We are experiencing the calm before the runoff here in the valley for the first half of this week. However later in the week the river began to roar! The weather has been in the lower and mid 70’s earlier this week and dropping to the high 50’s by Sunday. The fishing earlier this week until Sunday has been productive as the fish are hungry. The water is the perfect off color and the “W” factor has been at a minimum. The flows started this week at 1,050 cfs at Kirby and 2,100 cfs at Cameron from the 6th to the 9th, however with the warmer weather on the 8th and 9th we started to see a dramatic increase in flows from the 10th-13th. The flows increased over 3 days from 1,050cfs to 2,900cfs at Kirby and 2,180cfs to 5,400cfs at Cameron. So to say that the river was dramatically impacted by the jump in flows which we are seeing mainly coming from our tributaries. By the 13th the dam is full at Hebgen and we saw a large increase due to releasing water from the dam. Due to these changing water conditions from the first part of the week we had good conditions for floating and fishing and by the end of the week very challenging floating conditions (to impassable from Lyons Bridge to Palisades due to the inability to get under Wolf Creek Bridge and Sun West Ranch Bridge) however, good fishing wading from the banks, especially from Raynolds Bridge to Lyons Bridge, as the water rises into the banks the fish are pushed into the deeper calmer water on the banks, stack up like cordwood and are ridiculously hungry!! Early in the week we saw a very productive streamer bite but as the water became dirtier the darker color Nymphs, Leeches, Worms and Egg patterns were the ticket to big fish! The pictures, as Paul Harvey would say, tell “the rest of the story!”
Nymphs: Delektable Hammerhead STBH Holo Silver #16-#18, Delektable Prince Brandon #10-#18, Delektable Lil’ Spanker Pheasant Tail #10-#16, BH Guides Choice Hares Ear #12-#18, Delektable Guide Stone Black #10-#14, Delektable BH Black Stoner #4-#8, Tungsten BH Blow Torch #14-#18, Tungsten BH Jiggy Frenchie #14-#18.
Streamers: Delektable Single Screamer/SS Double Screamer/SS Triple Screamer Yellow, White/Olive, Black/Olive, Brown/Yellow #6, Sparkle Minnow Black Fish Skull #4, Dali Llama White/Olive #6, Zonker Yellow, White, Natural #6.
Dries: Delektable Twisted Baby Brown #10-#16, Purple Haze Split Wing Parachute #12-#16, Parachute Adams Spark Purple #12-#18, Delektable CDC Elk Hair Caddis Tan, Olive, Cinnamon #14-#18, Delektable Root Beer Float Emerger Brown #16-#18.
