There are certainly a lot of float fishing ongoing. Just look at how crowded the Conant, Palisades, and Spring Creek boat launches are. But walk-in wade is quite popular as seen by the number of folks on the river road above Heise. Mutant golden stone flies are active in the early mornings and attract fish. Riffle fishing is “off and on,” so be patient. Hoppers are everywhere along the river, and caddis activity can make for good evening fishing.
Look at the boat ramp-parking areas. A glance at these tells how good the fishing is (for example Spring Creek overflows to near the highway during daytime). Mayflies, early morning mutant stones, PM caddis and terrestrial insects are active. Have patterns for all of these, and you will find action. At 9800 cfs at Irwin, 10700 cfs at Heise and 4850 cfs at Lorenzo, the river could not be in better shape.
Mayflies (PMDs & pink alberts) are out in the riffles up and down the river, and so are drift boats. If you fish early in the morning ( before around 9 AM), you will see mutant golden stoneflies emerging and fish keying on them.
Flow out of Palisades Dam has dropped slightly, but not enough to impact fishing. Riffle fishing is not only productive but consistent up and down the river with PMDs & pink alberts emerging. look for terrestrial insect coming on with this warm weather.
Flow has been nearly constant for about a week and water is warming. This means PMD and pink albert hatches will soon be providing the best action especially at the heads and tails of riffles. Hoppers are beginning to be important on banks of the lower river.
Flow on the river is at great levels ( 12400 cfs at Irwin, 13500 cfs at Heise, 5000 cfs at Lorenzo) and water is cold but clearing up. Fish responding are where you find them! There are plenty of sallies, some caddis, PMDs and big stone flies round, but fish seem to take them on an inconsistent basis with respect to location on the river. Nymph patterns, with and without a bead head presented over drop-offs seem to be the most consistent way to success.
The multiple hatch days on the Henry’s Fork have peaked. Now it is the South Fork’s turn! With the flow back to summertime levels ( 13200 cfs at Irwin, 13800 at Heise, 8000 cfs at Lorenzo) all sorts of bugs are out. PMDs, green drakes, sallies, and salmon flies are out and up river at least into the canyon. Fish know what they are and are on them. The fun begins with figuring out which bugs are in the favor of trout at any given location on the river. So go with life cycle patterns for all those mentioned. Also include the old standard patterns. Word is out, so boat launch sites are crowded. So is the river road above Heise with boats being trailed to launch sites and shuttles being completed. You will see license plates from as far away as New Jersey and from as close as from here at home, but there is plenty of this great river for all of us.
Since June 25th, outflow at Palisades Dam has been stepped up from about 13500 cfs to 19600 cfs ( 19600 cfs at Heise, 14200 cfs at Lorenzo)! This is because of irrigation demands and to make room for run-off from recent big rains in the drainage. Give the river a few days for fish to adjust and it will be back to rubber legs, big nymphs, and streamers. Any day now the big stone flies (yellow sallies are out and flying) will begin flying, high water or not, on the lower river. As they move up the river, look for much of the interest on the lower Henry’s Fork to transfer here as well as from anglers waiting for this event to happen. Expect crowding especially at boat launch sites. Understand that many of the out-of the-area anglers are here to escape virus outbreaks raging in other parts of the country as well as to enjoy this great South Fork event. Conducting social distancing as much as possible and having masks visible at these sites will demonstrate that we intend to keep our area relatively free of the virus.
Flow is at summertime rates (about 12000 cfs out of Palisades Dam and around 13000 cfs at Heise) and likely to stay around that amount for the near future. See our recent fishing reports for fly pattern suggestions. In several days the big stone flies will begin their activity, and we will offer strategies and fly patterns for enjoying that event. For now the river offers a less crowded and more tranquil, but less colorful option to the Henry’s Fork.
With flow out of Palisades Dam down to about 11900 cfs ( 13000 at Heise, 5800 cfs at Lorenzo), fishing strategy is very similar to what we suggested on Memorial Day weekend. That is rubberlegs and streamers fished deep in faster water, Also consider San Juan worm, squirmy wormy, super renegade, and super-X patterns there and in softer water. Look for a modest BWO hatch in shallow riffles during afternoons and oncoming caddis at that time.