Flows this week are up from the 900 cfs “winter flow” to about 2,200 cfs and are expected to be 4,000 cfs by the weekend.
In the short term…this weekend…this may slow fishing down as the fish generally don’t respond well to change. On the flip side more water is a really good thing and the fish have to be happy to have more territory to roam, feed, hide from predators, etc. If you are out on the river this weekend you best bet will be nymphs similar to previous posts. I’m sure I’d have a San Juan worm as one of my flies as anytime the flows go up the fish will be looking for them.
Keep your eyes peeled for spawning rainbows and cutthroat so as to not step on, or drop your anchor on their spawning beds. This is a great time of year to target rainbows if you like to keep a few.
Once the flow stabilizes we are in for a several weeks of fantastic pre-season fishing.