It's Good Everywhere

Since my last post, I've been all over the place guiding and fishing. No matter which direction you head from Jackson, you should be able to find good fishing right now. I guided the South Fork Canyon overnight on Sunday and Monday this week with Joe Strazzeri and friends, and it was a great trip. We do our overnight through Heise Expeditions; our host Mike Quinn took very good care of us with an outstanding steak dinner on Sunday, and breakfast the next morning. The fishing over there is pretty good right now. Fish were eating large dry fly attractors on the banks, with Yellow Sally trailers behind them. The main event right now is the PMD hatch. Park yourself on any riffle by about noon, and look for the Cutthroat hitting the surface. They are eating these bugs ravenously. It won't be long before they get a little picky, I'm sure. The Snake yesterday was great; Deadman's to Moose fished solid with Sallies and large attractors. I guided today on the Green River near Pinedale. We arrived to the boat launch very early under cloudy skies. Although the water temps are getting warm, and the river is low, we had great fishing. The cloud cover really helped. We netted a half dozen fish in the 18"-20" class...all Browns. We also saw a handful of rainbows. Large chernobyls with beadhead droppers did the trick.
I also had a first on the river today: we came around a corner to find a young mountain lion taking a sip of water. He immediately jumped on the bank and ran off...sorry, no photo. As some of you may know, there is sometimes tension between guides and anglers in this region. For example, it's common knowledge that some folks on the South Fork do not like Jackson Hole guides coming over there to work. Well, many of our clients like to fish there, and I like to think we are helping their local economy. We are perfectly legal to be guiding there and only want to introduce our clients to the river. The same goes for Sublette County, Wyoming...home of the Green River. Many residents down there do not like seeing us working or playing there...not sure why. I snapped a photo today of a sign we found on one of the bridges we floated under. Pretty funny. What is interesting is that we did not see a single boat today anywhere on or near the Green other than ourselves. Here's a couple of shots of today's fish with Larry Kown and Jeff Cummings. Stay tuned for some photos in the next post from No Tell Canyon.

Getting Busy

Over the past week, the traffic around town and on the river has really surged. Despite more anglers being on the river, the Snake is holding up very well. I've been guiding mostly in Teton Park, and the dry fly fishing has been quite good. Withing the past two days, I've been starting to see some larger fish looking up. Chernobyl Ants, Yellow Sallies and Copper John droppers have all been doing a fine job. Yesterday was a very wild day on the river with local angler Dennis Butcher. We did Moose to Wilson, and spent most of the day dodging lightning, and very heavy rain. Despite this, he picked up some nice fish, including a 19" cutthroat on a large dry fly (no photo, sorry). The Buffalo Fork came up in volume overnight, but barely affected the river clarity today. The South Fork sounds like it has still been red hot, especially in the Canyon. Most of the tributaries are now ready to go...low and clear. I'm heading back to No Tell Canyon tomorrow with Stan Czarniak for a couple of days, then on to a South Fork overnight with good client Joe Strazzeri. Hopefully, I'll have some good reports coming up! Here is Denton Rea, of Odessa Texas, with our best fish of the day today.

The Snake Is Ready

I've been guiding on the Snake the past five days, and I must say that the fishing has exceeded my expectations. Once the runoff has subsided and the river clears, the action can often take some time to really spark. There's been no delay this year. The dry fly action this week was stellar. Although I only saw a few bigger fish, the action on smaller fish was non-stop. Chernobyl Ants and Wulff Attractors brought most of the fish to the surface. The couple days that I ran Deadman's to Moose saw a very thick Yellow Sally hatch in the afternoons; fish were eagerly taking Sally imitations in the riffles. Copper John droppers under the bigger dries also brought many fish to the net. The flows are good too...2,840 cfs at Moose as of today. By the end of next week, we should see even lower flows with bigger fish looking up. Rendezvous bowl is now clear of snow, and the water clarity is almost perfect. For those of you floating between Deadman's Bar and Wilson, be prepared for many new channels and snags. The high runoff in June has really changed the shape of the river in this area. There are many new, interesting looking channels and gravel bars. There's also many new log jams and obstacles to add a little challenge to the rowing. Keep your head up! Reports from the South Fork Canyon have been very good...large and small stones are turning many nice fish, with perfect water levels (12,500 cfs near Irwin). Here's Rene Ciarametaro with a chunky Snake River Finespotted Cutthroat Trout. Nice fish Rene!

