Out of Town

The fishing on the Green this week remained very consistent with great dry fly fishing, particularly in the mornings. Although I have not fished it, the reports from the South Fork from Scott Smith have also been very good...the upper river has also really popped, with good attractor fishing and great fishing in the riffles with fish hammering PMD's. I did guide on the Snake last Monday from Pacific Creek to Deadman's Bar with a local client who wanted to test the waters. We picked up a few nice fish through the day, but overall, it was a struggle. With the water clearing every day and the Buffalo Fork continuing to drop, it really should be any day now for the Snake. The major tributaries are starting to do well also...good reports coming in from the Hoback and Gros Ventre rivers. Only one more week until Flat Creek opens on the Elk Refuge! I'm away for a few days, taking a break off the oars...back on the water Monday. More from the Snake next week!

Browns, Browns, Browns!

Well, the fishing on the Green River continues to be off the charts! The fish are still looking up virtually all day long, taking gray drakes in the mornings and larger attractors in the afternoons. I had a great day off with Josh Graffim on Sunday floating the Green. Click on the link to Teton Trout to see some photos from the day. It was some of the best dry fly fishing I have personally had in some time. I guided again today on the Green on the Seven Mile Ranch and did quite well with just one angler. Here are a couple of photos of me holding some fish caught by John McCormick on dry flies. The South Fork continues to fish well, particularly with PMD's in the afternoons. The Snake should be starting to fish any day now with the levels falling and the clarity finally improving. More soon!

Great Week on the Green

It's been a fantastic week of guiding on the Green River! The river above and below Warren Bridge is in prime shape. The drakes are still pouring off in huge numbers in the mornings, while the afternoon has seen good yellow sally hatches. Try a size 10 or 12 parachute hare's ear behind a larger attractor, like any of the chernobyl ant varieties. The river is hovering around 1000 cfs and is still easily floated. The Snake flows out of Jackson Lake Dam have dropped to about 2400 cfs, however the Buffalo Fork is still putting in a silty 1750 cfs, keeping the river pretty high still. The color at Moose is not too bad with over a foot of visibility, but is still almost 6000 cfs there. I may take a local angler on Monday for an exploratory mission. Here are a couple of fine fish from the Green this week with Amy and Fred Thranhardt, a father and daughter team I regularly guide. Nice fish!

Drakes on the Green

This is probably one of my favorite hatches to fish all summer around here...the gray drakes. I've spent the last couple of days guiding on the Green River near Pinedale, and have seen some excellent fishing. The river is in very good shape...the levels have come down, the clarity is great and the fish are looking up. The gray drakes have been literally pouring off in the mornings, providing some fantastic dry fly fishing. Although the bugs have been tapering off after about 1 o'clock, the fish have been taking attractors quite nicely through the afternoon. I've seen a number of large brown trout in the net the past couple of days on drakes and chernobyl ants. Here is Richard Williams from Maine, with a healthy 21" brown that fell for a tan chernobyl ant. More from the Green soon!

It's Dry Fly Time!

Well, it's finally here! Some of the area rivers have really turned on this week with some great dry fly action. I guided all week on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho, both on the lower river and in the canyon section. The afternoon fishing on all of the days was very good. The riffle fishing really turned on at about 1 pm each day with great PMD action on top. The banks continued to fish better and better with larger stonefly patterns. I found the best rig to be a large PMX or Chernobyl Ant with a yellow sally trailer, fished close to some of the logs and willows. We netted many larger cutthroat this week using this setup. The more experienced anglers that I guided definitely out fished the lesser experienced this week. The fish were still looking for just the right presentation in just the right spots. Sloppy dry fly drifts were mostly ignored. The fishing on the upper river is now improving also, with the PMD action turning on as well in the riffles in the afternoon. I fished for fun today on the Green River near Pinedale and had great dry fly fishing also. The river is still a little high at about 1200 cfs, but the clarity is great, and the fish are looking up. Adult caddis fly patterns and yellow sally patterns worked well. The Snake here in Jackson has finally lost its muddy tint, and is starting to show hints of green...the light may be at the end of the tunnel! We should be able to fish the Snake within two weeks now. Here is friend Joel Handschin with a nice South Fork cutthroat taken on a streamer. More reports this week from the Green and South Fork!

