Thunderstorms

The weather this week continues to be very unsettled. The mornings are starting nice, with heavy rains and some thunderstorms hitting by afternoon. The Firehole River and Jenny Lake are still probably the best bets right now for fishing. The runoff on the Snake is gradually leveling off with some cooler temps. It's hovering around 4000 cfs at Moose, which is historically low for late May. It peaked at 8000 cfs at Moose about a week ago, but has been dropping since. As soon as we get our next hot spell, the real runoff should begin and we'll be on our way to better fishing. The South Fork is up to 14,000 cfs at Irwin, and will probably head higher as they move water to lower reservoirs. Although it is clearer than the Snake, the fact that it is rising and is still cold is preventing some better fishing for now. Near Pinedale, the Green River has dropped to about 1000 cfs. There is still a lot of snow left in the Wind River Mountains, so I'm sure that the next wave of warm temps should kick the runoff in again. Today's photo is of my mother-in-law Pam Tufts. I had the pleasure of teaching her to fly fish on the Green River and help her land her first trout on a fly!

Buggers on the Firehole

I took a father and son fishing today on the Firehole river in Yellowstone. They're new to the valley and wanted to see what the Firehole was all about. They were pretty impressed with the river and could see why it is truly one of the fifty places every angler should fly fish before they die. There's no better setting to throw a fly in. The weather was about the same as two days ago...cloudy, cool with some rain. There was actually a thick baetis hatch but the only thing eating them were the swallows swooping down on the river. The nymphing was marginal. The streamer fishing was excellent! They both fished a size 8 black/peacock wooly bugger and pounded them. I think with the higher flows right now and cooler temps, the dry fly fishing may not pick up for a week or two. There's a lot of food in the water right now and even with a hatch, they don't necessarily need to feed on top. More soon.

Yellowstone Opens

The fishing season opened in Yellowstone National Park today, which gave local anglers a few more choices on places to fish right now. With just about everything else high and muddy around here, Rachael, Charlotte and I headed up to the firehole today to give it a shot. The weather was tough, but the fishing was good. The temps never got above 40 degrees, and it was raining on and off. The river is hovering around 600 cfs right now, which is a little high, but the clarity was just fine. It's basically tea-colored with plenty of visibility. Nymphing was very productive. Pheasant tails, soft-hackles and sally nymphs did the trick. We also threw some small buggers which worked well also. There was no hatch all day...I think it was a little too cold. Hopefully, if we get a litlle warmer, we'll start to see some bugs on top. The river was surprisingly uncrowded for opening day. More later!

Not many options

It's springtime in the rockies right now. We've gone from a string of days with temps in the 80's to a few days with heavy rains in the valley and snow at the higher elevations. There's not much fishing right now...virtually all of the rivers and tributaries in the region are blown out with muddy runoff. A few of the tributaries of the Snake came within inches of flood stage this week after all of the heat. After record breaking snowfall this winter, it's going to get worse before it gets better...there's still a lot of snow to come down. Your best bet right now within a few hours of Jackson is either the Big Horn river in Thermopolis or the Henry's Fork in Idaho, just below the Ashton dam. The good news is that fishing in Yellowstone opens on saturday. There are many options up there for cleaner water and good hatches. More soon!

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Coming soon...the Western Wyoming Fly Fishing Journal. Let's talk fly fishing! Photos, stories and fishing reports straight from the waters of Jackson, Wyoming and beyond.