Jack Dennis Fly Fishing

For those of you reading this that don't know my history, I have been in Jackson, Wyoming for almost 15 years now, and have been working as a fly-fishing guide for Jack Dennis' Snake River Fishing Trips. Jack's guide service, aka Jack Dennis Fishing Trips, has been working out of the Jack Dennis Outdoor Shop on Broadway since the late 1960's. Since then, Jack has acquired numerous concessions permits that allow us to legally guide in Grand Teton National Park, Bridger-Teton National Forest, the BLM areas on the Green River and in Yellowstone National Park. We also have a relationship with Heise Expeditions, on the South Fork of the Snake, that allow us to legally guide in Idaho. Since the beginning, Jack has proudly offered only the highest quality guides to his clientele. Over the past winter, Jack and his former partners at the Jack Dennis Outdoor shop severed their relationship; Jack essentially pulled his premier guide service from the Broadway location to start anew in another fly shop, built from the ground up. I am pleased to announce that we are now officially open! Please visit us at 70 South King Street (across from the Sweetwater Restaurant), just off the town square. (Or call 307-734-8103). We have a great fly selection from Montana Fly Company, Umpqua, Rainy's Flies, Dan Bailey's Flies as well as patterns from local tier Phil Blumquist. We've also got gear from Abel, Thomas and Thomas, Loon, Dr. Slick, Scientific Anglers, Bailey's and RIO. It's a great new spot for us to book our trips, meet our clients and present some flies. It's a new beginning that is sure to take off. For those of you on Facebook, click on the Jack Dennis Fishing Trips badge on the right side of this page to see our store page!
As for the fishing lately...
I've been on the Snake the past few days and it has been extremely windy. The best fishing right now is definitely below South Park. The water clarity and hatch activity (stones and caddis), is much better on the lower river right now than it is in the Park. I've been quite busy lately helping Jack set up his new shop, so I don't have a first hand report from the South Fork or Green. Through the grapevine, however, I've heard that both are turning on nicely. Drakes showing up on the Green early in the day, and stones on the South Fork. More soon!

Ri-Drake-Ulous

I guided today on the Canyon section of the South Fork with Kazou Seta, a client from Tokyo I take every few years. As an avid fly fisherman, it's a treat for him to visit the Western States to pursue some trout fishing. There's a few spots on the North island of Japan that offer some angling to stocked trout, but nothing like Wyoming or Idaho has to offer. We had been emailing for the past couple of weeks about where to fish; the obvious choices for early July were the Green or the South Fork. Although the Green is now down to 1,100 cfs at Warren Bridge, we opted to chase the Salmonflies on the South Fork. Over the past few days, I had been hearing reports of the big bugs on the lower section, but could not get confirmation. We decided to do the Canyon (since he had never done it, and wanted to see the scenery), so we got on early and motored down. I prefer staying well above the hatch just in case it moves quickly. The water is still very cold over there...49 degrees this morning. We picked up fish on large Stonefly nymphs all morning, but did not see a single adult Stonefly anywhere. After a quick lunch, the hatch hit...but not the Salmonflies. The thickest Green Drake hatch I have ever seen on the South Fork began pouring off. We had about 3 hours of stellar dry fly fishing. We did not see any really big fish...17" was the best, but the sheer numbers of Rainbow, Brown and Cutthroat we caught was amazing. As the water warms over the next few days, I'm sure the Stoneflies will show up...until then, enjoy the drakes! The Snake is getting close. The snowfield in Rendezvous bowl is almost completely gone. Old-timers use this rule as an indicator letting the valley know when the Snake is ready to fish. When all of the snow is gone, it's fishin' time. The river looked as clear as I've seen it in awhile as I crossed it tonight in Wilson. Stay tuned.