2012 Rocky Mountain Fishing Conditions

[Brahmontoya]

Provo is fishing well, crackback and hatchback nymphs are most productive as usual. 7 hours of fishing for one fish, but so worth it.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...22169410_n.jpg

[Woolly the Mammoth]

I spent three days fishing Slough Creek last weekend, second and third meadows. Golden Stones and Grey Drakes were the ticket.

[schwerty]

Fishing on the Snake,while extremely crowded, was great this wknd. The larger cutts seem to have returned in strength. Smaller fish are taking foam shit and attractor nymphs. Larger cutts are being taken on yellow sallies and caddis in the evening. Double nymph rigs for larger fish through the middle of the day.

[neckdeep]

Looks like we are sliding into the doldrums. Seeing a real drop off in action on the hot sunny days. Floated six miles on the Teton in the valley yesterday and it was painfully slow. Pmds hatch almost nonexistent, fish sulking in the holes and only little dinks rising sporadically, when rising at all. We floated 10am to 4pm so it is probably best to start avoiding midday fishing on sunny days for the next few weeks. Hoppers coming on. First winged carpenter ant flight of the summer observed a few days ago. Saw a few trico spinners so that is starting up too. Fishing in the canyon sections is getting noticably slower too but nymphing for rainbows and hybrids is still very good on cloudy days and smaller fish are taking hopper patterns on top. Bitch Creek is still cold and fishing well if you hike away from the over fished access points.

I heard several first hand reports that fishing on the SF went from mediocre to epic to mediocre with the epic part occurring during the cooler days when it rained for a while. Heard it got stoopid crowded. Over 100 boats taking out at Byington some days. Sounds like too many dildos parked at the Irwin Slide and now, thanks to too many anglers shitting where they eat, that key access point below the Ditch is closing. Then there has been an issue with rigs overflowing into the road at Spring Creek ramp and deputies got involved and so now there's talk that too many shuttles are being blindly sent down there and something must be done. Till crowds abate, might be best to use Conant ramp instead. What a fucking circus....I can't imagine being a south fork guide.

Cloudy weather seems to be the ticket for now..

[schwerty]

Fishing around the Yellowstone region has slowed in many of the area waters. A few days of lower temps helped last week but only for the duration and one of the nights dropped into the 30's around the southern jellystone region.

The Nat'l Park Service has placed some closures in the Park, so plan accordingly if you are headed in there. The higher sub alpine and alpine streams have apparently been good and held reasonable temps. Down lower....no good.

The SF of the Snake is running at 13.5k. High for summer flows but still has seen decent fishing. Fishing can be excellent one day and done the next. shoot with tons of boats right now. If I were to float it I'd be on pre 7am.

The Green has become a morning and sunset deal. It's fucking hot over there!

The Snake through JH has been producing mainly sunrise to 11am and again 6:00 to dark, with most action in morning.

Many area tribes are reaching temps too high to fish by midday. Please leave small streams close to valley floors alone for. Bit!

[ColMan]

The Snake through JH has been producing mainly sunrise to 11am and again 6:00 to dark, with most action in morning.

Schwerty,

Any sections on the Snake fishing better than others?

[schwerty]

Schwerty,

Any sections on the Snake fishing better than others?

The Park has been better than Wison to West Table. The WW has been good too. There is good water from Wilson down to WT but those sections get hit incredibly hard. The Park is a little less crowded. Still a morning thing though. The earlier the better.

[neckdeep]

Tricos are hatching. This can be an opportunity if you like mornings or a real buzz kill if you want to get to the water at a leisurely pace. You will find tricos in all regional streams wherever there is some silt and, in very silty habitats with abundant aquatic weeds, the hatch can be heavy. Also, as a technical matter, a #18-24 bug requires fairly slow water to present a good drift so don't go looking for good trico action in rapids or swift, riffled water. The bugs are there, hatching out of the silt in the eddies and tailouts, but the fish just don't seem to focus on them like they do in slower water. In hot weather, the duns are on the water for the first hour or two of light and the spinners are mostly over by late morning. After it is over, the river can go almost totally dead til sunset hours. Fish that get a good eat on early morning tricos can pretty much quit feeding for the rest of the day so plan accordingly.

