Salmon River:
Hey all, after a long week of cold weather and moisture were ready to settle into summer. The river levels have stayed pretty consistent through the rain, flows have ebbed and flowed around 4ft, blow outs were minimal and seemed to clear relatively fast. As temps begin to rise we anticipate the fishing to pick back up where we left off. We hope to see some big bugs come back to play but for now we are seeing strong caddis hatches when the sun pops and we should be seeing more Sally’s as the temps ramp up. PMD’s have been about, mostly in the evenings along side those caddis. Ammo, lots of nymphing the past week. Girdle bugs, anything purple, prince’s, you name It and we have been fishing it. I’d still be using a big chubby or water walker as a bobber, they still occasionally get eaten, even in the doom and gloom. Streamer bite remains solid. We have been dropping in streamer size though, think Gulpin Sculpin instead of Dungeon. Another thing to note, stocking has started in full force, multiple sections of the Salmon River received thousands of rainbow. If you need a confidence boost fish closer to town or tune out and fish Valley Creek.
Lakes:
Alpine fishin. Our high elevation lakes are starting to get a little more consistent but it’s still on the early side. We also received fresh snow up in them there hills, fish will still be a bit lethargic. When fishing alpine lakes I’d start with inlets, always start with Inlets. After the inlets move to drop-offs. Most folks tend to walk up to a lake and cast towards the middle, not the right move. Fish tend to cruise shoals, weed-beds and Rocky drop-offs often circling those areas for a good chunk of the day. Another good focus area for mid day would be the outlets. Dry fly fishing will ramp up much later in the evening. Typically around 7 or so the valley calms and the lakes get glassy, that’s when I’d break out the Purple Craze, Adam’s or Mosquito.
Tributaries:
For you small water and creek guys, get after it! Yankee Fork, Bear Valley, headwaters, etc are all fishing well. Levels are settled and people are reporting great success. Keep your fly patterns on the smaller side but otherwise business as usual. Middle Fork trips are also fishing great and you can throw slightly larger patterns, 12’s and 10’s, stimulators, ants, beetles, small hoppers should find you fish.
Middle Fork:
The Middle Fork is fishing very well. We are still throwing Salmon flies and Golden Stones, the wet weather required the occasional dropper but as the weather gets nicer I’d stick to big ole dries. You don’t have to throw only foam, orange stimi’s, parachute hoppers, norm woods etc. will all get eaten. Bring some micro chubbies or ants for those tributary side quests and smaller dries for camp fishing.
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