2012 Rocky Mountain Fishing Conditions

[teleee]

So based on the input from Schwerty and Neckdeep and one of the crew who is coming from Jackson I think our plan is to fish the Salt on Friday, the Snake (lower) on Saturday and the South Fork on Sunday. Neckdeep, you had me at streamer action... I will travel ungodly amounts of distance to catch fish on streamers. It's my crack!

[neckdeep]

So based on the input from Schwerty and Neckdeep and one of the crew who is coming from Jackson I think our plan is to fish the Salt on Friday, the Snake (lower) on Saturday and the South Fork on Sunday. Neckdeep, you had me at streamer action... I will travel ungodly amounts of distance to catch fish on streamers. It's my crack!

Just saying its the way to deal with rising water; no guarantees, ya crack fiend! Streamer action on the SF is better under cloud cover so you might want to shuffle it around so you fish the SF on friday. Except that, with snow and predicted winds at 20-35mph for the Swan Valley tomorrow, you might be cursing my name if you are out there in a boat. I would not commit to a float trip with a forecast like that. I'm gonna be boarding powder. I hope. Such a sucky spring this year and I don't really even like corn snow that much. Good excuse to drink beer at 10,000 feet, I guess. NOAA calling for 5-10 inches to accumulate at the ghee by Saturday morning. Pleez, Ullr, pleeeeez! At this point, I'd just be happy with groomers that were not made out of week old refreeze. Sat-Sun are supposed to be clear and sunny and mild winds. Sunday is supposed to hit 60 degrees. Might be pretty good midge action on a day that warm. I still like the HF in spring for the warmer water and a chance for bugs larger than a speck. Call Jimmy's All Season Anglers for fresh reports on what section of the SF to float or to see if anyone has seen any March Browns up on the HF.

[schwerty]

You can certainly the South Fork when the water is rising. It prolly will be around 10k this weekend. Nice level but when they are bumping up the flows it slows things down. I'm in with ND in sayin you can have good days but it's a little tougher than usual when they are bumping the flows up daily.

Wish my weekend was the Salt, Snake and South Fork! Although, I'm stoked to hang with my Wife and kid for the last days @ JHMR this weekend with a little fishin' on Sat afternoon.

Enjoy.

[neckdeep]

Where is your fishing report, Teleee? Did you guys do Jhole closing weekend instead?

Any luck with the streamers? I got reports that a few large cutts were taking streamers on the Teton. Just one or two per mile, but they were heavy, prespawn fish going 16"-22".

A grizzly knocked my trash cans over sunday night and helped itself to a pile of chicken bones. Carry your spray, guys!

[Woolly the Mammoth]

I floated the ditch on the south fork on Sunday. Slow fishing, one nice rainbow on a streamer.

[schwerty]

Did the double float/spill-hop on Sunday on the HF, (V-Chester and C-Fun farm). Despite blanket clouds and clusters of midges on the water the fish were not keying on them anywhere close to the surface. Probably activity on the early stages of midge life it was so thick under the surface, finding a trout that wanted to suck down a fake bug was not gonna happen. BWO's mixed in and when the wind calmed in the slower water, we were able to find feeders on both emergers and dries but that was only a short portion of the day. We worked a lot of water with an assortment of streamer patterns with only mild success. All of the success there came from twitching dark colors.

The water down low was a slightly off color but definitely fishable. The Fall was a tad high and had a slight hint of green to it.

The Snake in JH was apparently decent this weekend but not on fire. Slightly heavier flows from all the tribs contributed to higher water. Varied weather kept hatches and crowds away from what I heard.

Wintery spring weather this week should put things down. Fishing will be hit or miss.

[teleee]

Sorry guys, i know i am WAY late in getting back with a report on our trip. In my defense i have been in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan since i got back home from the above mentioned trip. I am currently sitting in Boise getting ready to fly he from another day in the office. Lets just say streamers last weekend were MONEY! 2 days on the Southie and one on the Green pics to follow.

