South Fork

South Fork 10-4-14

In keeping with Jimmy’s actions to keep you up to date on this great river, here is the latest on conditions. Flow out of Palisades Dam was reduced to 3560 cfs yesterday AM and water temp there was 57 deg. F. Downstream at Heise, flow is 3880 cfs. These are ideal conditions for wading the river. Under the present bright conditions BWO activity will not be at its best. Still riffle fishing  should be good because of mahogany duns and caddis later. Hoppers patterns presented around vegetated banks and rubber leg and super-x patterns just below the surface and pulled away from that cover will bring action. For a complete list of patterns Jimmy suggests, see the 9-22 South Fork version of this report.

South Fork of the Snake 10-03-14

Just a quick note to report that flow dropped last night to 3730cfs. With these lower flows think about shorter length floats. Floating the canyon will take the entire day day and not give you much time to stop and fish riffles unless you take two days and camp.

South Fork of the Snake 10-02-14

The flow is now down to 4740 cfs which has really opened up many wading opportunities throughout the river. Look for the flows to drop more through October. When we hear what the winter flow level will be  we’ll let you know. Last year it was around 1700 cfs. It could be higher this winter with the better than average reservoir carryover we have.   Look for hatches of blue wing olives and Mahogany duns. For a complete list of patterns look at the 9-22-14 report.

South Fork of the Snake 9-22-14

Fall conditions continue to be excellent with clear water and cool water temps. On bright sunny days the dry fly fishing with big bugs (hoppers and chernobyls) has been slow so we have been using nymphs and small dries in the riffles. We have had very good fishing with chernobyls from daylight until the time the sun hits the water and then its back to nymphs and small dries. The last 1 1/2 hours before dark has been good too.

The flow today is at 7500 cfs but look for it to drop a couple of times sometime this week in increments of 500 to 1000 cfs. We are constantly asked how this will affect the fishing and I have seen both great fishing on a water drop and slow fishing so the best thing to do is go anyway.

The Fall colors are starting to really turn now and the canyon is gorgeous.

Here is a list of Fall fly patterns to use now through October.

Mayflies: Duns, Emergers and Nymphs

Blue Wing Olive Thorax Dun #18 and 20

Blue Wing Olive CDC Emerger #18 and 20

Blue Wing Olive Nymph #18 and 20 ( swing through the riffles or fish as a dropper fly under the Thorax Dun)

Bead Head Bubble back nymph #16

UV2 Nymphulator #14 and #6

Mahogany Thorax Dun #16 and 20

Mahogany CDC Emerger #16 and 18

Remember to fish the heads of riffles with these small dries even though there are no hatches.

 Nymphs:

Bennett’s Rubber Legs (orange and brown or black) #6 and 8

Black or Red zebra Midge #14 and 16

Olive Crystal Golden Stone nymph #12

Streamers:

Coffee’s Sparkle  Minnow (sculpin or silver color) #4 and 6

Sculpzilla #4 or 6

Wilson’s Articulated Sparkle Minnow #2 and 4

Galloup’s Articulated Circus Peanut ( white, tan, black or olive )#2

Galloup’s Sex Dungeon (same colors as above) Size 2    Remember to use rope for leader for the articulated streamers. 12 to 15 lb at least.

Big Dries:

Chubby Chernobyls (purple,brown or gold body() #8 and 10

Big Parachute Hoppers #4 and 6 (good below Byington, not very good above Byington))

Other patterns:

Sandy mite #12 and 14

Standard Renegade #12 and 14

Purple or Bright yellow and orange bodied Soft Hackles #14 and 16

Fish the last three patterns after the sun drops below the horizon. Just use a standard wet fly swing. Make a cast, let the fly swing and straighten out below you. Make two or three steps downstream and repeat. You can thank me later.

South Fork 9-13-14

Flow out of Palisades Dam was raised step-wise beginning 9/8 to about 7570 cfs to satisfy irrigation needs. Expect this coming week that flow out of the dam will be reduced back to levels before 9/8.  This change should have no significant effect on fishing because of good water conditions and the high quality of aquatic insect activity we have seen on the South Fork this season.  Thus we suggest using same strategies that have worked well before this change in flow . These include wading side channels and wading to riffles. For boating anglers, park boats and wade to fish riffles, or on drifting by, slam terrestrial patterns or Super-X’s near banks having overhead cover and good vegetation. Be  ready to switch from mid summer mayfly patterns to BWO and mahogany dun life cycle patterns especially on riffles, and under low-light conditions devote more time to presenting streamer patterns.

South Fork 09-04-14

There have been two drops in the flow the past week bringing the South fork down to 6434 cfs. We should see these drops throughout the Fall until irrigation season ends sometime in October. We are seeing less pale morning duns and more blue wing olives and mahogany duns. Continue to fish chernobyls in the flats and over the color changes along the banks.

Overall the fishing has been very good for this time of year. There have been some days where it has been slow during the middle of the day ,especially on bright days. On the sunny days we have done better in the late afternoon until dark.

Streamer fishing has been good early in the morning and again at night. Finally we have mentioned before that we have done well  fishing dry flies in the shallow riffles even when there are no hatches,  A good combination is a small parachute adams trailed by a mahogany dun or small CFO ant.

South Fork 8-26-14

From his experience Jimmy offers that the South Fork is currently fishing as good as it can. He fished the upper river later this last weekend, and had great results presenting a variety of flies. In riffles and shallows fishing dry with a Parachute adams trailed with a PMD trailer was very effective. Throwing a chernobyl ant or hopper pattern with or without a nymph trailer produced against banks.  Streamers produced for him later in the day. Mutant stones are out and moving, and each drop in flow out of Palisades Dam exposes more of them.  Good fishing here makes sense because water temperature remains consistent and close to optimum for trout, and there have been no major drops in flow to date, just step downs of hundreds of cfs at any time.

South Fork 8-23-14

Flow out of Palisades Dam was stepped down to just under 8000 cfs over the last two days and water temp there is 61 deg. F. It cools to around 60 deg. F. as you travel down river. It’s all great news for walk-in wade fishing.  Select a section of river with riffles and walk in. Do not overlook side channels, especially those holding riffles.  We can recommend some candidate locations, so c’mon in. Hitting the banks using hopper and chernobyl patterns from a boat works well, but getting out of that boat to fish riffles works better than floating through them!

South Fork 8-16-14

A quick note to say that the flow out of Palisades Dam was dropped from 10300 cfs to 10200 cfs two days ago. This small adjustment will not impact fishing.  But as Jimmy said recently, expect more flow reductions coming up out of the dam. Some will be significant, others like this one not important with respect to fishing action