The September heat wave seems to be over. I think everyone is happy about that, fish and anglers alike. The South Fork faired the heat well with water temperatures cool and clear. Certainly, some of those hot afternoons were tough but hopper dropper rigs and other terrestrials kept fish coming up. Guides and Anglers who got out on the river early were rewarded by skating mutant golden stones.
Fishing will improve as the weather cools this weekend and rain in the forecast next week should bring our first Fall mayflies out, Blue Winged Olives and Mahogany Duns. I’d venture to guess the cloud cover should make the streamer fishing quite good as well.
The annual Jackson Hole One Fly tournament will be happening this weekend on the Snake River and The South Fork. It’s fun to look back at flies that have won the competition in the past for hints on what to maybe fish this weekend. Here’s the list. How about a Barret’s Ant with the Crystal Frenchie as a dropper? Maybe the Rusty Spinner to that picky fish in a foam line? So many fun things to try.
One last thing to consider if you’re out this weekend. Just like shopping for a house, it’s all location, location, location. The fish have been pushed around all summer and many have settled into places where they aren’t being bothered by anglers. Nymph a deep hole, maybe deeper than you’ve ever tried, walk up or down some side channel you’ve never fished. Is there a bush that’s really hard to fish under? Try sinking a streamer way under that bush where nobody has cast before. Did you float by some sexy log or rock but you couldn’t get a cast into it? It’s probably worth anchoring your boat and walking back up to that spot to give it a try. When I guided full time I used to save several sneaky spots just for the One Fly weekend these were places that were hard to get to that other anglers ignored but that I knew had a fish or two. This sometimes meant rowing way up a back channel or getting out of the boat and walking to a little side channel, holding the boat on a fast bank so you could fish behind a rock that nobody else could.
Have a great weekend on the river!
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