you are following the big stonefly emergence, it is about over in the river from Ashton Dam to Chester Dam. Your best bet for enjoying it through dry fly fishing is to concentrate on the Riverside to Hatchery Ford and Box Canyon areas.  Expect a lot of boats, especially through the Box Canyon.

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South Fork 5-20-14

The South Fork is about as stable as can be this time of year with flow out of Palisades Dam holding at 10300 cfs for several days. Clear and warming up, (currently 47 deg. F. just below the Dam), the river offers good nymph and streamer fishing, and will continue to do so until flow out of the Dam increases to answer irrigation demands.  Rubber leg patterns are the best producers, but smaller zebras, princes, PT’s, and such will work in riffles.  Don’t overlook pitching streamers, especially early and late in the day.

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Stillwater 5/6/14

With the warmer weather we had last week, fishing has picked up on area lakes/reservoirs. Most, if not all lakes have turned over and water quality will continue to improve as the weather does. We have good reports from Blackfoot, Chesterfield, and Daniels this week. Daniels is still probably the most consistent, but Chesterfield and Blackfoot offer you a better shot at a big dog. Concentrate on the upper end of Daniels fishing with various chironomid pupa (summer duck pupa, black sally, chromie) and bloodworms (holo worm sz10) has been good.Fishing with a sinking line has been producing nice fish as well. I would be fishing a black CB, California Leech, or an Olive Mohair Leech.  Chesterfield seems to have woken up a little with a few reports of some real big fish showing up lately. The fish are most likely going to be scattered so cover some water until you find an active group of fish. Fishing an intermediate or type III Line (depending on how deep you are) would be a good bet. A black CB, Olive CB, or Black Mohair leech would be my first picks.  Blackfoot Reservoir has also been fishing really well lately. Blackfoot is usually not a great place if your into lots of fish, but there are some really nice fish in there if you put some time in. The key up there has been covering lots of water. Fishing with a full sinking line and trolling, or wind drifting has been most productive. The area around the dam has been most productive, but anywhere on the reservoir could be good.

It won’t be long now before we start seeing the first Callibaetis of the year, closely followed by the damsels. Stay tuned…

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Stillwater 5/2/14

It hasn’t been a great spring so far if you like to fish stillwaters. We have been blasted with wind so much over the past few weeks it almost feels like somethings wrong if its nice outside! With all the wind, area reservoirs have been churned up more then normal causing the fishing to be a little slower then we would like. The weather looks like its slowly improving, so things should really start picking up in the next week.

Chesterfield- Fishing has been a little slow so far on Chesterfield and this has to do mainly with the wind. Fishing deeper water 12+ft has been best so far with darker leech patterns (Black CB, black mohair leech, Dk. Olive Angora Leech, Brown CB, have been best) and darker chironomid pupa (black bungie buzzer, black sally, summer duck pupa). Fishing should really pick up in the next week or two.

Daniels- Daniels has been the best, most consistent fishing so far this spring. Fishing the upper end with various chironomid pupa (see Chesterfield selection) and bloodworms (holo worm sz10) has been good. For those who prefer sinking lines, fishing with darker leeches and scuds on a type II or III line have been producing as well.

Other Waters- We have not heard much this year from places like Springfield, Hawkins, American Falls, Etc…. Look for all those reservoirs to start really fishing well as the weather continues to improve. We will be sure and update this report as conditions change.

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Henry’s Fork 4-29-14

Now is a good time to visit the lower Henry’s Fork. Flows are slightly less than normal, and look for water temps climb to the mid 40s in deg. F by late afternoon.  A good caddis emergence is ongoing and peaking in the afternoon. BWOs are also emerging during the PM hours, especially if weather returns to what it was last weekend. Then there are the ever present midges. March browns should become significant any day.  Don’t put away those streamer patterns just yet; save them for evening presentations.

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South Fork 4-17-14

The flow is up to 10,021 cfs from Palisades dam. Some of the tributaries are starting to rise with the beginning of spring runoff giving the water its customary green spring look. Continue using a rubber leg/glow bug combination for the rainbows. Streamers cast on a full sink or sink tip line will be a good technique in these water conditions.

The great feeder canal is still shut down for maintainance so the flow down to Lorenzo is high.

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Stillwaters 4-10-14

To our knowledge, all of the reservoirs south of Idaho Falls are ice free and fish-able. The ice seemed to leave most reservoirs early this year so this should be a great year to get more early season fishing in. We don’t have a lot of reports coming in from the various reservoirs yet, but that should change quickly. We will continue to post updates as things change/improve so check back often.

Chesterfield, Daniels, Springfield Reservoirs– with rising water levels and all the wind lately, water clarity seems to vary at these reservoirs day to day. They are all fishing okay, but it may be best to focus on methods that will let you cover a lot of water. Wind-drifting with a full sinking line is a great way to cover water and find fish this time of year! Concentrate on darker leech patterns like a black/olive crystal bugger in a size 8, purple showgirl size 6, and a black or dark olive mohair leech in size 6. Concentrate on the west end of reservoirs which will be warmer than the east side and try fishing a few different depths until you find fish. Fish are scattered this time of year so covering water is the key to success. The one exception here would be Springfield where its probably still a better bet to concentrate on fishing under an indicator with midge larvae patterns (holo worm size #10, Summer Duck pupa size #12,14 and a black sally in size #12,14 would be my first choices). Larvae patterns and pupa will also fish well on Chesterfield and Daniels if you are on some fish. Things are sure to pick up as the weather continues to warm and stabilize. This can be a very hit or miss time of year but its still better than the ice fishing going on at area reservoirs the past few months!

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South Fork 4-8-14

The flow increased today to 4331cfs from 3400 cfs. There will be additional increases of 900 cfs each day through Saturday. Generally increases slow the fishing but on some occasions the increases don’t bother the fish. If you are looking for the tagged rainbows these flow increases cause them to start moving onto the redds. Use egg patterns dropped below a weighted san juan worm or rubber legs for the rainbows. There are usually browns and cutthroats hanging around the redds too.

We have included some photos of the diversion above byington that was modified earlier this year. At lower flows there were some power boats that hit rocks at the diversion but the river is high enough now that there shouldn’t be problem for either power and non motorized boats.

04-06-14 winter spring byington diversion 03404-06-14 winter spring byington diversion 03604-06-14 winter spring byington diversion 038

 

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