Photogenic rainbow by my buddy Fred Stengel last week, the heavy spotting reminds me of an Alaskan 'bow . Looking like a very pleasant mid-November day, with sunshine and highs in the mid 50's predicted, not too shabby. We will average in the 50's through Friday, and then in the mid 40's after that. Olives will continue to be the main hatch this month, make sure you match their diminutive size- anywhere from #22-28, with #24-26 being the most common. And yes, in this case, yes size matters, Lol. If you are tying nymphs to match them and fish subsurface, a shorter-shank #18-20 hook is usually plenty small enough in my experiene. On the surface though, match the size! Winter Caddis #18-24 are hatching most mornings, they will actually get heavier as we move into December.You may still see some #16-18 Tan Caddis on milder days and some smaller #14-16 Iso's (they will look more like a big Blue Wing Olive), but both hatches are light now and near the end. Some people are still catching with big October Caddis dries. Water temps are averaging 45-50 degrees, so you can aggressively fish your streamers looking for the big grab. Water level is a nice wadeable
250cfs total flow in the permanent Catch & Release area, with 196cfs
from the dam in Riverton. MDC just emailed us to say that they are bumping the release up by an additional 22cfs at 9am, this will put us at a total flow of just over 270cfs. Rain predicted for Thursday should help maintain a healthy & normal water flow for a while. If you are nymphing, make certain to fish #14-18 egg flies (yellow, pink, orange), as well as some smaller nymphs in the #16-20 range- Flashback WD-40's, Zebra Midges (black, olive), and Pheasant Tails are all good choices now.Other suggested flies include the following nymphs: Yellow Stoneflies #8-16, Black Stoneflies 8-14, Fox Squirrel Nymph #12, Squirmy Worms #10-14 (red, tan, pink), Hot Spot Baetis #16-20, Blue Wing Olive #16-22, Rainbow Warrior #16-18, Tan Caddis Pupa #14-16, Green/Olive Caddis Larva #14-16, Pheasant Tails #16-22, Prince Nymph #12-14. Play with colors on your streamers, lately some of the better ones have been brown/yellow, olive, yellow, and brown. Nothing lighter than 2-3x on your streamers, and go heavier if you are tossing big ones. 5x fluoro is a good average for your nymphs, and 5x-7x tippet for your dries (depending upon size), with 6-7x being more the norm right now due to the small size of the flies & flat water they hatch on. Long tippets help with both dries & nymphs: it will give you "S" curves to get a drag-free float with dries, and it will sink faster with less weight when nymphing.
From now until April 2016, we close at 5pm every day. Our rental apartment is now closed for the season, and will be available again starting in April 2015