Winter Weather

Winter weather arrived yesterday into Western Wyoming with a vengeance. Strong winds, cold temperatures and sheets of snow moved into the area Wednesday morning. I joined two other guides on a group trip yesterday from Astoria to West Table on the Snake. The fishing was good for the first hour; there were nice fish up on small mayfly patterns. The weather forecast had us thinking that the hecubas would be coming off by late morning. We've been hoping for a weather change for over a week now to spark some fall hatches, and get the bigger fish looking up again. The sunny, warm weather we have been seeing had toughened up the fishing. By noon yesterday, the wind and snowfall was so strong, there was little hope of any hatch coming off, let alone staying on the surface of the water. One of our clients was literally near hypothermic by lunch, so we opted to push out in the storm. It sounded like the weather was not quite as rugged in the Park; fishing was reported to be OK on BWO's and drakes. The weather we were hoping for came in a little to strong. Today is quite cold and windy, and it may stick around for awhile. Starting this coming Monday (October 5Th), the Bureau of Reclamation will begin cutting the flows out of Jackson Lake Dam on the Snake River. Between Monday the 5Th, and Friday the 9Th, they will lower the water from 1875 cfs to 500 cfs. There will be at least two water cuts per day done, in order to get the river down to winter flows. Typically, fishing during the water drop can be difficult. I usually opt to stay below South Park bridge where there are less sidechannels, and perhaps the fish don't react as strongly to the drop. By next weekend, we should find many fish stacked into their winter holes and adjusted to feeding. I guided on the lower South Fork on Monday, and the Salt River on Tuesday with Tom Putnam. We had decent fishing in the sunshine with a variety of dry flies. This weather should really spark the South Fork streamer fishing. Here's a couple of shots from the row off yesterday in blinding snowfall and wind.