ROCKY MTN FISHING CONDITIONS 2011

[skiandbike]

Thanks, hoping to contribute more in the future.

[schwerty]

Got a job to do in Cody next Monday to Wednesday-ish, planning on fishing my way back through Yellowstone, JH, Pinedale... Any additional words of wisdom are welcome. I am pretty familiar with the upper Green / Gros Ventre - any hope up there? Definitely would like to check out the Fall. Last time I was in Yellowstone proper it was pre-fire, pre-wolf and I was a lot shorter. I'd love to make the summit, but this is probably going to be my foray this year. Won't bring the boat, and I love to hike in backcountry... Not asking for any CIA info, at least not for posting on the interweb, feel free to PM me and I will definitely repay you in beer!

I haven't been checking but there is a slight chance some of the Cody water could be in shape but I wouldn't count on it. The stretch through town can be awesome but check the flows out of the dam and with one of the fly shops before you give it a go. High flows, even if they are, clear = real tough wading on that stretch.

The western section of the Park is fishing well. And, as ND said, the Henry's is too!

Don't bother with anything in JH/Gros Ventre region or the South Fork. The Green MIGHT be worth wetting a line in from one of the campgrounds but don't pass up the Park or Hank for it!!!

Above the falls on the Gibbon has been good. Below prolly getting better??? The Firehole is still in good shape, (at least it was as of last weekend). Prolly another couple weeks before it warms too much. I talked with a couple guys who have been up on the Maddy in and out of the Park, above Hebgen. They both reported high water but decent fishing late last week and over the wknd.

Not that I am trying to be super sneaky secretive here but I simply don't have the time to go into detail..... Many of YNP's smaller creeks in the western section are flowing reasonably clear and fishing well with all sorts of dries from attractors to stones to drakes to caddis. If you have time, bear spray and balls to explore, (sounds like you're solo??), some of the smaller creeks/tribs of the bigger stuff, you will find some gold!

[neckdeep]

If you have time, bear spray and balls to explore, (sounds like you're solo??), some of the smaller creeks/tribs of the bigger stuff, you will find some gold!

I 2nd the spray. Two fatalities in two years, three if you include the guy who got killed to the east of the park. 600+ grizz hemmed into a small zone is no good. The sows with baby cubs don't want to be in the deep backcountry around the alpha boars so they are obviously down in the margins where we hike and fish. A guy was charged three times last week on the teton canyon trail up Table mountain and would probably be victim #4 if he didn't have his spray handy (although he gets demerits for hiking in the wilderness area with a dog off leash. Nothing pisses off bears and moose like a loose dog. Seriously, if you want to turn a placid moose sighting into a hairball moose attack, just let your dog roam the willows while you fish.) You'd be a fool to be fishing or hiking in the sticks around here without spray on quick draw, I think. Seems like a lean year for bears once winter kills are all gone. The low elevation rasberries are still just flowers; most years I'd be enjoying some creekside berries by now. Spawning creeks were rather high for good hunting for cutts on redds. The alpine wildflowers are late so the cutworm moths are late arriving in the mountains so the bears are probably really hungry and grumpy with each other. In a warmer, drier year, they'd be eating rasberries and thimbleberries and working up into the talus flipping rocks for moths by now. Watch your back!

[schwerty]

I got attacked/ran over by a moose in Black canyon about 10yrs ago. Since then I have been very mindful of my dog being close by in the woods at all times. Moose are very misunderstood! And, it hurts real fucking bad getting bowled over by one of em!

[NMmatt]

No worries, thanks for the info guys! I'd rather find out the old fashioned way anyway. There will be 2 of us, no dogs (my samoyed passed on this year - he and I learned the lesson you are referring to years ago up in this area). I am definitely going to poke around, streamflows are all high up in the NE, but they are dropping pretty fast over the last week, in some cases in half. I just might squeak out a well-timed trip there. We will be packing bear spray x2, and I'll bring the Alaska S&W .500 just for the hell of it as well. You guys know the chances of that actually being useful are pretty small. However, I like to lug around 5 extra pounds just for grins - that way, I won't be tempted to put in a six-pack!

