Fishing Reports

The Bighorn's flows are dropping.  It's 3,850 cfs as we speak, and will go to 3,500 cfs tomorrow at 4:00 P.M.  Flows will remain at that level as long as they feel comfortable sustaining them, but it could be for months. 

A special thanks to the Dickerson men, for spending part of their tour of the west on the Bighorn again this year.  Always a good time, and congratulations, Dave for the last day.

The water temp is holding in the upper 50's right now, but should drop a little when the emergency flood pool is completely evacuated.  PMD"s, and Yellow Sally's are coming off, and rising fish are available at most times of day.  The nymphing was good with immitations of the hatch flies, but a #16 tan soft hackle worked just as good for me yesterday.  Some Black Caddis are around, and I'd pumped a few out of fish yesterday, too.

Boat traffic was high, but manageable.

Hopper's are still small, but will undoubtedly become a factor in the coming weeks.

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

Missouri River Report

I was able to spend a great week on the Missouri River, fishing below Holter Dam, and all of the sections down to Mountain Palace.  I very much enjoyed the fishing as the average size of fish was very impressive, and the action was steady all the way down through the canyon.

The flow was between 18,000 cfs to 19,000 throughout our week, but it seemed to help keep the bigger fish available, and in range for nymphing.  Sometimes the lower flows allow the bigger ones to disappear, and hold in water where it's tough to reach them. 

Although we caught some fish on PMD nymphs, our most successful tactics were fishing pink or tan soft hackles against the banks on the upper, and fishing a red chenille worm for a top fly in the canyon.   Pretty basic stuff, but when willing to fish lots of weight, and adjust leader length to your depth, kept us in constant action.

Thanks to the clients (you know who you are) for one of the more enjoyable weeks I've had in a long time.

DON'T FEAR THE HIGH WATER!

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

O.K., we're hanging in there at 9,500 cfs.  Nymphing is very good from the boat, as you might expect, but wading can very difficult right now.  The water temp is climbing into the upper 40's, so it's not prime time for San Juan Worm fishing, but it's getting close.  We're still finding mostly sowbugs in the fish, and I've been more consistently successful throwing "Soft Hackle" or "Ray Charles" type flies than with anything else.  Starting to see some Mother's Day Caddis buzzing around the lower river, but nothing much is happening with 'em.

Flows will almost certainly have to go up in the near future in order to accomodate the inflows, and the lack of available storage space for the water.  I'll keep you posted as we go along.

Muddy water from the feeder creeks has become far less of an issue, and you expect fishable banks all of the way down the upper sections.  Also, the spring moss is far less of an issue as well, but never completely dissapears.

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

Well, from now until the end of July my main job will be to update the flow status, so here goes.  We're at 8,000 cfs right now, but we're heading to 8,750 cfs at 4 P.M. today (Wednesday, March 26th), and 9,500 tomorrow at 4 P.M.   The Spring rains have continued to come, and there's still a whole season's worth of snow waiting to come off.

What does this mean for the fishing?  The dry fly fishing of the spring is pretty much over, although you'll see a few baetis out most afternoons.  Nymphing can be good when you find the fish, but it'll be increasingly vital to have a boat to get around.  The fish are mostly full of sowbugs, and a couple of different patterns are about all you need.  I'm also getting them to eat a little olive midge pupae pretty well.

As the river comes up, the water's going to warm up, so this signifies the start of summer fishing, and the "worm hatch".

Where will the inflows will end up, I don't know, but hold on!

O.K., lots of flow changes to catch up on here.  The river's on it's way up to 5,000 cfs after several days of steady rain, and a pretty big increase in snow pack.   The graph shows that it's still at 4,000, but was supposed to go up in 500 cfs increments last night, and today.  I believe this ultimately will happen by tomorrow. 

I  took the water temp at around 42 yesterday, so it's right there where it needs to be.  The river's pretty busy, and with the limited clear water (Soap Creek and Mountain Pocket are still pumping mud), a lot of people are double floating, or just staying on the upper 3.
The nymphing can be pretty good when wading, and the boat fishing isn't bad either if the flows could settle out for a day.  Still seeing good hatches coming off, but we'll need to see the flows stabilize in order to see good dry fly fishing again, too.

Always an enjoyable trip with the Collins boys, they did very well.  Imagine how they could do if they could cast.

Over the course of the week, the river now risen to 3,250 cfs.  Short term, it's made the fishing slower, and less predictable.  All the snow melt, and the rising river teamed up to drop the water temp back below 40 degrees.

Yesterday we finally had a relatively calm day, and a good baetis hatch, but really no fish up to speak of..  I think it's going to be a few days before everything settles out, and fishing improves.

Because of the snow on Thursday, Mountain Pocket  and Soap Creek are still pumping mud, and probably will for several more days.