Greetings all! Sorry for the delay on a new report; been pretty busy around these parts. We had a stellar Ranch Opener Party: great music, excellent company, and the whole hog. Fishing was pretty darn good for the opener as well. Unfortunately, things have slowed down a bit with the bump in flows early this week. I’ve been out and about mornings, evenings, or both and have had spotty success at best. It’s a right-time right-place game right now. We hiked down to the third fence on Wednesday and found a few sporadic rising fish and few bugs; other people were downhill a couple hundred yards and had solid PMDs and Green Drakes. Best advice right now is keep moving until you find what you’re looking for. Hatches are about a week (or more) ahead of normal this season. The flows have settled a bit but are high (1200 cfs out of IP reservoir) and it’s probable we will see more water in the near future. Best we can hope for is that we’ll get a few days in between releases to let things settle and for the fish to get comfortable. After a very warm and windy Spring, we are expecting some weather Saturday night and into Sunday, so I’m hoping for a little cool down in water temps for a few days anyway which might slow down some hatches a bit, but it’s best for the long haul. It’d sure be nice if we could get someone to turn off the fan here in SE Idaho. On the positive, the fish wintered well and are in great shape. We’ve been hooking, and sometimes landing, good numbers of fish 20+”. There’s a downside, but I’ll save that for later. So…. here goes.
Box Canyon (1200 cfs, about 1400 below the Buffalo): We are seeing a few Golden Stones flying around and should see more when we warm back up next week. Otherwise it’s the standard nymph game with Rubberlegs and beads. Have the usual supply of Perdigons, Daggers, PTs, Zebra Midges, etc #14-20. I would certainly have the streamer box handy if we get some clouds and afternoon thunder-bumpers move through. Also, have your match-the- hatch bugs for the last bit of flat water before the takeout.
Last Chance and The Ranch: Again, kind of a mixed bag in terms of hatches and rising fish. The Brown Drake emergence and spinnerfalls have been quite good this year,”biblical” at times to quote a friend, and I sure hope this cold front doesn’t squash it for the year. We are seeing Green Drakes #10-12, PMDs #14-20, Caddis (tan and dark) #14-18, Grey Drakes #10, and the start of some Flavs #14. If you know me, you know it’s Rusty Spinner time mornings and evenings #14-18. Hatches have been a little bit better than last year at this point in the season, so there is some optimism there especially if we can get flows to stabilize. As always, have a good selection of insect cycles to match the feed — the trout are persnickety already. Oh, and have some ants and beetles.
Warm River to Ashton: Running dry-dropper rigs has been most productive on this stretch. A Golden Stone or Chubby up top and small bead below will do the trick in likely spots and on the banks if the fish aren’t up on Drakes, Flavs, Caddis, or PMDs.
Below Ashton: It’s been an early and late game the last week or so. It’s been tough going after lunch. I really hope this cool down we have coming perks up the hatches and rising fish on the lower river. There are still some Green Drakes around as well as PMDs, Caddis, Golden Stones, and Flavs. Expect crowds.
The Madison (400 cfs at Hebgen — yes, you read that right — 680 at Kirby): She’s low as they try to fill Hebgen. That said, the dry fly fishing has been good. Definitely have your Caddis box stacked and loaded. Salmonflies (another very early arrival) are in the middle of the float stretch right now above Varney Bridge-ish. Expect crowds chasing the “big bugs”.
Yellowstone NP: The Madison, Gibbon, and Firehole are on “Hoot Owl” restrictions already, so no fishing after 2pm. Other park waters, particularly the Northeast Corner, are still a bit high and off-color. Your best bets will be the Gallatin and Gardner Rivers. Remember that the upper Yellowstone River below Fishing Bridge doesn’t open until July 1.
Stillwaters: I’ll be honest here… I haven’t had many reports on Henry’s or Hebgen recently as most of us are looking for moving water and rising trout. Have your usual lake assortment of leeches, scuds, chironomids, damsels, etc.
I’ll chime back in next week after this cold front moves through and we get a read on water releases from the dam. I’m hopeful to have some excellent reports to share with you. Fingers crossed. Stop in to say hi. We’re here from 7am to 8:30 or so. Be kind and patient out there on the water, Party People. It’s the busy season.
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