Finally Some Dries!

Guiding around here these past few weeks can be summed up in one statement: staring at strike indicators. Fishing the Green, the Snake below Jackson Lake Dam, and the few trips I've had on the raging South Fork has almost entirely been done while gazing at strike indicators. Although it can be very productive, it can get very mundane on the oars looking at a pink bobber all day. After all, this is supposed to be prime dry fly country! The South Fork has been lowered to 17,000 cfs, which is still pretty high. I'm hoping we will see it get closer to 15,000 cfs soon...that would make it much easier to fish. The Green has dropped significantly this week to about 1,500 cfs as of today...a much more reasonable level to be fishing. Although there have been blizzard Drake, Caddis and Sally hatches down there, the fish have been holding tight in the high water nymphing. As these levels drop even more, look for much better dry fly action any day on the Green. The best place to throw some dries right now is on the upper Snake, between the Dam and Pacific Creek. The hatch of Sallies and Golden Stones up there today was thick. On top of that, the water is the best it has looked all year...very clear. Unfortunately, the Buffalo Fork is still putting in a muddy 2,100 cfs and making the Snake unfishable below the confluence at Moran Junction. That's all I've got...just the facts. Here's a great shot I snapped today of the beautiful Snake with the Mount Moran monolith in the background.

Making The Rounds

I've finally just completed a full week of guiding, which brought me completely around the local fishing block. With high and dirty water still plaguing this region, and clients cancelling or postponing fishing trips, I was lucky to get on the water with anglers this entire week. I guided on the Firehole, Yellowstone Lake, the Green River and the Snake below Jackson Lake Dam. The fishing on the Firehole was great. We were on the water early and there were fish eating aggressively on top. I'm actually not entirely sure what the type of Mayfly it was. I call it a large PMD...about a size 14, with a pale yellow or cream color. It's a hatch I see each season about this time. Anyone out there know what this bug is? We fished the hatch from about 9 am until 1 pm. Although it slowed down in the afternoon, the water temperatures are still holding cool enough. Yellowstone Lake fished par for the course: a handful of nice fish netted on small buggers using sink-tip lines. Although the Lake has been good, I'd probably skip the river right now. With the lake up about 3 feet, the river below Fishing Bridge is huge.
Normally this time of year, we are able to get folks on the Snake below Jackson Lake Dam to fish down to Pacific Creek, above the muddy tributaries. I gave it a shot on Tuesday. We had a decent morning on Caddisflies and saw numerous Sallies in the afternoon. Most of the fish eating up there were smaller, but at least they were taking dries. The bad news is that since I was on that section, the Bureau of Reclamation has raised the levels again to nearly 5,000 cfs. Yesterdays paper said that these flows would last until late July, and then be reduced to about 2,800 cfs for the rest of the season. This would be a great level for us. Keep your fingers crossed. All of the Snake tributaries are began to slowly drop and clear, so there is a distant light now at the end of the tunnel!
And now, on to the Green...
I put three days in on the Green this week in the campground sections. The river is dropping very gradually, but is still around 2,700 cfs. My ideal flow would be below 1,500 cfs for reference. There is about 3 feet of clarity, and tons of bugs around. Grey Drakes, as well as a variety of Mayflies and Stoneflies are abundant right now. The fish are not quite eating them yet, though. If you were to fish a large dry all day, with a Drake Cripple trailer, for instance, you may pick up a fish or two feeding opportunistically. Streamers were also mediocre...nymphing was the most consistent way to find fish right now. Fish your large Beadheads and Rubberleg Stoneflies deep with splitshot. Good luck!
Here's Bob Kolscher with a typical Yellowstone Lake Cutthroat. More soon...

The Legacy Ranch

Some of my readers may remember a blog post I made earlier in the spring about the Legacy Ranch located in Southeastern, Idaho. It is a 671 acre spring creek and waterfowl ranch situated outside of Blackfoot, Idaho. It is currently for sale and listed through Live Water Properties, the premier real estate brokers for fishing and hunting parcels. My good friend and guiding partner Scott Smith invited me over to the ranch on Friday to guide some clients that were looking at the property. Given how limited our public fishing options are right now with high and muddy rivers around here, I jumped at the chance to go.
The spring fed ponds, creeks and sloughs extend roughly 3 miles through this pristine property. We dropped our boats into the cold, clear stillwater with our anglers to find some truly exceptional fishing. Small nymphs dropped under dry flies led us to a handful of amazing wild Rainbow trout in the net, including this 7 pound beauty at the top.
In terms of fishing on public water in the region, we are still very limited. The South Fork is still holding at a dirty 24,000 cfs, while the Green is dropping ever so slowly, but is still around 3,000 cfs. The best fishing in the area is still on the Firehole River, where higher flows are keeping the water cool. Old timers in the valley often look to the top of peak 10,450, also known as Rendezvous Bowl to tell us when the Snake will be ready to fish. Once the "bowl" is completely clear of any snow, it's time to fish the Snake they say. Well, we still have quite a way to go before that face is free of snow. I'm guessing we'll be fishing dry flies on the Snake August 5th...you heard it here first :)