[teleee]

Ok, sorry about the delay in getting back on our trip. Working for the man has me way over extended lately. We fished the South Fork Friday and Saturday (it was that good). We also threw nothing but streamers and I am not telling fish tales when I say we had 20 fish days on both days. Sunday found us wanting a change in venue so we hit the Upper Green. Again, feeding the streamer addiction was the name of the game. My Canadian buddy landed this pig of a rainbow, 24 inches and pushing 7 pounds! Black and ginger streamers seemed to be the key. I am going to make a run to the Green tomorrow. Hopefully its half as good as the South Fork was

[beer30]

Had a pretty good day on the Snake up north of Moose on Monday. My new rod was hot with about 6 cuttys and whole bunch of whitefish taking nymphs. Looking forward to the 2012 summer.

[schwerty]

Had a pretty good day on the Snake up north of Moose on Monday. My new rod was hot with about 6 cuttys and whole bunch of whitefish taking nymphs. Looking forward to the 2012 summer.

!
Let's hope the summer flows are stable.

[ak_powder_monkey]

I've been slaying the YTs over here in Montana... And a few troots as well

[neckdeep]

Despite blanket clouds and clusters of midges on the water the fish were not keying on them anywhere close to the surface. Probably activity on the early stages of midge life it was so thick under the surface, finding a trout that wanted to suck down a fake bug was not gonna happen. BWO's mixed in and when the wind calmed in the slower water, we were able to find feeders on both emergers and dries but that was only a short portion of the day..

I've seen many days on the HF like that. Best option is to stop the boat and thoroughly indicator nymph the holes with #18 or #20 midge pupae. At this time of the year, more fish will be found in the slow water below where the chop from the riffle settles but still provides a little surface refraction (rainbows just feel at home with a little refraction blurring their profile from the ospreys). I like the foamback emerger patterns that stay up off the bottom somewhat. It's all about covering every square foot with the split shot ticking along the bottom - I do better parking the boat and wading. But, yeah, your assumption is correct - those fish on the lower HF don't like to expose themselves if they don't need to. What is the river bottom like? I have not been down there since last summer. Any excessive siltation observable in the back eddies and flats?

Grizzly in my yard again last night. Got a good look at him. Maybe three years old but already bigger than the typical black bear.

[schwerty]

That day was certainly frustrating but not too surprising. We hit what seemed like every dam slower pocket on both stretches on foot. Damn near 9 hrs on the water. Pretty solid angler crew but I think over consumption of brown water may have contributed to our dredging technique by the afternoon.
You're right! Those fish are hangin in slow water still. In my experience that can happen down there until the water gets too warm. Despite not having a lot of catching success we still had a ball playing with a few and a bottle of Crown.

[schwerty]

For those who care... Freestones around the Tetons are blown.

[skifishbum]

got out w/ telee and his bro for a sweet float on the green.
what a difference 1.6k cfs is a great dry fly flow
got em on bwo's and sculpin patterns.


Provo fishin well although crowded.
headin up for our annual lc ranch weekend then up and over to the green.
may hit the berry or currant creek for some ice off action on the way up

[teleee]

Glad we finally got out SFB. I will for sure be calling you to go again. My non mag buddy is still gushing about his fish. As you can tell by his death grip he is pretty new to the whole fishing scene. SFB is a great teacher, much more patient and instructive than I ever will be. Blue wings and sculpins makes for a VERY tasty day.

[lifelinksplit]

Well with the forecasted warm temps this past weekend me and a buddy headed to the Mo. spent thursday-sunday fishing and spent a lot of time harassing the crowds below the dam. BWO's and midges everywhere, the usual tailwater suspects fished real well below also. Being hot as hell we ended up drinking beer all day and doing the put in at 4, get off at 10 thing. Met some jackson folks and some guy bumming around from whitefish and ended up floating with them on sunday. Good times with some new people. Heard they are prob gonna bump flows soon to make room for runoff but as of monday it was good. Also might have heard of some caddis on the madison, gonna go check it out tomorrow. oh and most everything else is blown around here.

here's a crappy cell phone pic of me about to drop a fish

[Canada1]

Fishing was great. Light top action, but the nymphing was as good as I have seen it. B section was reportedly good to red creek and then turned off. Amazing number of people for a Monday this early.

It is like mid to late may fishing up there right now. Get it before they open it up for the annual flush.

