Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Waiting on Snow


Not much to report here firsthand on local fishing. I've heard some decent reports from the South Fork over the past week by wade anglers doing well on top with midges during the midday. The weather has been very clear and sunny, with cold nights. The lows have been dipping into the teens here in Jackson. As an avid skier, this is the time of year that we start to think about the snow that is on the way. We want every day to be a powder day! At the moment, the valley is still dry, but there is a decent snowpack of about 30" above 8500 feet. What will the winter hold? Will we match our record breaking snowpack of last season? Will it be dry? Obviously, nobody knows yet. It's not just the skiers wondering what the weather will bring, but also the local anglers. The winter weather that some love and some dread holds the key to how the next fishing season will be. With a healthy snowpack come springtime,our local rivers and the fish that reside in them will thrive. In particular, we are hoping for high water content in the snow that falls this year. If we get back into a drought cycle, the trout will suffer. This was very evident this year. Coming off of an enormous winter (well over 600" of snow fell above 8000 feet last year), we saw some of the best fishing in years on streams such as the Green, New Fork and Big Hole whose fish have been suffering from recent low water years. Here's to a wet winter! This Green River Rainbow sure loves when it snows!

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