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!