South Fork 12-28-19

You have likely noticed the lack of our fishing reports on this river and on other regional waters. The main reason is because of “Old Man Winter.”  Certainly there will be some bluebird days when getting out on the river to enjoy fish responding to midge or diminishing BWO activity or a well-placed streamer or rubber leg pattern is attractive. But when the air temp plummets, the wind blows, or an atmospheric inversion takes place, tying flies for that upcoming nicer season seems more attractive.

One thing that is favorable for the later season is that flow out of Palisades Dam has been around 1200-1300 cfs so far the winter.  That’s better than the  earlier predicted 900 cfs and results in “not too bad” flows around 1600-1700 cfs at Heise. With Palisades Reservoir at about 85% of capacity it could be that flows remain at this level through the winter in order to fill downstream American Falls Reservoir and make room for what so far looks like an average run-off.