South Fork

South Fork 6-25-14

There is a nice variety of dry fly fishing on the the river now. Most of the activity is from Cottonwood downstream and usually starts by noon. There are good hatches of pale morning duns, blue wing olives and some green drakes. The golden stones and yellow sallies have started too. There are some big stones out below Heise.

We are having great success underneath before the hatches start with rubber leg nymphs, yellow sally nymphs and bead head flash prince nymphs. Streamer fishing against the bank and over the drop offs has been productive too.

The water level is at a normal flow of 13,000 cfs and has a green tint. It is has a little more color closer to Palisades Dam. We’ll post again tomorrow as Everet and I are leaving Tom and Parker to tend the shop and heading up to the south fork for the afternoon………

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.

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.