I'll post a trip report on the San Juan at 5,000 cfs soon - it was pretty epic.

[Impact Hottub]

There's some big fat salmon flies on the upper madison today. i was wading between palisades and 3 dollar bridge. Water visibility was a good 3 feet or so. Bugs everywhere, a few risers. The itch is finally gettin scratched, and it's about time.

[neckdeep]

I'm catching nice fish on big dries in the Teton so runoff is "over" as an excuse for not catching on the westside. Bitch creek is the only stream that still looks unfishable though the kayakers are loving it. Granted some waters are still very high and difficult to wade and a lot of prime holding water is washed out but clarity is up to two feet, bugs are hatching and fish are pressed against the bank in current breaks and hungry for stoneflies. I saw yellow sallies, green drakes, pmds and golden stones on the water and huge clouds of caddis in the willows. Fish are still hitting the salmonfly though that hatch concluded its run up the canyon last week.

[schwerty]

For the Teton area anglers: Lots of guide boats heading south this morning around 7am. They were not putting in on the Snake! The Green has been dropping steadily! Although, there is still a lot of water moving down. Green river lakes are clear and fishing....no more goo from up top! However, water temps are still really cold up there, making for slow days. I'd guess this weekend will be warm enough to turn things on right below the lake. If guide boats were heading down, the lower river from the upper camps down might be fishable too but I'd go way up if you have the time.

[Lone Star]

there's lots of Griz up where Schwerty's going. good chance you'll get eaten if you go up that way. best to fish down below flaming gorge til things die down a little.

[skifishbum]

Griz smizz them fuckin skeeters are the ones that'll eat ya alive. Still looked pretty high and cloudy xing 80.
Below DJ flows down to 4600 been there a week now probably be there till late Aug. spent 3 nights campin below red creek and doing B laps w/ my pops & fur kid. Sallies and caddis o plenty plenty of fish willing to come up. 3 nights of tstorms had rc flowing but not enough to adversly affect fishin. Those 9600 flows did a pretty sweet job of blowing a lot of river bottom silt out lower. Although it reeked havoc on miles of riverside boardwalk. Wonder if they'll try and salvage all the chunks lining the banks and rebuild.
Floated an "A" first day meh got a few but too many clueless rafters and yahoos trying to fish and row their one man inflatabiles. Didn't float a C too high to get under tfb but guide
reports say it's fishin well

[neckdeep]

there's lots of Griz up where Schwerty's going. good chance you'll get eaten if you go up that way.

You don't have to go far this year. Another grizz incident on the west side. Woman chased on her bike, get this, in the Saddleback Vista subdivision over two miles off the foothills. Apparently it pushed down Darby creek, across the road I live on and out past houses. This is making morel harvesting more exciting than I like. Got around 5 or 6 pounds of prime black morels yesterday. North facing slope at 7500-8000 ft.

- plus another dozen pounds today at 6500ft. Finding flushes of black morels in the hundreds but 75% of the lower elevation morels are past harvesting.

[schwerty]

Up by the Lakes there are a ton this year! Haven't heard of anyone floating seeing one yet. I wouldn't mess around with wading, especially solo above the camps. Even on the flats I'd be cautious this year. Floating shouldn't be an issue though. Especially now that every guide over here that doesn't have or piggy-back off a Jellystone or ID permit is going there.

[neckdeep]

http://news.idahotrout.org/post/8058...came-in-to-the

Last year's state record for rainbow crushed by 14 lbs! Same place, American Falls reservoir, ID.

[Lone Star]

crazy. it's been nearly a week since this thread has been posted in. wonder what the heck happened????

[neckdeep]

South Fork 7/31, Irwin>Conant.

