South Fork 5/8

Flows on the South Fork have continued to increase due to irrigation demand from Farmers. This hasn’t been effecting the fishing to much because we haven’t seen major run off water yet and the weather has been cold. So the increases have been small and it hasn’t blown out the river. Currently the river is flowing at 4700cfs, it was raised yesterday morning.

We have some updated news on the Freshet Flush that we typically see every spring when we have the water. They are going to do the flush the 3rd week in May, it will be a flush that will have increasing flows for the entire week. We have been told that if the weather stays cool the flush will be in the upper teens. I would expect around 18,000cfs at the peak. If the weather warms up and the run off come quickly expect the flows on the flush to increase over 20,000cfs. After the flush the flows will drop down to normal irrigation flows which is about 12,000 to 14,000cfs. This flush is really important for the Cutthroats because it triggers them to head up to the tributaries to spawn, also it is good for the Cottonwood trees. All of the water that is flushed will be caught in American Falls Reservoir and none of it will go to waste.

People have been finding success fishing nymphs under an indicator. No word of Caddis on the surface but I have heard of some Skwalla’s flying around the river this last week. Streamers have also been fishing well on the lower river. We just got refilled on Rubberlegs and we got a bunch of new bead head nymphs. The rubberlegs are out and ready to purchase and we should have the beadhead nymphs ready by tomorrow at the latest.