Driving For Dollars

From a guiding standpoint, it has certainly been a tough, slow start to the fishing season. Cold, wet weather during April and May, coupled with an enormous snowpack and raging muddy rivers has put local fishing guides behind the eight ball from a work standpoint this season. Unless you are lucky enough to be licensed on the Henry's Fork, area fishing guides are experiencing a lean start to the 2011 season. With the Snake River and Green River running very high and muddy still, there are not many options yet on places to take eager clients. The South Fork is slowly turning on, as levels drop, and the water clears. It is by no means "on fire" yet...deep, weighted nymphs being drifted through murky water is the name of the game over there now. That leaves us with Yellowstone. I'm fortunate to be a licensed fishing guide in Yellowstone National Park. The good news is that the Firehole River, as well as Lewis and Yellowstone Lakes are all fishing well right now. Despite this, it is harder to convince clientele to pull the trigger on these trips. Although wading the Firehole, or fishing the lakes has been productive, most folks that arrive here want to float the big rivers. Depending on where we are heading, you are looking at least an hour and forty-five minute drive...maybe as much as two hours and fifteen minutes...each way. This adds up to a ton of windshield time. I'm happy to have the work, and good fishing, but they are long days.

Native Cutthroat

One of my favorite outings on a day off (or as a guide), is to spend the day on Yellowstone Lake looking for Native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. They are a strong, beautiful strain that takes streamers easily this time of year. Casting sink-tip lines with small black buggers is a sure ticket to success on the lake right now. When I first moved to the valley and discovered the lake, two anglers netting 40 or 50 fish a day in the 14-16" range was not uncommon. The illegal introduction of Lake Trout in the early 90's has changed this, though. Fish numbers are down drastically; a couple of good anglers may net 8 or 10 fish on a good day right now, with sizes now averaging a healthy 18-21". Fortunately, the park service is in the process of adopting new policies on how to deal with the non-native Lake Trout, and are now taking more aggressive measures to get them out of the lake.


I spent the day yesterday with my good buddy Charlie Howarth on the Lake. He had never fished it before, and was pleasantly surprised. With most rivers in the area still high and muddy, don't miss the lake right now!
The South Fork is now back down to 15,000 cfs, and slowly clearing. The riffles in the Canyon section are starting to nymph well with rubber-leg Stoneflies. The Firehole also continues to fish OK...it's still high in volume, but quite clear. Look for small Stoneflies in the afternoon. Don't be afraid to throw a streamer either. The tributaries in the valley really took a jump this week with much warmer weather and thunderstorms. Pacific Creek, the Buffalo Fork, the Gros Ventre and Spread Creek all spiked to much higher, muddier levels. We're gettin' there!

I want to thank my good friend Scott Smith for organizing the Rafter J kids fishing day that will be taking place tomorrow. Rafter J is the subdivision south of Jackson that we live in. Scott took charge with the homeowners association to come up with a plan to stock more Cutthroat Trout in our ponds for the many Rafter J kids to enjoy. You gotta turn them on young! More soon...

Still Wet

Rachael and I returned last night from a road trip with the girls to Winthrop, Washington, where we attended a friends wedding. By the looks of things around here, it has been unseasonably wet and cool still while we were gone. The high country is still loaded with snow, and area rivers remain high and muddy. The Upper Snake River drainage is at 677% of normal snowpack, and the Upper Green River drainage is at a staggering 1162% of normal as of today. This essentially means that there is an abnormally high amount of snow left for this time of year in our local mountains. Each day that the weather remains cool, or we pick up more snow, the numbers will increase. It will be hard to say for sure exactly when we will be able to fish on the Snake and its tributaries, or the Green River for that matter. Although the South Fork is now back up in volume to 17,100 cfs, it sounds like the nymph fishing is really turning on. The river is clear enough to fish, and fish are likely beginning to look for stonefly nymphs.

While on our road trip, we crossed over some very hallowed trout water, including the Henry's Fork, Beaverhead, Big Hole and Clark Fork rivers. With the exception of the Beaverhead, all of these watersheds were well above flood stage, with a muddy torrent carrying debris downstream. I had never been to Winthrop, Washington before. It is located on the Eastern side of the Northern Cascade mountain range. It's a very pretty mountain town, with the famous Methow River running right through it. Winthrop is serious Steelhead and stillwater country. Although the Methow (and every other river in the area) where also high and muddy, I was able to get some fishing in on Davis Lake for some really wild Rainbow Trout. It was good fun.
Here's a couple of shots from the trip. Davis Lake, with a lone float-tuber; the Big Hole river at Melrose, raging at over 10,000 cfs; the Clark Fork River at Missoula, at least 3 feet above flood stage...wow!

