Fished after work for an hour and a half last night with customer
& friend Billy O'C, and we landed about 10 trout. Not bad. All
recent stockers, but fat & hard fighters, so it was fun. Typical
fish was a 14" rainbow.Here are the main "news flashes" you need to know:
1) MDC cut release from dam from 550cfs down to 275cfs, Riverton USGS gauge is reading 291cfs this morning, and Still River is down to 165cfs, bringing total flow in TMA/C&R area down to an excellent 456cfs!
2) Other than Friday, highs will all be in the 60's-70's, and from Sunday onward in the 70's every single day!
3) The dropping flow, combined with warmer weather and no rain, means water temps will go up, and this should have the Hendrickson hatch full-blown by this weekend.
4) The state is going to stock the Catch & Release section this week with 5,000+ trout, including 1,000 larger Two Year Olds (those will average 14-18" judging from years past, and they are super FAT).
So things are looking very good indeed, and us poor suffering souls that work at UpCountry won't have to listen to everybody whine that "the water's too high!!". Thank goodness, haha. At current flows, you can access almost all of the river, and nymphs, wets, dries & streamers are all possibilities. The warmer weather here to stay now will push water temps into the 50's by the weekend, and this should get both get the Hendricksons hatching & the trout feeding more actively. The problem this March/April has been cooler than normal water temps has made the trout lethargic. That will all change now! We were seeing a few Henny's hatch starting a good week ago, but the return to colder temps stalled the hatch out. Ultimately that's a good thing, as now the flow is down and the TMA will be LOADED with trout for this weekend.
TMA/permanent
Catch & Release
section finally started to pick up a bit recently, but it will REALLY
pick up by this upcoming weekend with the water drop, TMA stocking,
warmer temps, and the Hendrickson hatch should finally get going. Best
bets currently are still nymphs & streamers, but there have been a
few fish
feeding on top in Church Pool when water levels have been normal, and
once the Hendrickson hatch gets cranking, there will be fish feeding on
top. The
permanent TMA has not yet been stocked (probably the middle of this
week though!), so you are fishing over mostly
holdover & wild trout. Some stocked trout (mostly rainbows) are
starting to drift into it too. Some nice holdovers & wild browns in
the 16-20" range were landed in TMA recently. Two 6-7# broodstock
browns were caught & released on big white streamers outside of
TMA. Seeing some Baetis Vagans (a bigger, early season #16 Blue Winged
Olive mayfly) hatching down in the C&R section. Milder weather has
slowly
but surely been making the water temps creep up closer to where they
should be, and this will make both the trout & bugs more active.
Hatches are still a week or two behind normal due to the cold winter.
Reports are still varying from slow to excellent, depending upon who you
talk to (normally the case!).
Those
who have found pods of freshly stocked trout recently
have racked up the biggest catches, but some bigger holdovers are
mixing in here & there. Fish a spot, but if it's not producing,
move on, don't linger. Lately the more water I cover lately, the better
I do. I might come up empty in 2-3 spots, and then bang fish in the
4th. Nymphs & deeply/slowly fished streamers are the most reliable
fish catchers in the cooler waters of the early season, doubly so when
flows are up. The dry fly guys have been back at it when flows have
been normal, and catching some fish at moments (ideally look for days
without much wind)- overall the dry fly fishing has been slow lately
though. This will change rapidly as water drops & warms this week,
and we
start to get into the hatch cycle. The Winter Caddis (AM) are waning
but you may still see some, in the afternoons you should see Oives
(#16-18 Baetis Vagans), Midges (#20-28) & still a few Early Black
Stones
(#12-16). I would guess the Hendricksons will be a full-blown hatch by this weekend.
Subsurface, try fishing Hendrickson nymphs, Bruce Marino & Rich Strolis both tie us DEADLY
nymps for this- ask and we will point you toward them. Hendrickson
nymphs catch me a lot of BIG trout in April/May. A bigger #12-14
Pheasant Tail can also work well. Hendrickson Nymph patterns can also
pull double-duty as early season stoneflies. #16 Olive nymphs imitating
Baetis Vagans are also a good choice now, they are just starting up.
Early Black & Early Brown Stoneflies (sz 12-16), Pheasant Tails (sz
12-18), olive/green caddis larva (sz 8-16), cased caddis larva (sz
8-16), midge larva/pupa (sz 16-20, especially in red), attractor nymphs
(sz 12-18 in Red Headed Stepchild, Copper Johns, blue Lightning Bugs,
Yellow Prince, Rainbow Warrior, and egg flies (sz 10-18) are still a
good choice. Don't be afraid
to fish some some gaudier/flashy/attractor-type nymphs, the trout
sometimes show a preference for them, doubly true for recently stocked
trout.
If
you are fishing streamers, try all sorts of retrieves &
presentations from slow to fast, the trout will tell you how they want
it if you listen to them. Try using a floating line and
slowly bouncing/hopping a weighted Fishskull Skulpin Bunny on the
bottom- use a 0x-2x tippet with this pattern & method, that fly is
heavily front-weighted and rides hook point up. If you are using
unweighted or lightly weighted streamers, use something to get them
down- sinking line, sink-tip line, sinking leader, or split shot. Slow
& deep is typically the name of the game in early spring, until
water temps get over
50 degrees and stay there (anytime now).
-Torrey