It’s nearly here, the historical weekend opener of the South Fork of the Snake and the official kick-off to summer, Memorial Day Weekend. If you’ve spent time outdoors in Idaho on Memorial Day Weekend’s before then without looking at the forecast you’d be packing a raincoat, warm hat, gloves, etc. but the forecast this year is looking pretty amazing with highs in Swan Valley in the 70’s peaking at 77 on Monday. It’s going to a great weekend to be outside and go fishing.
Warm temperatures and a stable flow of 11,469 cfs will be good for the fishing this weekend. The cool/wet weather we had earlier this week brought of some good BWO hatches and our guides reported some good but spotty dry fly fishing. With warmer weather, those hatches will probably dwindle. Today is the last day of the Idaho Fish & Game’s Electrofishing and that should improve the fishing on the upper river. The canyon stretch and lower river below Byington have been having the best fishing this week.
Nymphs and streamers are still the top choices. Depending on the weather in the coming weeks we could see Salmon Flies as early as the 3rd week in June, but we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime fishing two nymphs below a strike indicator is the tactic of choice. Rubberlegs, San Juan Worms, Egg patterns, BWO nymphs, and Midge nymphs are performing. One of our guides was checking rocks on section 3 this week and found several large Green Drake nymphs so those are an option on the lower river. Streamer fishing can be effective. Keep your streamers low and slow as the water is still very cold keeping the fish less active.
Our new fly shop in Swan Valley is having a sale on select flies; 12 flies for $12.99 come in and check them out.
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