More Options!

With the arrival of mid-June, a couple of more fishing options have opened up for us around here. The Henry's Fork Ranch, as well as Yellowstone Lake opened to fishing for the season yesterday. June 15th is always a welcome date in this region, particularly in years like this where most fisheries are high and muddy. The "Ranch" opener is a big deal with Henry's Fork aficionados; the first day on this hallowed piece of water offers anglers a better chance to stalk large, educated Henry's Fork Rainbow Trout and actually have a decent chance of sticking one.
Not much else to report around here. The Snake and its tributaries, as well as the Green River drainage are high and muddy. The South Fork has been lowered to a reasonable 15,000 cfs. This is great news...as it starts to make its transition from brown to green, it will start to fish.
The birdwatching in the area is fantastic right now. Here's a couple of shots of a beautiful Western Tanager that has been visiting our yard. More soon!

Where to Fish?

The most asked question that I have been fielding lately from friends and readers is just where should we be fishing right now? Needless to say, virtually all of the rivers in the region are high and muddy. Most of Idaho and Montana are also facing the same issues right now. The Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park remains the best option if you want to wet a line on a moving stream. Although it has come up in volume significantly (1,450 cfs near the confluence with the Madison River, which is at flood stage), it is still clear enough to fish the good June hatches near Old Faithful. Don't be afraid to throw small streamers as well, especially in the deeper areas. Although the Henry's Fork below Ashton has had good reports of Salmonfly activity, the boat and wading traffic has been record-breaking...good luck.
Stillwater fishing is probably your next best option right now. Henry's Lake, Hebgen Lake and Jackson Lake all have been putting out decent reports over the past week or so. Yellowstone Lake will be opening on June 15th. It typically fishes very well out of the gate with plenty of elbow room.


My buddy Chris Stump and I, (along with his 2 year old son George!), headed out to Jenny Lake a couple of days ago for a test run. Fishing was good. We saw a few Cutthroat and Lake Trout on streamers, and the flying ant hatch was starting to happen as well. We saw numerous fish on top taking advantage of them.
Much warmer weather this past weekend, along with thunderstorms, has really caused a bump in water flows in the area. Check out these incredible water graphs from the Snake River above Palisades Reservoir, the Big Hole River, near Melrose Montana, the Bitterroot River near Missoula, Montana, and the Clark Fork River near Missoula, Montana. Wow!
Here's a couple of shots from Jenny Lake the other day, including young George with a Lake Trout...nice one!

Fishin' With Currier

I had the chance yesterday to spend the day with Jeff Currier fishing Island Park Reservoir, in Southeastern Idaho. It was great fun. Jeff spent over 20 years running the Jack Dennis Sports fly shop in downtown Jackson (where I first met him), and has since left to work for himself. He is a highly talented artist and angler that has truly figured out a way to make a living doing exactly what he loves. He lives and breathes fly fishing. While spending time with him, you quickly realize that his passion for the sport is highly contagious. Jeff's angling experiences, artwork, photography and stories has allowed him to be a freelance steward for the sport. Most notably, he has caught over 275 species of fish on a fly, in over 40 countries. This is why Jeff is the go-to authority on exotic fly fishing travel.

Jeff called me this week to see if I wanted to join him on an exploratory mission. With the lower Henry's fork jammed with boats hoping for a Salmonfly sighting, and the rest of the rivers in the region high and muddy, we decide to try something different. We set out for Island Park Reservoir in hopes of hooking into some large Rainbow's. Windy conditions made for tough fishing, but we spent the day trading some truly great stories. Make sure to check out Jeff's Global Fly Fishing Blog to see what he has been up to lately.

I was able to get up on the Firehole this week as well, guiding some folks from Louisiana. The river is in great shape...flows are tea-colored and relatively low. The winds gusted toward 30 mph, which made it tough on these greenhorns though. Relentless tangles and a broken rod tip made for a long outing.

Temps are trying to climb into the 70's this weekend, which should help the runoff to kick in again. Cold nights, though, have been stalling the effort...the past two nights have seen temps in the high 20's. The Green is back up over 1,100 cfs, the South Fork is at 23,000 cfs and the Snake has been lowered to 3,990 cfs out of the dam in anticipation of the tributaries coming up any day. The most staggering stats can be seen on the Wyoming Snowpack Data website. The Snake River Basin is now well over 300% of normal snowpack...wow! Check out the other amazing numbers on this site. Will the snow ever melt?

Here's a few shots from our outing yesterday, including a classic of me with a monster sucker and one of Jeff's famous tailgate. FYI...catching a sucker of this magnitude takes quite a bit of skill on a flyrod :) More soon!