2014 Rockies Fishing Conditions

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Originally Posted by neckdeep

Checked out the Hank at Stone br., water cloudy. Mothers Day caddis swarming. Went up to the IP caldera. Still quite a bit of snow under the trees, between that and the mud couldn't drive off hwy 47 anywhere yet. Hiked into that spring creek trib for some clear water (4ft vis), revisited the site of my snowshoeing misadventure. Fish rising to caddis and real gullible seeing first dry flys of the season, mostly 12" bows and some browns. Nymphed up some nice browns (17") out of green water. Temps went up to 64 degrees and the water went cloudy by 4pm as snow melt under the trees unlocked. Started losing too many nymphs once I couldn't see the wood on the bottom, that trib is full of logs. Dry fly fishing slowed down enough to call it a day by 5pm. Evening caddis flight thickened but we were beat. I imagine the Hank above the res was coloring up as well, which means everyone and their brother will all be piled into Vernon>Chester tomorrow... Hope they like 30mph wind. Forecast SUCKS. Gonna blow those caddis swarms all the way to Yellowstone.

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Thx. I am unfortunately going to be one of those fools on V to C tomorrow unless I can convince the guy I am taking out to stay over here for a dam to pacific float. Toyed with the Green but that one is on its way up to. The SF is stable but I assume there will be some goo running into it by tomorrow. That one should fish alright regardless.


Hopefully the warm weather starts ice off! Been thinking of Ririe for some smallies one of these wknds. If anyone around he Tetons wants a seat, lemme know.

I was talking to one of the shop guys last night about the green and he was saying that it hasn't started to come up yet but will soon. Sounds like the fishing has been amazing. Talking about the lower green below FG.

I fished the upper green last week and it was high and murky. Probably should've just headed to the lower but it was cool to check out a new area and the solitude out there is pretty awesome.

Not many anglers on that section! We should have a Utard-wyo-montucky-spudland fish on the Seeds soon.

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Originally Posted by schwerty

Not many anglers on that section! We should have a Utard-wyo-montucky-spudland fish on the Seeds soon.

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I'm in! Just make it after June 10th (that's when I'm done with this insane travel schedule)

Just an FYI on the Wyo Green, it is 1500 cfs right now below Fontenelle, it will be going up to 4000 by next Friday and up to 8000 about 3-4 weeks later (projected). Oh, and once it warms up, the mosquitos will be insane with flows like this. It can fish at these levels if you know the water. Once it comes down things will get a pretty western! I love high water!

Around 1000 is normal for below fonty?

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Originally Posted by schwerty

Thx. I am unfortunately going to be one of those fools on V to C tomorrow unless I can convince the guy I am taking out to stay over here for a dam to pacific float. .

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Better take a look at the graph. High wind is bad enough but the graph shows a 1000cfs ramp up below Ashton in the last 48hrs. That should spread the rainbows out of the holes, which is a big plus when there are crowds, but I don't know if I'd drive that far to fish it on the day of the bump up. I like to give it a day or two. I'd been avoiding below Ashton because when its at 1500cfs or less, it only takes 8 drift boats to lock down every good piece of water on V>C. There's so many underemployed guides in Ashton and Last Chance these days....got to be 30-40 guys with boats and nothin better to do. Even at 2500 cfs, if there's much more than a dozen boats and some waders already in there, then there is not much room for anyone else. Can't just drift fish, you'll be through the float in under 2hrs. When it comes to fishing, I rather prefer the Man vs Nature. When Man vs Man is the theme of the day, fishing just ain't the same.

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Originally Posted by dfinn

Around 1000 is normal for below fonty?

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Usually between 800-900 cfs.

Just got back from a few days in font. water was a bit off color for sure but we managed to get some fish in the net. Glad I made it up before the big flow bump. The wind rivers look deep as hell, gonna be a bunch of water coming soon.

