Another Great Week

This past week on the Snake river was fantastic. I saw some of the best fishing of the year so far on our river. Much larger fish were showing up in main river riffles and just about every other spot that they should be holding in. Small parachute attractors in the mornings and large ants in the afternoons have been moving nice fish. Area tributaries are also on fire, with lower river levels concentrating more fish. I have not heard yet what the Bureau of Reclamation's schedule will be on lowering the flows out of Jackson Lake Dam. With fishing so good right now, I can't wait to see what it will fish like with flows lowered in half. Liz McCabe and I popped into a sidechannel on Monday and had the chance to get very close to this Bald Eagle...a great sight! Back at it again tomorrow...heading over to Dubois to guide a trip on the Wind River. The hopper fishing over there is still holding on. I'll hopefully have a good report on the next post. If you have not been fishing much this season, now is the time to get out there and experience catching a native Snake River Cutty like this one.

The Fall Hatch

With the flip of a switch this week, we've gone from Summer to early Fall around here. Temperatures have cooled and the foliage is really taking off in Teton Park. Cottonwoods, Aspens and river bottom Willows are all starting to turn gold. The thick clouds and rain that we saw on Friday brought the first decent Fall hatch on the Snake; Mahoganies and Drakes began pouring off in the afternoon, and there were eager Cutthroat up all over the place taking advantage. My clients decided to stick it out and brave the weather, and it really paid off. If you are out there in these conditions in the next few weeks, just make sure to park on a riffle and look for these Mayflies. The Snake is still running a steady 4,330 cfs at Moose, which is still significantly higher than normal for this time of year. Whenever the powers-that-be decide to lower our river below Jackson Lake Dam, I think we are going to see some ridiculous fishing. I would imagine that we will still see these flows for at least two more weeks. As soon as I hear something, I will let you know. I had a great day on the river from Moose to Wilson on Wednesday with Jackson Hole legend Liz McCabe. This was the first day this season that I had Liz in my boat, and she did great. She fished a Parachute Hare's Ear for almost eight hours, and kicked butt! Not bad for someone who turned 100 years old last February. Nice fish Liz! Fishing with someone that has as much zeal for life and fly fishing as Liz does is just incredible.

7th Place

The 26th annual Jackson Hole One Fly took place this past weekend, and I was fortunate to be able to participate in it as an angler on the Summit Capital team. I joined Peter Chung, John Holland and Jon Wylie in this charity event supporting local stream improvement projects and conservation. We had a great weekend and placed 7th overall, out of 40 teams. I fished one day on the Snake from West Table to Sheep Gulch (the whitewater section), and fished a streamer. It's a fast, fun section to fish, especially with a wet fly. I rarely get to fish this section, since I row a low-profile skiff...a high-sided dory or raft is needed to safely float this piece of water. I was able to bring 200 points to the table. My day on the South Fork Canyon was the real highlight. On the oars was veteran South Fork Outfitters guide Sue Talbot; she helped me to a 518 point day! A large, brown Chernobyl Ant did just the trick. The fishing was good, I had the right fly, and most importantly, a great guide. Thanks again Sue!! Although Westbank Anglers guide John "Kiwi" Gendall won the overall top guide award for the weekend, Jack Dennis guide and friend Ed Dutilly guided the best score on Sunday on the Snake. He crushed it from Moose to Wilson, guiding his anglers to numerous fish between 18" and 21". Nice work Ed!! Not much else to report. I was back at it on the Snake today, and fishing was good. Despite the angling pressure this weekend, there were still plenty of fish around ready to eat. Today's photos: Angler Ted Thranhardt with a beautiful 20" Brown Trout that fell for a large dry fly. (Any guesses where we were fishing??). Gearing up at the South Fork lodge during the One Fly; Sue Talbot keeping us right where we needed to be. More soon...

One Fly Week

We are now one week away from the 2011 Jackson Hole One Fly. Forty teams of four will compete on the Snake and South Fork Rivers with their "One Fly" against Cutthroat, Rainbow and Brown Trout. Starting over 25 years ago with just a couple of teams, it has grown into the major fundraising event in this region to help support fisheries projects and protect wild trout. (Check out their mission statement below) I've guided in ten of these events over the years and have had the chance to fish in it once. I am lucky enough again this year to be able to put down the oars and grab the rod with my buddies Peter Chung, John Holland and Jon Wylie in the hopes of improving our 9th place finish from two years ago. Wish us luck!