Head-Back-Tail

My good buddy Brian Hodges came down to Jackson for the weekend from Bozeman, Montana, and we were able to sneak away for a spectacular day of fishing on Sunday. Chris "Stumpy" Stump also joined us for our marathon day to the flats of No Tell Canyon. Although virtually every river, stream, creek, waterway and drainage is high and muddy around here, there are still a couple of select spots to throw some dry flies. It's not an easy venture, though. A pre-dawn start, coupled with a ton of windshield time is necessary in order to find these secret places. We timed the Drake hatch perfectly...as soon as we stepped out of Stumpy's minivan, and saw the Drake on the window, we knew that we were in for a special day. Once on the water, we immediately saw Rainbows up to 7 pounds sipping big mayflies. Brian summed it up perfectly: "Ten o'clock, thirty feet...head-back-tail, head-back-tail", which describes the motion of a trout taking a dry fly.
I wish I had a better report for the Snake, South Fork or Green right now. The South Fork is now up again to a whopping 22,900 cfs...huge bummer. I had a great day guiding on Yellowstone Lake today, and am heading to the Firehole tomorrow. Yellowstone is where it is at right now. If you've got some time to explore, break out the map and find your own No Tell Canyon :)

Don't forget to visit Brian Hodges' Doublehaul Travel to see some of the world's greatest fly-fishing destinations.

This Is Appalling!

An estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil was released into the pristine Yellowstone River, west of Billings, Montana, on Friday after an oil pipeline ruptured under the riverbed. When will these big oil companies learn? It seems to me that if you are going to run a pipeline under a river, (especially one as special as the Yellowstone), someone would do everything possible to make sure that something like this could never happen. Early speculation is that the record runoff levels may have scoured the riverbed, exposing the pipeline which was then hit by debris.

Wouldn't you think that someone from Exxon-Mobil could plan for high water scenarios? Regardless of the fact that the spill took place well below the Yellowstone's famous trout fishing corridor, the significance of this disaster is still exceptional. It remains to be seen what the affect on wildlife living downstream will be. The Department of Transportation (who oversees the pipeline), issued a letter to Exxon-Mobil last year citing 7 seven serious safety violations along this particular line. I sure hope this company is held accountable for this. Check out the Billings Gazette to keep up with this story from a local source.

The Runoff Rollercoaster

The Bureau of Reclamation, regional hydrologists and Jackson Hole old-timers all predicted that we were going to see all of the major rivers and tributaries peak last weekend. They definitely got that one wrong. Bright, hot weather this week, coupled with warm nights caused everything to surge over the past two or three days. Clearly, there is still an incredible amount of snow left in the high country. The Buffalo Fork surged toward 6,000 cfs yesterday, which blew away the previous record for the date. The Green River, near Warren Bridge, topped 4,000 cfs yesterday, which I have never seen. The New Fork River, near Big Piney, is also running at a record level...a muddy 7,600 cfs.
I guided my first South Fork trip yesterday with a father and son visiting from Hawaii. I prepped them for the day, and set our expectations low. The river had been holding steady for over a week at 15,000 cfs. Although the water is still not clear, it had been turning slowly from brown to green. I had received reports of fish being caught on stonefly nymphs. We threw rubberleg stonefly nymphs and streamers hard. Although the banks did not produce any fish for us, the riffles and tailouts were better. We landed 7 trout, and about a dozen Whitefish. The highlight of the day was a 20" Brown that fell for a very large, black streamer in a sidechannel. The day actually exceeded my expectations, although I think these guys may have been slightly disappointed. Either way, it was a fun day.
By late afternoon, we started noticing a lot more debris in the water and the river began to look muddier. When we got to the takeout at Conant, I checked the levels and sure enough, they bumped the river up again yesterday. It came up 2,000 cfs to a total of 17,000 cfs...a huge bummer. This late week surge has put more water into Palisades Reservoir, so they have now compensated by raising the river yet again. Our options our now dwindling again. I'd avoid the South Fork for the next few days at least, unless you are looking to do a booze-cruise. Enjoy a shot of our highlight yesterday...17-year-old angler Luke Memmer with a beauty.