Stanley Fishing Report 7/1/2019
Middle Fork of the Salmon, ID
Well folks, it looks like summer has finally begun. We’ve had some nice days recently, but a few rainstorms and even some snow showed up throughout the month of June. High fast water and cold temps were keeping the fishing action a little slower paced. Anyway, the great news about the slower snowmelt in June is that we have plenty of water for floating and it could be sustained at a perfect level for a while here. Additionally, the colder weather slowed down some of the hatch activity, but during the forecasted warmer weather there will be plenty of bugs out on the river.
Golden Stoneflies are still on the menu and make for a pretty good searching pattern when you aren’t seeing fish rising. Stimulators or my favorite the Gould’s Half Down Stone should do the trick. We’ve also seen a fair amount of Pale Morning Duns churning around on the water in addition to some smaller caddis. Yellow sallies are out and about too. Look for the yellow sallies golden stones to start egg laying when the air temp is warmer. That will really get the fish going.
Alpine lakes should be clear of ice up to about 8,500’. I’d be ready to implement a variety of tactics on the lakes depending on the time of day and light conditions. Stripped buggers or slow retrieved nymphs should be good until you start seeing fish rise. Smaller parachute adams or attractor flies should get eats when they are surface oriented in the afternoon.
The Middle Fork fished really well this last week and I anticipate that will be the case for a while. Lot’s of bug activity going on out there too. Again Golden Stones and Yellow Sallies are great for fishing from the boat. Bigger Caddis in the AM hours as well. Don’t forget to look around at the scenery every now and then. Several of our biggest fish were caught when our clients were looking around at the landscape and towing the fly behind the boat.
Enjoy the fishing out there and be sure to swing by and look at our selection of flies and gear for your next outing.
-Troy Staker, Salmon River Angler Lead Guide