Warm Weather

Since getting back from Montana, I have not been fishing locally. The weather all week, including this weekend has been splendid. More of the same is forecast for the next 5 days. Bright sun and temps in the high 50's...pretty nice for late October. The word on the Snake and the South Fork has been that fishing for cutties has been great...this is the time of year to hunt the larger fish, and it sounds like some anglers are finding them. Midges, BWO's and even some attractor fishing has been productive. Walking in, as opposed to floating, is probably the way to go in order to work the winter holes. I suspect that fishing for fall browns has been slow given the unusually warm weather...I'm sure that will change soon. I have not heard much from Yellowstone, so if anyone has a recent report, leave a comment! I'm off to Sayulita, Mexico Thursday for 10 days with the girls...time for a real vacation before the winter really starts here. Not sure yet if we will fish or not...we're experienced on the flats, but this will be our first visit to the west coast of Mexico. Here is yet another average Missouri River Bow taken on a streamer and a picture on the way to the MO!

The Missouri River

I rolled in about midnight last night after 4 days of great fishing on the Missouri River with Stan Czarniak and Joel Handschin. It's an annual event that never gets old. Over the four days, we had a mixed bag of weather, with everything from sun and 65 degrees, to thick clouds and 40 degrees. We covered water from Holter Dam all the way down to Prewitt Creek, with very good results. Although we did not bump into the trophy fall brown, the rainbow fishing was at its best. This river holds some of the hottest bows I've ever fished to. We banged the water with woolly buggers and stopped on pods of rainbows sipping psuedos. The crowds were gone and the wind never blew...a blessing! Enjoy some photos from the trip.

Last Trip

Today was my last guided trip for the season...I took a father and son from Colorado down the Snake from Deadman's to Moose. Since the drastic weather change over the weekend, I was not too sure what to expect on the river today, and I set these guys up for a potentially tough day when I met them this morning. We were on the water shortly before 10am, and the air temperature was only 28 degrees with very thick clouds and fog. It was a very cold, slow start. We nymphed for the first two hours with no success. By about noon, I found a few fish feeding and the action picked up. We saw numerous fish on Royal Wulffs and small Parachute Hare's Ears. By about 2pm, I took a chance and had these guys fish chernobyl ants. The fish were all over them! The temps had warmed to about 40 degrees, and these eager cutties were still looking for the big bugs. We had fantastic dry fly fishing all the way to Moose on big flies...pretty amazing for October 14th. The river is so low right now (450 cfs at Jackson Lake Dam), the fish are completely stacked in their winter holes, looking for food. The fishing should continue to be decent through the month. The middle of the day is probably your best bet right now, with good midge and BWO activity, and maybe a little more attractor fishing, depending on the temps.Here are Zack and Mike Simpson with some great fish taken on big dries...nice fish!

Heavy Snow

The first significant snowstorm this fall hit us hard over the weekend. Roughly six inches of snow fell in the valley, with much more blanketing the higher elevations. It came in with cold temps and very strong winds. North into Yellowstone and Montana saw even more accumulation. The forecast for this week is for clearing, and temps in the high 40's to low 50's. The Snake should see some good fishing this week on streamers and small mayflies. Blue Winged Olives and Midges should really pop all over the region...the streamer fishing should be great on the South Fork and in Yellowstone as well. Along with this weather comes thoughts of fall in Montana. Weather you are fishing, hunting, or just passing through the Big Sky State, it is a time of year not to be missed there. Here are a couple of nice shots from a 2004 fall trip to the Clark Fork River. Fall colors and Scott Smith with a typical Clark Fork Rainbow taken on a bugger.

Chromers!

I awoke this morning hours before dawn to meet Scott Smith and Josh Graffim for a marathon one day trip to do an obscure float on a river in southwestern Wyoming. Our hopes were to bump into some pre-spawn browns in the 4-8 pound range. The weather was very bright and warm, which limited the numbers of browns we saw...however the cutthroat and rainbow fishing was fantastic on streamers! We saw numerous cutthroat in the 14"-17" range and a handfull of rainbows, with three breaking the 21" mark, and one weighing in at 4 pounds. Here are a couple of nice shots of me and Scott with these beautiful rainbows and a picture of where Scott's net spent a good portion of our day. Most of the fish today fell for bright clouser minnows. Hopefully today was a good omen for our trip to the Missouri River next week...we'll see.

Lewis Lake?

The guiding season has slowed significantly, which is typical for early October. I only had a couple of trips last week. The South Fork Canyon on Wednesday was decent, considering how bright it was. Tungsten midge larva (nymphs), and hoppers worked alright. We didn't see any exceptionally large fish to the boat. With the nastier weather since then, I've received much better South Fork reports from some friends. Stan Czarniak and I floated the whitewater section of the Snake from Elbow to Sheep Gulch on Friday in his dory. We were the only boat on that section, the scenery was great, but the fishing was pretty slow. We moved many fish to our streamers, but they just wouldn't eat them. I think the water cuts last week put these fish off. Friday was the last day of the big water cuts on the Snake. This week should be better, with streamers and small dries turning back on. Some guiding friends went to Lewis Lake on Saturday hunting Brown trout. Given how rainy and cold it was Saturday, I was expecting a great report. They saw many browns in the inlet channel, but could not get too many to eat. Lewis should be getting better day by day. Also, don't forget about Jenny Lake in the fall...streamer fishing can really turn on here, too. Here is a great fall cutty from Jenny Lake; a nice Brown from Lewis Lake last fall that fell for a mohair leech and a Teeny 200 grain sinking line; Stan Czarniak hunting cutties in the Snake River Canyon; and John Campbell with a decent South Fork Brown from last week. More soon!