Hammering Fish in the Canyon

After a few slow days of guiding on the upper South Fork late this week, I took advantage of a day off today and floated the South Fork canyon with good friend Stan Czarniak. We put on at Conant and decided to run the motor all the way down to Cottonwood, a good hour of motoring. Since the morning was very cool, and most of the reports of any hatches were coming from the lower canyon, we thought it would be good to fish the bottom half of the float to Byington. It was a good decision. As soon as we started fishing at about 10:30 and under full cloud cover, the fishing absolutely popped. The nymphing and streamer fishing was hot right out of the gate. Kyle's beadhead sally nymph, pats stonefly nymph and the kreelex streamer knocked them dead! By about 1:00, the salmonflies began swarming, followed by gray drakes in the riffles, and the fishing really came uncorked...big fish up on dries in the riffles and on the banks. It was a very memorable day in the canyon. We moved fish all the way to Byington on a size 6 red Amy's Ant with a gray drake trailer. Fishing should be great all week as the bugs move up river. Here are a couple of photos from the day...a healthy male brown that fell for my Amy's Ant, and a very fat hen that absolutely hammered Stan's Amy's Ant. More soon!

South Fork Fishin'

I've been on the South Fork of the Snake the past three days, and will be on the river the next two at least. I guided on the lower river Monday, the canyon section on Tuesday and the upper section today. It has been a very mixed bag of fishing...all depending on where you float. The salmonflies have only been seen on the lower river thus far, so needless to say, that is where most of the traffic has been. On Monday, we only saw a handful of the big bugs, and no fish were eating them. We had good fishing with yellow sally nymphs, copper johns and adult drakes. The riffles were actually pretty good on gray drakes. The canyon section also fished well on the same nymphs, with better dryfly action on the drakes. There were also some PMDs getting eaten in the riffles. The upper section today was by far the slowest...lots of whitefish on nymphs and no dry action. I think that the water needs to warm, and the clarity needs to improve on the upper section before the fishing improves. Hopefully by this weekend, the salmonflies will come uncorked and they will begin moving up river. On each section I fished this week, my clients all raised fish on their orange strike indicators, so the fish appear to be ready for this hatch. The problem was that each time we switched to some big dries, they got ignored. Here's a photo of an adult salmonfly, next to a dry imitation. More soon!

Gettin' Hotter

I had a couple of days off the oars this weekend, and since there's not too much fishing other than the South Fork just yet, Rachael, Charlotte and I decided to go car camping. We had a great time up on Pacific Creek in the Bridger-Teton National Forest with some friends. The temps are getting even warmer, which should speed up the runoff a little more and maybe get some bugs movin'. I'm booked all week on the South Fork, so stay tuned for some detailed reports...hopefully the salmonflies are starting to stir! I just got an email from long-lost friend Gary Wilmott, aka "The Wedge". For those who do not know him, he's one of the greatest guides that the Snake, Green and New Fork Rivers has ever seen...no joke. He hung up his trout gear a number of years ago for Pacific Sailfish, Marlin, Tuna, Roosters and just about anything else that will eat a fly in blue water. He now resides in Costa Rica, and takes people fishing there, as well as Panama and Guatemala. He's a legend... it was great to hear from him tonight. Here's a photo of a typical Costa Rican sunset.

Lewis Lake

I guided a single angler today on Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National Park. He had hoped to do a float trip, but all of our allowed slots on the South Fork were already full. The Green and New Fork Rivers would normally be another option in late June, but they are actually still rising and nowhere near clear. It still may be ten days before we're seeing any decent fishing in Pinedale. Fishing today was fair. My sole angler fished and casted quite well, throwing a Teeny 200 grain sinking line all day with limited success. We netted two lake trout and two browns. He lost or missed another six or seven. The best fishing was in the Lewis-Shoshone channel on leech patterns. I've heard some better reports on the South Fork the last few days. The lower section of the river is nymphing very well on stonefly patterns, and there have been fish seen swiping at orange strike indicators...you know what that means. (There ready for the big bugs!). Here's a shot of a typical Lewis Lake brown taken from the channel.