Despite classic streamer conditions (low light, occasional drizzle and cloudy water w/2ft vis) the streamer bite never happened for us. The water was suprisingly greenish brown and murky as if the dam intake is pulling out a layer of sediment settling down low in the water column. Very few bugs or rises seen from 11 to 2. We sat around on a likely looking set of braids at midafternoon and waited for a hatch. Around 2 to 3, the pmds and some really bright yellow #16 mayflys (looked like sulphurs) started to trickle out of the shallow gravel bars along with a small helping of baetis brought out by the rain. Some nice fish started to rise and were taken on pmd emergers, 18 inch cutt was fish of the day. But it was very localized; seemed to be limited to the shallow and fairly slow gravel bars and in the main channel all those spots were being camped by guided boats. We had to go into side, side chanels to find good shallow riffles that were unmolested. Bank fishing was very slow with mostly scattered dinks. Watched many other boats over the afternoon and only saw one rod bent all day so it felt like we were doing better than average. All in all, a very slow SF day given the ideal hatch conditions; low wind, cool, cloudy and humid with light sprinklings all afternoon. There were goldens around too but the fish just didn't seem keyed in to them. Maybe its the offcolor water, maybe it was having the flow dropped by two feet in only a week.


Fall River 7/28, middle section.

Waded a mile of river, caught 25 or so between 10 and 16 inches. Water is clear. A few sallies and goldens observed ovipositing but not much else. Caught fish on yellow sally and golden dries but used a golden nymph in the rapids. It was so hot, dry and breezy that practically no pmd hatch occured and the fishing wasn't as good as it could have been. The fish were eager and looking up for bugs but a minimal hatch and wind makes targeting bows with dries a lot more difficult.


Teton River 7/27, lower canyon.

Visibility was improving to 3ft. but it has been raining hard so, we'll see where that goes. Fish were taking goldens and I caught plenty but high water is still making wade fishing a bit of a chore and limiting opportunities to get off the bank. Deerflies are getting very bad in the tall grass, don't even think about exposing your skin down there. (I was wearing gloves!). Saw three dudes from california wearing shorts and tshirts try to go into that shitpile of thistles, nettle and swarming deerflies that is the lower canyon at midsummer. Suprised they stuck it out for 90 minutes. I think they got through 200 yards of suffering beyond the trail and decided that standing neck deep in painful weeds with flies crawling all over them wasn't classic flyfishing.

[TheRealPoop]

yampa, downtown steambot; flows are down to wadeable level, water is clear and fishing is amazing. nymhing is my fav method, drys are comming on strong as well. lots of 20" fish have fun! watch out there can be alot of people on tubes.

[schwerty]

Flat Creek opener in JH today.

Cloudy, really warm and humid at 5am. On and off drizzle. The gloomy weather brought the crowds in force. There's a lotta H2o in there! The marshy/boggy areas were breeding skeeters like never before. It was almost unbearable even with waders and a heavy shell! The air temp was about 65 degrees.....it was a sweaty, buggy mess out there.

As it goes, the fishing is usually best in the most uncomfortable conditions. I couldn't stay long but this will be an opener to remember for those who brave the skeeters for an extended period. Some caddis, pmds and crane flies were out and about.

[NippleHighPow]

"South Fork 7/31, Irwin>Conant.

Despite classic streamer conditions (low light, occasional drizzle and cloudy water w/2ft vis) the streamer bite never happened for us. The water was suprisingly greenish brown and murky as if the dam intake is pulling out a layer of sediment settling down low in the water column. Very few bugs or rises seen from 11 to 2. We sat around on a likely looking set of braids at midafternoon and waited for a hatch. Around 2 to 3, the pmds and some really bright yellow #16 mayflys (looked like sulphurs) started to trickle out of the shallow gravel bars along with a small helping of baetis brought out by the rain. Some nice fish started to rise and were taken on pmd emergers, 18 inch cutt was fish of the day. But it was very localized; seemed to be limited to the shallow and fairly slow gravel bars and in the main channel all those spots were being camped by guided boats. We had to go into side, side chanels to find good shallow riffles that were unmolested. Bank fishing was very slow with mostly scattered dinks. Watched many other boats over the afternoon and only saw one rod bent all day so it felt like we were doing better than average. All in all, a very slow SF day given the ideal hatch conditions; low wind, cool, cloudy and humid with light sprinklings all afternoon. There were goldens around too but the fish just didn't seem keyed in to them. Maybe its the offcolor water, maybe it was having the flow dropped by two feet in only a week."

