2013 Northern Rockies Conditions

[schwerty]

For those coming to or around the Tetons...

The Snake is gushing due to damn dam flows at 5k with no end in sight. I haven't considered fishing it and most of the reports I have been hearing are lots of dinks above and below on attractors. The WW stretch has been producing larger fish early in the day. Otherwise stick to the braided sections where slower side channels can be floated or waded.

The upper green is a wade or one man/small 2 man craft deal now. Fishing well for the first few hours after sunrise. Rest of the day is hot and tough. Haven't heard about warren to hatch but I'd stick to wading. Hatch all the way to 351 is good to go but still a morning game with good fishing at last light. Cloudy, rainy weather has brought good fishing all day!

SF - we killed it during the passing storms last wknd on cream colored streamers. Dinks eating pmds, caddis and yellow sallies. Fish sunrise if you can. Guide hatch by 8 at the latest. For the upper, putting on around 3-3:30 should save you the fun of the boat train. Unless its cloudy though it will be tough until the evening hours.

Flat creek in Jh opened today. I would imagine there were lots of southern plates on big SUVs in both lots early this am. Probably will be for another month and a half. No offemse th those fellas! I stayed away. Caddis will prolly be coming off at sunset and the pressure does down due to most of those guys having dinner reservations.

Other Jh tribs: low and warm although the rains of the last 4 days have refreshed them a little. The hoback is super low. No recent reports on my end. The Gros Ventre has been good up high...upper slide area and above has been great in the morning. Small attractors have lots of fish looking up. I haven't been but heard that the pocket water right below lower slide has been good til early afternoon. Still seeing some golden activity there. Droppers will bring more fish to hand!

The others have been excellent also.

No recent reports from the HF.

The Teton meadows have been good. Lots of fish in late evening on the upper looking up. Haven't been but heard a couple good reports from th canyon.

[beer30]

Spent a little time on Flat this am. Nada

[snapt]

Floated the South Fork yesterday. Better than it's been, only pitching dries. Some of the riffles fished ok, fish were on the mutant stones ON the banks in some of the normal spots.

[Adski]

Hey All- great info here. Am gonna be up on the S Fork and Teton meadows with the new drifty this weekend and really looking forward to it. One tangential question: was thinking of bringing up the motorboat and put onto Palisades reservoir to tow the kids around on wakeboards and tubes. I know the reservoir is at 20%. Is there enough water in the pool to make it worth bringing the 18ft ski boat? Staying in Driggs so not really wanting to drive too far for lake sports.

Will post pics if anything picture worthy.

[teleee]

Hey All- great info here. Am gonna be up on the S Fork and Teton meadows with the new drifty this weekend and really looking forward to it. One tangential question: was thinking of bringing up the motorboat and put onto Palisades reservoir to tow the kids around on wakeboards and tubes. I know the reservoir is at 20%. Is there enough water in the pool to make it worth bringing the 18ft ski boat? Staying in Driggs so not really wanting to drive too far for lake sports.

Will post pics if anything picture worthy.

Hey Adski, it is LOW! I mean really low, I just drive by Palisades last week and was amazed at how empty it was. That being said there is some water there that you could probably get into but if it was me I'd just stick to the river. Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you do.

[neckdeep]

Ririe reservoir is the main powerboat scene for the idaho falls area, especially when Palisades is low. Beyond wakeboarding, Ririe also is a solid fishery for kokanee, trout, smallmouth, yellow perch and eater sized crawfish, so that's a two-fer. Still at 74% capacity. The upper Teton can be painfully slow during midday heat in august; best surface fishing is usually late in the day after the wind settles and the shadows grow. In the morning, trico spinners can be good until 10 am then it usually fizzles until things cool down again.

[snapt]

Even at 20% Palisades looks like it has enough water to be fun with the Powerboat, It's a big lake. S. Fork is fishing better, and some of the creeks that dump into Palisades are as well.

[schwerty]

The Snake river through Jh has seem some relief regarding flows from the dam. Still high but better than most of the summer. Fish are looking up for our late season stones and terrestrials. They are about to gear up for mahogany season...one of the best hatches on the river. Late August through mid oct can be great fishing here.