[neckdeep]

ski4trees (he posted footy here a few times and moved on loooking for a bigger audience, works for trouthunter) is putting up video of salmonfly nymphs staging in the shallows on the lower HF and fat fish eating rubberlegs. Any mags anticipating the big bug on the HF should make plans. The hatch will happen soon (it has happened as early as mid-May during drought years) and word is already out and being spread with enthusiasm. Colder weather in the forecast though, might slow it down a bit (the bug hatch, not the boat hatch). SF will probably have ample elbow room as the HF gets "hot". Water color still good on SF.

Teton river was fishing ok through the weekend but picked up a bit too much color yesterday. One 16" and then the visability got bad. Level barely bumped; might have been silt from an irrigation canal network being opened.

It looks like the Teton area river systems will not have a prolonged high water event this year. A lot of upper elevation snow has evaporated. Soil moisture was rather dry last year and, thus far, a substantial amount of the snowmelt is being absorbed by the ground and not making it into the creeks in a big muddy rush, like recent seasons. I anticipate one or two big spikes in levels once we get some warm evenings, but I don't think we are going to see rivers jumping their banks this year, and because of the absorbtion and evaporation, we are looking at a below average water year, as far as hatch timing goes. Perhaps lower water than our snowpack totals indicated a month ago.

[DeeAre]

fkna... deluge on the s. platte... up to 207 cfs, almost triple what it was 10 days ago. Playing field just got much bigger. Executive decision: think I'm gonna put the 3wt to work tomorrow whipping caddis.

[DeeAre]

btw that was meant to be an open ended invite to anyone willing and able to join. I've got private water right below wigwam... which is to say my own private cheesman canyon. Someone, please come with me.

[neckdeep]

Haven't done any fishing for awhile? Waiting for runoff to end? South Fork was ok (slow) last week but black morels are popping in the lower elevation aspen forests so fuck the HF and all those salmonfly chasing dildos over there. I even found about 100 in my yard...well mostly the neighbors' yards...shhhhh. Been picking about two weeks. Averaging around 1lb in 2-3 hrs. One pound would cost around $30-40 in a store. Black naturals are prime around 6700' on west slopes but going over to spoilt/waterlogged below 6500'. Its been damn cold up high so morels are still absent or too small to bother with above 7000' (don't pick a flush of spikes, morels have almost no flavor when they are immature; mark the spot and wait at least a week). Been finding a few western yellows here and there but haven't really been working the riparian cottonwood forest much. More private property, more competition and, in my opinion, yellows are less predictable morels....blacks are easier to find once you know what to look for and are plentiful on public land. (no permit required in Targhee national forest; $20 forest products permit required in Bridger-Teton national forest; huge fines for picking in a national park). If you like to fish, you'll probably enjoy foraging. Shrimp and morels in a madeira and sour cream sauce for dinner. Decadent. Oh yeah, ursus horriblis likes to eat morels too so you'd be a total fool to go foraging around here without a can of spray. Unlike bears, people will get sick if they eat raw morels so cook them thoroughly. Know the difference between a true and false morel as they often grow together. Its obvious, you'd have to be stupid or blind to confuse them.

update 6/4: morels popping @ 7000'-7500', mostly over below 6700' on west slopes and couldn't even find a spike @ 8000' thanks to the recent cold up high. Stumbled across a fresh (I mean red and still wet) deer carcass in the woods; first time I've ever found a recent lion kill. Got the fuck out of there...

update 6/9: north facing slopes starting to produce.

[ColMan]

Anyone been on the Green recently? Looks like the flows are finally down. Guessing the dry fly action is heating back up? Heading up there for 4 days and hoping to get some Cicada love.

[schwerty]

I was on flaming gorge over memorial day wknd. Went down to take a look. Flows were clear. Fly shop said it was on. Don't know what the flows were then and haven't looked. So, it was stable last wknd.... Looked damn sexy.

I fished the res at our camp due to kids, dogs etc... Picked on plenty of stocker bows with cicada patterns. Some bass. Streamer fishing was pretty good too when the wind came up.

[schwerty]

Things are dropping around the Tetons. High but decent freestone fishing can be had if you are creative. Only about a week of warm weather before many of the local streams will be in shape.