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/t...psdb00739a.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps782e2476.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/t...psfdcbfbc9.jpg

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Originally Posted by neckdeep

Better take a look at the graph. High wind is bad enough but the graph shows a 1000cfs ramp up below Ashton in the last 48hrs. That should spread the rainbows out of the holes, which is a big plus when there are crowds, but I don't know if I'd drive that far to fish it on the day of the bump up. I like to give it a day or two. I'd been avoiding below Ashton because when its at 1500cfs or less, it only takes 8 drift boats to lock down every good piece of water on V>C. There's so many underemployed guides in Ashton and Last Chance these days....got to be 30-40 guys with boats and nothin better to do. Even at 2500 cfs, if there's much more than a dozen boats and some waders already in there, then there is not much room for anyone else. Can't just drift fish, you'll be through the float in under 2hrs. When it comes to fishing, I rather prefer the Man vs Nature. When Man vs Man is the theme of the day, fishing just ain't the same.

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I convinced the other guy to pass on the Hank. Slipped in at the dam over here. Stung a 30ish Mack at the dam and only saw one other cutty all the way to pacific. Flows are lower than normal and some tiny feeder creeks are up and mudding it up there too. Didn't hit it hard tho.

Fished the hank down to Chester the other evening before busting to SLC. Tons of caddis. Not a ton of fish, though a few good ones. I think it was too nice out.

Mother's Day came early on the Provo today. It's nice to fish something I can see, hopefully I can put away the size 24s for a while.

Opened my season with a 20 inch brown under the dam in Jhole. Looking forward to getting out on Jackson lake soon.

More first tracks on the spring creek, made it into the meadows. Water clear to 5' in the morning, vis dropped to 3-4' by 4pm. Roads off 47 are clear, more or less; a bit of an adventure but I road rallyed it through the last of the snow and the first of the mud. The trout were nothing big to brag about but got around 50 browns and bows between 8-15 inches. Lot of fun on the noodle four wt. Too cold and breezy for drys. They were crushing the #6 turd, didn't want beadheads, perhaps the big bug migration has begun. Many fish had stuffed bellies, so probably big bugs coming soon. Found some grizzly tracks on the rail-to-trail.

Big bugs did you say BIG BUGS?! :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by snapt

Big bugs did you say BIG BUGS?! :biggrin:

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Well, the water in there is at least 10 degrees warmer than down on the Hank. I know big bugs are already hatching on the desert creeks. I hate to hotspot but this trib has been getting royally butt raped by wormers last few seasons since the rule change. Hard to believe I couldn't break 15" yesterday but thats what happens when F&G manages east Idaho's best alpine spring creek as a family fishing zone and changes the regs to allow meatheads to harvest the spawning browns. Sucks. Used to be a lot of 14-18" browns lurking in there. Meatheads will be in there worming and littering soon (C&R til general season opener). Better us than them. Git sum.

Headed to Cody tomorrow for some lake fishing action. Anyone got any tips on cool ways to kill time aside from fishing?

provos fishin well
ice about 1/2 off
the berry and currant c
could use a few volis on a couple upcoming causes
got a tu http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/
day of fishin w/ the kids one thurs may 22nd vivian park on the lower provo
and the next thurs may 29 in sandy/s jordon ponds
8-2ish in addition to good fishin karma you'll be fed
and a project healing waters day/outing fishing/teaching vets from the slc va
that ones out @ Heiner canyon ranch (outside echo) weds may 28th
the emails fsb (spelled out) @ msn if i don't get around to douchin the pm box
ifin u can help or know someone who can

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Originally Posted by beer30

Headed to Cody tomorrow for some lake fishing action. Anyone got any tips on cool ways to kill time aside from fishing?

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Get a burger and a beer at the Proud Cut Saloon (old family friends)
If you like museums the Buffalo Bill Museum is pretty damn cool.
Not sure how much time you have to kill but a drive to Cooke City via the Sunlight highway has some incredible scenery.

i'm trying to be out in teton village the first half of October. what fishes during that time? are olives still around then usually or am i midging? are things heading south fast at that time? south fork and henry's fork still crowded then? Green too low by that time? snake wrapping up?

basically it works out to take that time with my wife and baby, but I am also trying to decide if i should divert the normal guys fishing trip from the Missouri in Craig to here to minimize days out of the office...

thanks!

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Originally Posted by kokomas

i'm trying to be out in teton village the first half of October. what fishes during that time? are olives still around then usually or am i midging?