[skifishbum]

Green below dj's fishin well summer flows of 900cfs overnight 2xing during the day.
Still sending a ramped up flow down the middle provo out of jordanelle to deer creek.
We're (TU) doing a willow planting fri and sat on the strawberry below solider creek dam.
If you need an excuse to escape the slc valley heat and give a little back to help keep that fishery prime.
Campin @ aspen grove

[neckdeep]

It sure feels great to see your local river get this sort of review from one of idaho's internet trout bums. Dude fishes the valley boat ramps for two days and declares its the suck. Now that's a Silver Creek/RR Ranch dry fly "expert" in a nutshell. Expects a parking lot and a sign pointing to the easy, flat trail leading him to the C&R meadow stream. Exactly why I do NOT go to those hallowed waters to rub elbows with the purists. I need a river 75 miles long, multiple ecosystems, loaded with 3 species of wild trout, many many 14-18 inchers, has trophy class fish, has east idaho's best alpine cutty stream for a tributary and enough access points to keep an angler busy for weeks. Just a locals river, I guess.....

http://www.west-fly-fishing.com/foru...688#Post703688

[Lone Star]

I'm usually pretty stoked when some 'expert' makes public claims that my favorite water or ski lift sucks.

[schwerty]

Fishing is slowly picking up round the Tetons. Night have been cooler for 4 days or so. Daytime highs have loosened very slightly too. Looks like we are finally into the stretch where highs in both valleys will be in the low-mid 80's and not get there til mid afternoon!

I have been out all over the area on foot and boat over the past two weeks. Rarely do I say this but the lower snake in jH is about the best option around. Palisades cutties are showing their heads. Let others fish foam bugs. A double dry rig with a small pmx, (royal, tan or yellow), and something resembling the good ole snake drake off the back... Parachute adams etc... Pretty basic! Emergers/cripple patterns seem to be taking lots also. Fish that type of rig in slower water. Water temps are still high. Fish ain't on the shallow banks! Hit the first trough or ledge. When fishing in heavy water, bobber fishing has been excellent. Don't get too fancy and have some wt.

The Green, although low and warm, has been good below Warren bridge and receiving light guide pressure. You're not gonna have a banner day with numbers but if you put on early and fish hard...

[Lone Star]

^^^ How far do you usually float below Warren? I'm in BP for a couple months and looking forward to exploring the lower river. Floated it once below town and saw what I presumed was a huge brown, but I hear rumors of carp?

[schwerty]

Carp don't show up too much until you get down towards Font. Res. Carp are a great fish on a fly stick anyway!

You can float warren to forty rod for a short float. Warren to Daniel, ( fee ramp....you can pay at Stanley jct). Daniel to summers is the next popular float. Keep in mind most of the river bottom below warren bridge is private. There are a few good wade access points but not much water
to work with if there are more than a couple cars. Below summers you get into a long stretch, (25+ miles ), of private bottom. Great water but you obviously can't legally anchor or get out of the boat. Lots of braids, logjams , diversions and some barbed wire make that stretch extra fun. So, taking out at summers is usually the last option for most people. Yes, big browns down there.

[akokskis]

There are some big fish in that daniel to summers section (2yrs ago

[neckdeep]

^^^ How far do you usually float below Warren? I'm in BP for a couple months and looking forward to exploring the lower river. Floated it once below town and saw what I presumed was a huge brown, but I hear rumors of carp?

Try the Seedskadee refuge below Fontanelle dam. The number of trout per mile is not impressive compared to the upper sections but its all public land for about 25 river miles so access is not an issue and there are established roads and hiking trails along the river. Meatheads congregate below the dam, skip it. A camping ban inside the refuge, a limit of one trout harvest per day and a minimum size of 20" means the local fishing pressure inside Seedskadee is very light and the brown trout that are in there tend to be big. You got a shot at 25+ inchers. I had a friend get two in one float. Bring your own shuttle if you want to float. If you wade, hike to the sections with riffles and braids as the pools are gigantic and weedy. I recomend the Hay Farm to Bridge section. The river gets warmer and siltier below the Big Sandy confluence.

[skifishbum]

sandwiched a few days below fontenelle tween 3 days down on the b&c.
Quite the smorgasboard hatch @ weeping rock in the am and nailed a few pigs pre dawn and after 7pm strippin big junk w/ the sink tip
Summer doldrums are windin down but still pretty meh there 12-5
below dj no where near as prolific hatches but terrestrials and caddis in faster water fished well all day
LS weeping rock cg to Slate Creek cg is a pretty good short float and easily mntbable shuttle
We should try and do a mini fishin summit in sept there
last years good flows continue to pay dividends as all fish were fat/healthy on all sections

[neckdeep]

Fishing is slowly picking up round the Tetons. Night have been cooler for 4 days or so. Daytime highs have loosened very slightly too. Looks like we are finally into the stretch where highs in both valleys will be in the low-mid 80's and not get there til mid afternoon!
.