[beer30]

Browns were hitting muddler minnows in Karns meadow today. Only caught one 10 incher but had some hogs striking under the cutbanks. Just didnt get a solid hook set. Havent been on the Snake in ages. Hoping to head up to Lewis soon, any tips?

[schwerty]

Haven't heard any Lewis reports since spring. It might be decent given the chilly , rainy weather we have had lately. I wouldn't count on many big fish swimming up the channel yet but they are prolly staging in the shallows close to it. I'd suspect you could find some fish in other areas too. If I hear anything I'll let you know.

Well fished streamers have apparently been good on the snake and some good side channel fishing in the Park is the word. Flows have dropped a tiny bit to 3270 this morning. Still well above good fall dry fly conditions. Really a shame as this is the best time of year out there. I've only been on the snake once all summer myself. Hopefully we get a couple wks of fall fishing before winter fishing sets in!

[beer30]

Im hoping more like a solid month of fall action.

[schwerty]

That'd be great. There will be good fishing for a long time to come but the Snake has to see less water for those fall hatches. Plus wading is tough at this level. Word is they will start dropping the first wk in October. We'll see! Hopefully it is done intelligently!

[schwerty]

Flows have dropped on the Snake and SF.

The mahogany fishing was ridiculous on Sunday.

[beer30]

Im going to head out for a few hours tomorrow. Getting ready to hang up the rods and dust off the skis. Ill report what I find.

[schwerty]

I'm heading out today too. Should be a good one. Few more weeks of line wetting for me before I say bye to the gear for the year.

[neckdeep]

The Teton is still good. Been averaging 3-4 an hour with small, natural pattern streamers. #20 bwos still trickling off shallow, slow riffles 11am-4pm. Fish moving to the quiet, deeper water for the winter and are slowing down. Few willing to chase the streamer stripped across the river but swung and hung down in the holes gets plenty grabs. In terms of slooooow presentation, most takes were on a pause/stall or dead swinging, not the strip. The winter season presentation works best if you can get position directly above target and swing the streamer into the zone and jig it around a bit in front of the school. Same basic techniques as wet fly swing for winter steelhead; maintain contact and feel for the tug.

11/11 dry fly was really good over the weekend, streamer good till 1 but then lots of obvious feeding fish ignoring the streamer in favor of the peaking hatch. Any shallow riffle popping bwos above a deep pool and there's usually trout schooled up in the foam between 12 and 3, gobbling those tiny mayflies. Was catching about as fast as could retie those fucking little patterns; using a bunch of old cdc patterns that catch great but are generally fouled after one fish or five casts, whichever comes first.

11/12 got 41 fish to hand yesterday(all 12-16"ers), all on one small powell's sculpin, no need for the tiny dry probably because the hatch just wasn't as thick as on saturday. Teton was officially on fire after 3 days of 50+ temps but today looks like the last warm day of 2013 so, so much for that...

11/13 went over to HF, got my biggest trout ever, 26" brown hen with a girth befitting a 30", quite a toad, 7-8lbs?. Never took a run, it was like fighting an anchor. Even with 2x tippet, about 4 minute tug o' war to lift the fish out of the green water to see it and another 5 minutes to tire the fish enough to bring it to the shore. And no, I didn't jerk it off a redd, it was barbless, perfect nose hookset and successfully released without a drop of blood lost... so save the preachy stuff.

[schwerty]

Fishin on the Snake through JH was fantastic the last few days. BWO and midge hatches have been good midday. Large fish eating on the surface too! Emerged action has been on fire too. The fish are concentrated for the winter now so fishing from a boat and finding good numbers of fish is tough. When you find me during the warmth of the day tho....

Looks like a day on the SF or HF next wknd and that might do it for me. Turkey day and the resorts opening will prolly mean I'm gonna be skiin with my daughter instead of wetting a line. If anybody wants a to hit a day in early December around here, lemme know. I'm usually good for restringing a reel to feed the addiction.

[teleee]

Hey Schwerty i think we will be floating the South Fork and other yet to be decided locales this coming weekend if you want to join in shoot me a text. I am pretty certain i have an open seat in the boat.

[schwerty]

I could do that. Happy to bring my boat if that would mean two guys to a boat.

[teleee]

Cool man! I will be in touch. I am not sure of the final head count and let you know about the boat. It would he awesome to get out with ya.