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Everything fishes well excepting small seasonal creeks which are too skinny by then. Freestone pocket water/rapid sections slows down a bit as fish start to move to slower holes for the winter. BWOs in #18-22 are common (even on sunny days) from 11am-3pm but the hatch is usually localized on shallow, mossy riffles and can be absent if you are in the wrong place. Its not the heavy BWO hatch of spring, the bugs just trickle out of shallow water and then below the shallows, fish take position under slow foam lines and foamy eddies to sip dries. Cloudy, drizzling days can see a more respectable volume of BWOs, but I greatly prefer the sunny weather hatch on a calm day for finesse fishing. This hatch was referred to as psuedocleon but that genus was recently broken down into new groups. Little olives or tiny olives is still the common name for them. Some streams (like the Teton) also have a very sparse hatch of the big orange October Caddis. Occasionally, you'll witness what looks like a big pale orange moth ovipositing over fast water. That's about all the indication you'll get that they are present. I've seen an orange #8-10 tarantula work as a searching pattern. There is never a need to midge, fall is a prime time for streamers.

Fished a stillwater in Utah that was incredible. More than 20 fish over 20 inches. Caught my biggest trout ever hen rainbow 24 long but 14 1/2 around! Baetis, SOS, damsel nymph, bacon and eggs they weren't pickey. Check the maggot stoke thread for pics. Goddamn my arm hurts!

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Originally Posted by TheFugitive

Fished a stillwater in Utah that was incredible. More than 20 fish over 20 inches. Caught my biggest trout ever hen rainbow 24 long but 14 1/2 around! Baetis, SOS, damsel nymph, bacon and eggs they weren't pickey. Check the maggot stoke thread for pics. Goddamn my arm hurts!

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Impressive pics. So, is that a pay to play? Seems like a lot of big fish for Utah. Not that Utah doesn't grow big fish but having worked near Henry's Lake, I've seen how far thousands of Utahns will drive their RV for the opportunity to kill large fish. I'd be amazed if a public lake in UT with fish like that wasn't cleaned out by wormers. Well. that and your pics do show a conspicuous fence and signage along the lakeshore. That lake is C&R, correct? Oh, and to answer your question about length to weight, the general rule for trout is 25" = 5lbs, BUT fish that are fully gravid weigh more AND lake fish tend to be a bit heavier than river fish due to the lack of current. Above 25" you generally add a pound per inch. 7lbs would be my estimate.

Anyone have any suggestions for this weekend for either wade fishing or a drift boat with two new rowers and a 3 year old (i.e. nothing gnarly) within 4 or so hours of BZN. We'd car camp and not have much in the way of expectations other than spending the weekend outside. I'm sure the Missouri will be packed and the Upper and Lower are about the only things around here not blown out. Maybe we'll head up and fish the Firehole one day.

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Originally Posted by neckdeep

Impressive pics. So, is that a pay to play? Seems like a lot of big fish for Utah. Not that Utah doesn't grow big fish but having worked near Henry's Lake, I've seen how far thousands of Utahns will drive their RV for the opportunity to kill large fish. I'd be amazed if a public lake in UT with fish like that wasn't cleaned out by wormers. Well. that and your pics do show a conspicuous fence and signage along the lakeshore. That lake is C&R, correct? Oh, and to answer your question about length to weight, the general rule for trout is 25" = 5lbs, BUT fish that are fully gravid weigh more AND lake fish tend to be a bit heavier than river fish due to the lack of current. Above 25" you generally add a pound per inch. 7lbs would be my estimate.

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Not pay to play. Public water but not very well known.. Artificial s only. Keep one fish above 22 inches. We caught 20:1 ratio 22inchers vs bigger fish. Not one fish under 20. There was a pod of probably 100 trout that size right on the shore, some of them making babies, some of them eating eggs, some of them eating baetis and chronomids. Baetis or san juan up top, egg on the bottom. I don't know how it could get and easier. Had one eat my bobber and got it in the jaw on the slip strike. It was ridiculous my wrist still hurts. Not giving up the name on the open interwebs but mags can PM me. SFB this is the spot I was telling you I was heading to, after your done chasing silver lets chase some rainbows I have a drifter now that needs a shakedown run!

Thanks for the advice of the weight. Not sure how it played out on fw trout my background is saltwater. 7 lbs seems reasonable. A local redneck hardware chucker rolled up on me and asked if I was keeping her, I said no, he asked if he could, I just let her go and watched her swim away...