Although still running high, the Snake continues to fish well. Fish are eating a variety of attractors in sidechannels and in the main river. We have also just had our first few mornings of very cold temperatures. Fall is in the air, and I've even found a few fish looking for some of our local fall Mayfly patterns. Although I've seen none hatch yet, Drakes and Hecubas are already raising a few nice fish...they are on the hunt for them. Make sure to get out of the boat and check the soft water.
The South Fork finally has some fish looking up in riffles and on the banks. Try PMD adults and emergers, as well as Mahoganies. Good luck to all of the guides and anglers this weekend in the One Fly! Still not sure what fly I'll be fishing...I'll let you know. Here's a shot of the first 20" Cutthroat that I have seen on the Snake this summer, landed by angler Dan Beistel. This beauty fell for a large Chernobyl Ant in a main river riffle. Nice fish Dan! Also, a cow and calf Moose crossing the river just below Moose, Wyoming.

Reading Water

What does it mean to be a fly fishing guide? To an outsider taking a quick glance, it may look like a job where someone just "takes" a couple of anglers fishing for the day. Upon closer inspection, one realizes the breadth of tasks that a guide endures day in and day out. During a typical guided fly fishing trip, most fly fishing guides act as chauffeurs, food servers, skilled oarsmen, casting instructors, mending instructors, knot tiers, fly selectors, tangle experts, story tellers and therapists. In addition to all of this, we spend most of our day "reading water", and telling our anglers exactly where to cast. In fact, this is arguably the most important skill in fly fishing. A perfect cast, with the perfect fly, with a perfect drift over the wrong water will not net you a fish. Ninety percent of trout typically live in only ten percent of the water. Identifying, or "reading" this water is crucial to being successful. Over the past week, I had the chance to guide many skilled anglers on the Green River, the Snake River and the Wind River. All of these rivers were fishing well, with eager trout looking for dry flies in just the right spots. Many of my recent clients exhibited great casting and mending skills, but lacked in understanding how to read water. As I am rowing the river, I am always looking ahead to the next spot to have my clients cast their fly. Conveying the exact spot to both anglers while rowing can be difficult. Often, it takes numerous casts for the fly to finally hit the desired target, and by then, it is often too late. I guess the realization I had this week was that even when I get to guide an angler with a true expert level of casting and mending, if they can't read the water, it can still be very tough. Teaching someone how to read water is very difficult; the best way to learn, is to fish as much as possible with trial and error. Check out Reading The Water, by Dave Hughes...it's a great handbook that every fly fisher should have in his or her library.

For anyone interested, my buddy Mark Ditzler has a great website showing off some of his glass fish art. Check it out. Finally, enjoy this photo of a 26" Brown Trout netted in the Wind River Canyon (via one of Darren Calhoun's great guides), caught by my buddy John Holland. I'd say John can read water reasonably well. Great fish H-Bomb!!

The Snake Is On

I've just wrapped up a very consistent week of guiding on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. Despite the fact that the river is still running a bit high (4,600 cfs at Moose), the dry fly fishing has been very good. Reports from below Wilson have also been solid. If you do venture below Moose, the river is moving quite fast...make sure to walk the many new sidechannels. I've found Cutthroat from 8" up to 18" eating the usual suspects: Chernobyl Ants, Hoppers and large mayfly attractors. I had another lucky day on the Green River yesterday. Clouds in the morning produced some fantastic fishing for larger Brown Trout. If you can order up some dark skies, drop a Copper John under a large ant and hold on tight.
The South Fork continues to nymph very well, but where are the dries? Hopefully it will pop soon over there. Here's a couple of photos from the week. Lisa Smith with a great Snake River Cutty, as well as my good buddy and One Fly teammate Peter Chung with a typical Green River Brown Trout.

Can't We All Get Along?

