Welcome to this week’s fishing report. Most notably, the river is up this week an additional 2,000 cfs to a manageable 16,000 cfs. Inflow into Palisades Reservoir is way up as the warm weather melts the snow in the surrounding mountains. The Snake River above Palisades Reservoir rose from 9,000 cfs on May 3rd to almost 20,000 cfs today.
Fishing has been productive this week as we’ve seen the water out of Palisades clear a fair amount and now have several feet of visibility. Tributary streams, such as Palisades Creek, Rainey Creek, etc. are flowing high and off color. We will see the water out of Palisades continue to clear as the reservoir fills.
We’ve actually seen some sporadic dry flies this week; Blue Winged Olives, Skwala Stones, and Callibaetis but for best results, it’s still a sub-surface game. Our guides have been fishing Rubber Leg Stonefly patterns with a San Juan Worm trailing in the canyon and fishing a Rubber Legs with an egg dropper on the upper section. Justin Hays, our manager was out on the river this week did well throwing streamers. The streamers in the shop continue to turn heads. The Baby Ganga and Mini-Dungeon in olive were the top producers.
The fishing could be quite good this weekend but if you’re out on the water take precautions for the very wet and cold weather headed this way. A winter storm warning was just issued for Yellowstone where up to 20″ could fall..yikes!
If you need to warm up, stop by the shop we just got a whole shipment of goodies including new nets and the largest selection of hats in the lower 48!
This Week’s Top Flies
- Egg patterns
- San Juan Worms
- Rubber Leg Stonefly Nymphs
- Olive Streamers