It’s June and dare I say it even feels a bit like June at least for a few more days. The warm weather yesterday really helped the fishing, warming the water must have got the bugs and the fish moving as everything seemed a bit more active. That trend should continue through Saturday and then it looks like cooler wet weather will arrive Saturday night.
The Snake River at Alpine is flowing at about 9,000 cfs and was close to 17,000 this last weekend. I would expect inflows to bump up again with the increased snowmelt. The reservoir is currently 49% full with an outflow of 8,500 cfs.
This time of year it’s hard not to try to predict our first big hatch of the season the Giant Salmon Flies. If the Henry’s Fork is any indication the Salmon Fly hatch could be a bit late this year. Hatches on the Henry’s Fork have been about 3-6 days later than normal according to the Henry’s Fork Foundation hatch timing page. That would put the arrival of the Salmon Flies near Lorenzo right around the 24th of June or so. Of course, if we get a string of hot and sunny days this could move up. (or down if it stays cool and wet.) Keep your thermometer handy as we generally start to see the bugs emerging when the water hits 54-55 degrees.
Until then nymphs remain the best way to catch fish. Fish your favorite stonefly nymph pattern trailed by a San Juan worm, egg, or BWO nymph/emerger. Patience and persistence with a streamer will also catch fish. We have a bunch of new patterns in our Swan Valley fly shop we’d love to share everything from the down and dirty to the fancy new tungsten jigs, come see us!
*Note that there will be no fishing report next Thursday as I will be out of town but I don’t expect much to change until we see dry flies in late June.
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