The Snake River through Grand Teton National Park is probably one of the prettiest and most unique places around to take a float fishing trip. The special use permit that we operate under (via Jack Dennis) allows me to take commercial trips here and show anglers the beauty of the Tetons while throwing flies to native trout. Many other users also enjoy the water every day, including people in kayaks, rafts, and private fishing boats. There is also a heavy presence of scenic float trips. Private companies offer raft trips down the same sections of river that we guide on, looking for wildlife and admiring the Tetons. Over the years, many of the fishing guides have experienced at least some difficulty working side by side with these commercial rafts. There has been an unspoken rivalry between between us, whereby the fishing guides are often left to feel like the commercial guides are the ones that "own" the river and its boat ramps. Small confrontations happen a few times a summer between the guides on the river, and in parking areas. Sadly, I was the random victim of vandalism on Friday, when after parking my truck and trailer at Moose (to float down to Wilson), someone in the commercial parking lot drained one of my tires, and located my hidden shuttle key and discarded it. Apparently, someone else using that parking facility has not been happy with the way in which the commercial fishing guides have been parking there. It was a totally pathetic move, and can't imagine how someone gets to a point where they would attack someone's vehicle. Upon arriving in Wilson, my clients and I were left with no vehicle, and a message from my shuttle driver that my truck had been disabled. Not a great way to end the day. To all my fellow guides reading this: be aware! I know that we will continue to use the river and its boat ramps with the highest of standards, and would never stoop to such a level. If by some stroke of luck the person that did this is reading my blog, could you just simply let us know what the problem is with our parking? Thanks...



I was fortunately able to spend the day Saturday not thinking about this entire situation. Instead, I was thinking about the stellar fishing I was having on my day off with my buddy Stan Czarniak. Here's a few shots from our marathon float. More soon!

Fishin' In The 80's

Even though we are now entering the second week of August, area rivers are fishing like it is still early July. Although local rivers have dropped and cleared significantly over the past few weeks, they are all still running much higher than average for this date, and many of them are still far from clear. The Snake River below Jackson Lake Dam is running at 2,840 cfs, which is a great level. The water is crystal clear all the way to the confluence of the Buffalo Fork. The problem is that the Buffalo is still adding about 1,000 cfs right now and is running very silty. The average flow for the Buffalo for this date is only about 400 cfs. This is still making the Snake a very large river now. I fished today from Pacific Creek to Deadman's, and it was tough. Although we had good action on dry flies, all of the fish were very small. We did not hook, miss, spook or roll a fish over about 12". Although the Green is still fishing well, it is also running high for the date at about 900 cfs, where the average is about 500 cfs. The folks over in Idaho have finally lowered the South Fork levels to reasonable 9,000 cfs...we should see the dry fly action spark any day now over there.

I got a chance to head over to the Wind River last week to float below Dubois. As you may know, Darren Calhoun and Wind River Canyon Whitewater holds the only permit to drift and fish the Wind River below Dubois on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Darren is allowing me the chance to run a few trips over there this year with some select clients! I spent the day with Darren and two of his top guides, Cale and Marco. We made a reconnaissance run, checking out the water and a few of the boat launches. The river is still a bit too high to fish, but we had a great day anyway. Marco and Cale are great guys. Hanging with other guides for the day is a great way to learn new techniques, and discover new ways at guiding humor. One of the hardest thing to teach anglers in a driftboat is to cast forward...ahead of the boat. While Marco was on the oars with me in the back seat, Cale accidentally cast upstream into my water. Marco promptly told Cale to stop "fishing in the 80's". (It's in the past). Very funny stuff! Here's a shot from the back seat of one of Darren's boats. More soon...

A Welcome Monsoon

I just finished up a couple of days on the river with the Strazerri group. These guys come from San Diego a few times a year to throw some flies and enjoy Jackson. We hit the Upper South Fork yesterday pretty hard. The fishing over there is still not great. The flows remain at a pushy 13,500 cfs which make it a hard row to keep the boat where it needs to be. On top of that, the water is still very cloudy. We managed to nymph up a few fish, including a 16" Rainbow. We threw a large dry fly for the late-afternoon, and got a handful of Cutthroat to fall for it, with a 16" fish being the largest. We did not get a single fish in the riffles, which is usually the hot spot by late July. Not sure when the South Fork is going to pop.
We made our plans last night to head down to Pinedale and fish the Green today. The first day of August brought us some great weather to Western Wyoming...the Monsoon Flow. What does this mean? Well...we woke up today to thick clouds and light rain. The jet-stream changed and brought us a full day of clouds and moisture. My frequent readers probably know just how much I like cloudcover on the Green, especially after a 3-week run of sunshine and hot weather. The dry fly fishing really popped today, with plenty of Brown Trout looking up. Drakes and Chernobyl Ants did the trick. It looks like more of the Monsoon for this week, so hopefully the fishing holds up. The Snake looks like it is almost ready to go below Pacific Creek. I bet we are on it by next week. Here's my buddy Steve Mancini with a pair of beauties from today...a 21" and 20" Brown Trout that fell for dry flies in the rain. Great day today Steve! More soon!

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.