Flows this week are up to 14,500 cfs as water managers make room for this Spring’s runoff. The average for today is about 8,600 cfs and last year flows peaked last year 13,700 cfs and our average peak is in Mid-June at 15,160 cfs. All this is to say we’ve got a lot of water coming out of the dam. With this flow combined with tributary run-off the river is cold and increasingly off-color.
The weather is looking pretty nice on Friday and Saturday, with moisture and cooler temperatures forecasted for Sunday. Saturday looks like a beautiful day to be on the river. Fishing will be challenging and like previous reports this year there are three things to be thinking about.
- Be careful: High flows and cold water means rowers should be extra aware of conditions and be confident in their boating skills.
- Focus on the slow water: Trout congregate in slower moving water even water that isn’t moving when the flows are high. It’s just too tough to expend that much energy so they will be living in back eddies, slow riffles, side channels, backwaters, behind logs, rocks, etc.
- Down and Dirty: Do you have a worm pattern in your box that you feel a little guilty about tying on? That’s probably your best bet, combined with a shamefully large and obnoxious stonefly nymph. The same goes for streamers. Is it so big and bright it looks like your casting a canary? That’s the one that will get their attention!
Have fun out there and if you need a worm or canary fly, swing by our Fly Shop in Swan Valley and let us hook you up.
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