Interesting to hear that. We floated yesterday as well and did fairly well on streamers and nymphs. Boated 10 fish in about 1 1/2 hours then it slowed down. White, Tan, and Yellow Sex Dungeons and San Juans, Turd Flies, and bead heads all produced fish. Caught 1 Brown, 3 Cutts (1 about 18 inches on a Dungeon), 2 Bows (1 about 18 inches on a nymph) and 4 whites. Not an epic day but pretty sweet.

Unfortunetly toward the end of the float I missed the biggest fish of the day bc of too much line out stripping a Dungeon. Had what I am 99% sure was a Brown shark fin and hit the Dungeon but didn't stick it. From what I saw of the dorsel fin and tail it was proabably a 24" ish fat Browny. Now that I'm done with telling fish stories I'll say that it was a mighty fine way to spend a rainy day.

EDIT: We floated Dam to Bridge

[skifishbum]

I can't believe I've been out west for 14 years now and finally made my 1st trip to Jackson. Had the inlaw clan in tow so did a lot more floating than fishing. Did a booze cruise w/ powderpond from moose to wilson not much goin on fishing wise but a cool scenic float and interesting rowing. could definately see how after a few too many woobly pops you could get in some trouble.
Took pp all of about 5 min to put us into a strainer and glad to be rowin the tupperware mothership as we made a few wrong channel choces and had to hammer through a few fast skinny water rock riffles.
Did 3 dam to pacfic floats rotating the fam. Good vis and decent fishing with a lot of fish looking up most of the guide boats were on this stretch. Got a few quality fish on the streamer with my wife on the sticks down to deadmans until the winds went nuclear and started to down poor.
big thanks to schwerty dude gave me more info than all the local fly shops combined. With the exception of somthing anglers just down from the bridge outside of town they sure weren't very helpful. Fuck Jack Dennis and the guys who couldn't get off the webz to answer any of my question even though I was the only guy in the shop It'll be a cold day in hell when I buy or reccomend that place.
Took the scenic route home and ran into some wastach bros in Kemmer who where floatin the upper Green and fished that morn on the ham. reported it fished great lots of sallies although surpringly warm. Stopped in weeping rock cg to scope out below font clear water dropping daily
and the few river rats I talked to say fishins improvin, Not real crowded for a Sun. 1/2 doz. in the cg and a few boats lower down in the skeesdes.
AKesque skeeter swarms and $14 for oos day liscence led me to not drop a line and save the hall pass for this weekend to road trip to DJ with a mag in town for OR. Boats full but any other mags who want share camps and float are welcome.

[Lexi-Bell]

^^Heh that's the funneiz cause we were in Jack Dennis two days ago and there were THREE teenage employees at the fly-counter in back and out of 4 dudes they wouldn't even make eye-contact, there were some fat wallets ready to drop dough but we all walked out vowing never to return, wow that shop BLOWS! Did JD buy it back?? Can't believe he'd run it like that...

Can't think of the dude's name but the guy who runs the fly shop at Dornan's is a pretty cool cat who knows his shit and helped us out a bunch, thanks also to Schwerty for the beta can't wait to fish with ya next month (SFB you best show up too!)

Also had family in Jackson at the time so not much time for fishing but did float dam to Pacific today and saw the biggest Yellow-sally hatch of my life, the guides had to be stoked as even the hacks were hooking up.

SW MT brief report: Yellowstone in Paradise Valley and below is finally fishing, flows below 10k and 1-2 feet of vis with plugs of mud coming down from rain in the park, still streamers/nymphs but hopin for drys soon. Upper Madison is recording water temps in the high 60's, water still coming over the top of Hebgen, please handle trout delicately or fish elsewhere, Lower maddy done unless you're keeping fish until September, and Gallatin is improving daily.

