Thank you as always for checking in on this week’s fishing report, published every Thursday afternoon.
River Flow: Palisades reservoir is 83% full. The outflow came down just a bit from 9,700 cfs to 9,500 cfs. The water coming out of the dam is cold and clear…two of the best things for bugs and trout.
Weather: Today is probably the day to be out if you’re lucky enough to be able to hit the river during the workweek, the clouds today should really help keep the fish looking up. We had just a few clouds out and about yesterday afternoon and the dry fly fishing ebbed and flowed with the cloud cover. The forecast for the weekend looks to be warm and sunny.
Fishing and Flies: Fishing remains good to excellent depending on your location, time of day, etc. We are seeing our annual “second wave” of Golden Stones making their way upriver with the fishing from Heise to Lorenzo really picking up this week. The rest of the river you’ll still find Golden Stones, a few Yellow Sallies and good hatches of PMD’s and a few Mahogany Duns. Riffle fishing has been very good especially if you’re good at fishing small emergers. Dry/dropper rigs are popular for banks and foam lines and during the heat of the day, a two fly nymph rig might be necessary. I’ve said this before but I like to keep 2 or 3 rods rigged. One rod with a dry/dropper, one with 2 nymphs and a strike indicator, and one rod with a small dry fly trailed with a PMD emerger. This way you can fish a bushy bank with the dry/dropper, switch to the small dries for a riffle, and then the nymph rod for the deep holes behind the riffle…deadly.
- Dry Flies – Golden Stones, PMD’s, Caddis, Yellow Sallies and Mahogany Duns.
- Nymphs – Bead head and jig style pheasant tails, durcells etc. Come by the shop and we’ll set you up with the best ones.
- Streamers – The small fly fishing has been so good that we haven’t had too many reports on streamers. That being said early morning or late into the evening, a streamer is always a good play for a trophy fish.
Come visit us at the shop or call if you need anything 208.483.2222. Our fly shop is fully stocked with all the flies you might need for a successful day and all the other gear you might need. Thanks for reading and have a good time on the water.