Heavy Runoff

Finally, everything in the region is in full runoff. The hot days and warm nights this past week have kicked things into high gear. The Green River is over 2,000 cfs, the New Fork River is over 3,200 cfs and the Snake is over 20,000 cfs in the Snake River Canyon. Needless to say, they are all very muddy and unfishable. The only game in town right now, as far as rivers go, is the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho. It is still at 11,900 cfs and is nymphing well. Dryfly should be just around the corner...come on stoneflies! We often hit the Big Hole River in Montana this time of year to catch the salmonflies, but the bugs are still not around. The river is running almost 5,000 cfs, which is very high for late June. Rachael and I took Charlotte to Jenny Lake yesterday for her first outing in a driftboat. She did very well! We managed to land a few lake trout in the process. Here's Charlotte (6 months old) on the water! More soon.

Summer is Here

The warmer temps are finally here, along with all of the RVs. We're seeing daytime temps into the high 70's with nighttime lows now above freezing. Summer has officially started in Jackson Hole. Along with it, most of the area freestone rivers and streams have doubled in size and completely muddied up. I guided on the Green River on Monday, from campground #2 to the Daniel Fish Hatchery. The river was slightly off color and slowly rising. Fishing was surprisingly good in the afternoon. My sole client netted three measurable browns and a handful of small rainbows on chernobyl ants. It was probably the last day for awhile...the river has more than doubled in size since then and is now totally blown out. I spent today on Jenny Lake with good friend, and fellow Jack Dennis guide, Scott Smith. We had a great day of fishing, landing numerous lake trout as well as some nice cutthroat on leech patterns. Here's a photo of Scott trying to spot some fish.

Wind River Canyon

My good friend John Holland and I left town Friday night for Thermopolis Wyoming, to fish the Wind River Canyon with Darren Calhoun on Saturday. It's quite possibly one of the greatest brown trout streams in the lower forty-eight. I try to get over there a couple of times a year with Rachael or John. The river was a little higher than we would have liked...3000 cfs out of Boysen Reservoir. Typically by mid-June, the cicada hatch is popping and the river is about half that flow. Since it has been so cold, the hatch has not started yet and the downstream irrigating demands are keeping the river higher. The fishing was a little tough, but we still managed to wrangle in some nice browns on streamers and large drys. It was a great day. For more info on this incredible fishery, please click on the link for Wind River Canyon Fishing, and also check out issue 8 of This is Fly. The article Conversations With the Wind was co-written by myself and Darren Calhoun.

One Last Snow Storm

It looks like the record winter of 2007-2008 had one last punch for us this week. We've had a rain/snow mix for the last couple of days here in the valley, with significant snow accumulating in the mountains and in Yellowstone. The Green River has dropped and cleared dramatically and the South Fork now seems to be stable at 12,000 cfs. I guided on the South Fork on monday and had decent fishing with some return clients. They boated about a dozen fish, mostly rainbows, on stonefly nymphs fished deep. The biggest was this 16" bow netted by Lil Parker. Nice fish! The forecast is for much warmer weather for the weekend with a drying trend. Summer may arrive yet. I'm heading to Thermopolis to fish the Wind River Canyon with Darren Calhoun on Saturday...look out for the next report!

South Fork Turns On

I floated the South Fork of the Snake today, from Palisades Dam to Spring Creek bridge with good friends Stan Czarniak and John Holland. The flows were down to 13,200 cfs, which is a much more reasonable level. Although it is still a little fast and green in color, it actually fished quite well. We picked up a few nice browns on streamers early in the day. The streamer fishing slowed, but the nymph fishing really turned on. We boated numerous rainbows all the way down on Pat's Stonefly in a size 6. None of these broke the 16" mark. The fish of the day was a Cutthroat on Stan's line that was lost just shy of the net...it looked like it would have easily gone 20". Here is a photo of Stan with a typical South Fork rainbow. More soon!

Springtime in the Rockies

Well, the weather just does not want to cooperate. It still continues to be cool and wet here in the region. The runoff is moving very slowly still, so we're still in a holding pattern on the Snake, Green, New Fork and most of the tributaries. The good news is that the Firehole continues to fish well and there have been good reports from Jenny Lake. Scott Smith went up on tuesday and did well, netting both lake trout and some cutthroat. The salmon flies are still around on the Henry's Fork, but the water is still somewhat high and off color. Despite this, it sounds like it's been decent fishing. The South Fork peaked late last week at 19,500 cfs and they are now dropping the levels. It's at 15,500 cfs today and will hopefully go a little lower. Within the next week or so, it should turn on nicely. Stay tuned. The above picture is a beautiful South Fork cutthroat taken on an adult PMD last July.