[skifishbum]

^^ I'm well I guess glad you had a similiar experience. I was kind of hesitant to call out a shop, but damn that was beyond poor service. There was an old guy in there that morning I hope it wasn't JD.cause that's a fucked up way to run a bidness. I was gonna write it off as I probably looked like a skinny wallet guy.
maybe I'm just used to the small town DJ helpfullness.
That shop outside town was Dornans and they were helpfull.
Stopped in ID falls and got a new trailer from the hyde bros, left the old one so I'd have a good excuse to head back up for the summit so def planning on being there.

[schwerty]

JD was essentially forced out of the business. He doesn't have anything to do with the shop on the square. Jeff Currier ran a great ship there for decades but left with JD and the core guides. JD opened up Jack Dennis Fly Fishing Trips a little bit off the square. I have yet to go in the shop but the guides are there and so are the good permits. Shop is small but I'd imagine you'd find anything you will need and likely good service, although, I can't vouch for that.

Doesn't matter which shop you go to in this valley. You are gonna run into some southern college guys, (no offense to you southland mags!), who don't really know much about the area...they just sit there in the shop for the summer season. Sounds like Jack Dennis Outdoor shop on the square has really gone downhill in that regard! I have not been there in years...won't be going in again!

For you guys coming to the JH valley: Westbank Anglers is a good shop. On the Village Rd. Sneaks up on you if you're not paying attention. The owner, Baker is a good guy and very willing to help people out.
------

Glad you guys had fun! Wish I was around to hang! Always willing to help out with beta...not one of those tight lipped guys for good quality folk. See you guys in a month or so. I'm practicing my liquor consumption so my liver can stand up to the task.

[skifishbum]

The high country shop was allright and bonus points for at least hireing a hottie even if she didn't know anything about the river
the summer labor pool probably tough I'm sure all the more knowledgable guys are on the river but if you're workin in retail and someone walks into your shop and some form of the phrase greetings how can we help you with eye contact doesn't happen within a minute your not getting it reguardless if you're on commision.
Not so much fishin related but we did a float with mad river great service fun guides and a cool little mini river runners museum with the original rubber raft charlie
I so wanna come back and hit lunch counter in the dory don't know if I got the skills but one of those never know till ya try.

[neckdeep]

[QUOTE=schwerty;3323974]
Doesn't matter which shop you go to in this valley. You are gonna run into some southern college guys, (no offense to you southland mags!), who don't really know much about the area... QUOTE]


+1 and the same can be said about some of the young guides on the rosters of a couple of outfitters around here cuz the #1 job qualification for breaking into guiding is not regional knowledge. It is "Can you afford a nice drift boat and a fairly new SUV or crewcab pickup on part-time, seasonal job pay". If you already have enough money for such things, you too can afford to become a guide.

Meh, you guys should try working in a fly shop. You cant cuz the shop gig doesn't even pay the basic bills. Because it is seasonal, owners expect you to work for peanuts and yet you are supposed to have all this specialized knowledge about angling and the region, plus technical skills and sales ability? I worked 60 hour weeks for $10/hour, never saw a cent of overtime because seasonal employees don't have to be paid OT, didn't get a raise in three seasons, had routinely late paychecks and got stiffed on commissions. You could do better running a register at the grocery store. Yet there was no shortage of wannabe guides waiting in line to take my shitty job so the owner could just use me til I quit. They still owe me $600.

[schwerty]

I have pondered that for a long time. Even when I was guiding I couldn't really grasp that. Guides in both valleys seem to be driving nice, full size rigs, (trucks or SUVs) and new clakcas every couple years. Seems like an occupation for guys with families backing them or kids right outta college that convinced their dad to spring for a new boat and and a truck. The old gaurd still exists but many more of the other type of guide seem to be around. I guess there is nothing wrong with it if they new crop of guides flooding the business are personable and entertaining. They should be able to row too. Not sure some of these guys around here can row any better than my grandma!

Skifish- if you're handling the Green at the levels in your pics, lunch counter won't be a problem, especially later in the season.