I guess the doldrums are over? 38 degrees in the Valley yesterday at dawn. Water felt downright cold until 1pm. The Teton was fishing epic. Got around 60 hookups and brought 42 rainbows and hybrids to hand. Managed to lose every fish over 18" but probably the most action packed 6 hours I've had all season. Only the combined sally and golden stone hatch was that good. Caught all the fish on a single fly, a #6 tan Knotty Girl. Never lost it and it unraveled on the 42nd fish right when I reached my exit trail out of the canyon. To me, that is the fly fishing equivalent of throwing a no hitter. The fly's tattered body is now on my wall of fame. Massive hoppers (#2-6) to be seen everywhere but I don't throw dries to rainbows until I actually see them aggressively feeding on top. With no hatch at all, they were sitting on the bottom but would quickly move 3-4 feet to intercept the fly. Five days ago, you had to put the fly on the fish. Low clear water made for sight nymphing at its best. Water levels in the rapids are almost too skinny for guide trips and the fish are finally getting a rest and are behaving more like a trout should.

Update 9/4: hit up the Teton in the middle canyon and for two hours my usual game of big nymphs and streamers in the rapids got me nothing. Then I found some nice cutts holding in the lower half of the holes but they all looked at my hopper like it was poison. You could tell these fish had been whupped on with big dries during the float season. Started to wonder if this was the day I get beat by some stupid fish. Put on a #8 red Turk's tarantala and it was game on. Got some blow it out of the water takes. Cutts just get aggro for red in the fall and the tarantula's profile is dramatically different from the hoppers and chernobyl ant patterns that most people throw. Casting blind to submerged rockpiles and weedbeds in the tailouts of holes, I picked off around a dozen decent cutts, 13-17 inchers, and called it a day. Around 5pm it got too windy to call it fun.

Update 9/5: Went back to that rainbow water. Super slow. Very bright day. No hatch. Fish sulking not feeding. Then the shadow from the canyon wall crossed the water and it fired up. Got more fish and bigger fish in the last hour than the previous four hours combined. Just, BAM, went from slow and nothing over 16" to a quick dozen 15-18 inchers in 45 minutes. Finished the day with 22 fish to hand and just enough 15-18 inchers to justify the 4 mile hike. I have no idea why the fish in that section would be so light averse yesterday but seemingly unaffected 10 days ago.

[neckdeep]

http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/...fm?newsID=6398

I've seen quite a few dead whiteys in the Teton, especially in the Valley. Most inside corner eddies have one or two 5-6" whities lying belly up on the bottom. And I saw two whirlers this summer. A Friends of the Teton field guy confirmed that WD is present so FYI for you guys coming over here to fish. But this new shit is ominous if we have a dry winter and hot summer over the next year.

[schwerty]

Thx for the heads up. Dead whities all over!

[tone capone]

Fished the Gallatin yesterday afternoon and evening. Fishing was very good. Average size of both the Rainbows and Browns was excellent. Had several nice browns (rainbows too) aggressively chasing streamers. One of them was the biggest trout I've ever caught in the canyon. Good times.

[skifishbum]

Spent 4 days last week back on the green below fontenelle. They started lowering/jacking with the flows so there is a lot of loose vegetation and clarity has diminished. Some channels are pretty skinny in the am and required walkin the boat. Floated all sections except lombard to 6 mile. Plenty of fish lookin up. Thurs. was cloudy and fished the best.
had a few pigs on but none of them made it to the net. Plenty of dinks and 12-18ers & startin to see a few kokes comin up.
tryin to talk the mrs. into headin back up this weekend.

[schwerty]

That water should be coming into its prime real soon! If Mini Schwerty # 2 wasn't about to pop out I'd be there this wknd.

[Lone Star]

This small stream beater is going to try to wade Seedskadee tomorrow, going to heed neckdeep's recommendations regarding braids and riffles. I dont see demarcations for Hay Meadow or Bridge on the NFWS maps but it looks like road access is good enough to do some rubbernecking til the water looks right?

[neckdeep]

This small stream beater is going to try to wade Seedskadee tomorrow, going to heed neckdeep's recommendations regarding braids and riffles. I dont see demarcations for Hay Meadow or Bridge on the NFWS maps but it looks like road access is good enough to do some rubbernecking til the water looks right?

Hay Farm is the boat ramp about 8-10 miles above the hwy 28 bridge, where there is another ramp. You get to Hay Farm off hwy 372 about 5 miles north of its junction with hwy 28. There is a gravel road going between the ramps and the refuge headquarters is located along this road. The road generally stays about a 1/4 mile back from the river (it is a wildlife refuge, after all). I do remember a nice piece of swifter water passing through islands not too far downstream of the Hay Farm ramp and fairly close to the road. The pools between the sections of riffle/gravel bars are like small lakes; even at low flows the frog water still has a lot of volume. It would take considerable time to thoroughly work it with a streamer and it seems like a low percentage game. If you are there on a good BWO hatch day, then the top of a pool below a nice riffle would be a good place to look for risers, but otherwise the pools are a difficult place to target fish, even with a boat. Maybe Skifishbum has some tips regarding the slow water cuz there are some big fish in those weeds.