How is it already September? Sure hasn’t felt like it yet with the summer like temperatures we’ve been having. Fishing has remained good, as predicted the great flows out of Palisades have kept the water clear and cold and both the fish and bugs love it.
This time of year we like to joke that “The fishing is spotty, good thing our guides know where all the good spots are!” It’s true any time of year, but especially this time of year that the more days on the water you have the more you’ll know about where the fish are hiding. Our guides have been out on the river a lot and this time of year they’ll be focusing on banks, foam lines, and riffles that they know produce fish. Not every riffle will have a good hatch of PMD’s but some still do. Same for certain banks, some have fish that are willing to hit a golden stone or hopper while other areas the fish just aren’t there or aren’t willing.
With the One-Fly competition going on this weekend our guides have been experimenting a lot with various patterns to find “The one” we’ll report back next week on the winning flies. In the mean time hopper dropper rigs or mutant golden stones with a dropper are top producing rigs (have you fished the Circus Peanut? Come by the shop to pick some up.) We’re also seeing fish feeding on PMD’s and Caddis in the riffles. A caddis dry fly with a PMD emerger in the riffles has worked well as have flying ants and beetles. We’ve also had good reports of streamer fishing in the evenings.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we transition to Fall weather fishing will improve even more with Mahogany Duns, BWO’s, and an increase in the streamer action.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Idaho Fish and Game’s efforts to protect Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout in the South Fork here’s a great article we’d like to share.