This week’s fishing report can be summed up by two things I overheard our manager, Justin Hays say this week. When the water went up to 19,000 a few days ago he said “Worm em’ deep boys” and today when the water went to 20,000 cfs he simply said. “Dam”. I don’t think any of us saw the water hitting 20,000 cfs this year but with a rain on snow event last week and then warm weather more water came out of the mountains than water managers must have thought. For an average snow year I certainly wasn’t expecting it.
On the bright side, the flows coming into Palisades have peaked with graphs dropping on the Snake, Salt, and Greys rivers. With approximately 25,000 cfs still coming into Palisades and the pool sitting at 97% hopefully 20,000 will be the peak but if things get much closer we could see another bump. Hang in there we are so close now to amazing fishing as soon as the flows start to drop the action is going to pick up quickly.
For this weekend if you do venture out on the South Fork please be careful. The Snake River always demands respect but especially at these flows, there really isn’t any margin for error. As in previous weeks keep running the big ugly stuff (Stonefly Nymphs, Worms, Eggs, Mop flies, etc.) long leaders, split shot, and the slowest water you can find are the best recipe for success.
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