With the 4th of July only 2 days away, we are still dealing with runoff in Eastern Idaho/Western Wyoming. After receiving almost three weeks of heavy rains, area rivers and streams are all extremely high. In fact, the South Fork of the Snake, which typically runs somewhere between 10 and 12,000 CFS during the summer, is flowing at 22,600 CFS this morning! Water is usually a scarce resource in this part of the West, but that is not the case this year. Check out this chart http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/burtea.cfm illustrating the water storage capacity on the regional reservoirs - We may never see it look like this again in our lifetimes!
A 20+ inch Cutthroat gulps mayflies on a local lake
A happy angler admires his catch, a sweet 14 inch Brookie
With all that said, we are going to have plenty of water for the second season in a row, and that means happy bugs, happy fish, and happy fishermen! September and October are going to be great months for trout fishing in the West. In the meantime, The Henry's Fork continues to fish well with numerous hatches, including Green and Grey Drakes and Caddis. Yellowstone National Park is fishing well too. Rivers like the Firehole, Madison and Gibbon are seeing some good dry fly action, and lakes such as Lewis and Hebgen are also fishing well. I just returned from fishing the Beaverhead and Big Hole rivers near Dillon MT; Both are fishing very well right now. Not far from there on the Madison river there are reports of salmonflies hatching daily.
A nice Henry's Fork Brown
As the South Fork drops, we should see some great streamer fishing leading up to the much anticipated summer dry fly season. There's a lot of great fishing on the way and I will try to keep you updated throughout the summer. Get out there and fish!
We'd like to that all that came out to the shop on Saturday for the presentation put on by Jerry Darkes. For those who missed out, Jerry hosted a warm water fly fishing presentation and fly tying presentation in the shop. Everyone that attended left with great information and fly patterns to take directly to the river to start catching warm water species on the fly! We'd like to thank all who attended and we look forward to seeing you at the next event. Everyone there received 20% off our already low price on all fly tying materials! Great time to get started tying those amazing tube flies that Jerry was tying!
We also had the FULL LINE of the latest Orvis Helios rods for a casting demo! Everyone that took the rods out for a test drive received a cool FREE Orvis Helios shirt! Thanks again for your continued support of Chagrin River Outfitters.
Stop over to our website to sign up for our email list here. Each month we send out email with the latest information at CRO, upcoming schedule, and coupons for use in the shop. Sign up now!
On our trip to the MV we had the opportunity to fish with Captain Jamie Boyle on Saturday and as always he put us on the fish in a big way. Jamie is one of the best guides/captains i have had the pleasure to fish with whether for Stripers or Tarpon and would recommend him to anyone heading to the Vineyard looking to try their luck with the long rod in the salt.
34# striper
We had great boat fishing on Saturday and then switched gears to surf fishing from the shore for the remainder of the trip. The surf fishing was very productive in some areas and just ok in others but over all we caught plenty of fish and had a great time on the rock.
My brother Jeff with his personal best fly caught striper 28#'s.
Don't forget to stop by the shop on Sat. June 27th for our warm water fly fishing day with Jerry Darkes. Jerry will be doing a slide show, talking abouit warm water fly lines, and tying some of his secret tube flies. Things will kick off around 9:30 with the slide show and go from there.
After a few weeks of snow and rain things are finally starting to feel a bit like summer here in the Bighorn mountains of northern Wyoming. We're still in the midst of runoff, but the water making its way off the mountains has been coming down slow and steady - allowing the fishing to remain good to very good throughout the process. Although not too many fish have been looking "up" for dries just yet the nymphing and streamer bites have been nothing short of phenomenal.
We've seen many trophy browns taken out of our stretches of private water during the past week - fish in the 20-22 inch range have been landed, and we've had some clients lose a couple that were bigger than that. In summation, we're anticipating another banner summer here at Rock Creek Anglers. With another year of above average snowpack, water levels should remain great throughout the season. If you're in the area, and looking to take a day and fish some of the best, yet least known water of the Rocky mountain west, or want to float the world famous Bighorn or North Platte give us a all at 888-WILD-TROUT.
WITH TROUT RISING IN EVERY DIRECTION IT WAS AN EPIC WEEKEND.....
A BEAUTIFUL 18" WILD BROWN FROM GOD'S COUNTRY....
More and more anglers are beginning to understand the benefits of booking a PA trout trip with CRO....we put you on the fish. This weekends anglers were witness to some of the best hatches and spinner falls we have seen all year and literally at times had over 75 fish rising within 50 feet. Steve and Jeff did a great job handling the change up thrown at them by the bugs...in the evenings it was size 8 Green and Brown Drakes while the mornings brought size 18 and 20 BWO's...that takes some getting used to but they were not complaining. There is still time left to take advantage of some great PA trout fishing this year. It has been one of the best seasons in a long time in the keystone state and cool temps will keep that way for some time yet.
Local fisherman seem to be doing well on the resident river smallmouth while the lake run fish have been moving back to the lake and are thinning out. Baitfish patterns are taking plenty of fish but as watertemps warm you may want to try crayfish patterns as well as topwater poppers and divers. Some carp have been seen moving up onto the flats of certain rivers but the catching has been slow as these big boys are ultra spooky, everything thing needs to be just right for a carp to take your fly; which makes targeting these fish so challenging and fun.
After more than 24 hours of driving, I arrived in Victor, ID last week to spend another summer working for WorldCast Anglers. Thought I'd share the most recent fishing report and some pictures for you guys to enjoy.
We are in the middle of runoff season, so many rivers, such as the Snake in Wyoming, are running high and muddy. However those rivers that are fishing, such as the South Fork of the Snake and Henry's Fork, are fishing quite well.
The Salmonfly hatch is in full swing on the Henry's Fork, and some big fish have been coming up to eat BIG dries.
The South Fork is Fishing well for the spring. Just like steelhead, the key to hooking up on this river right now is nymphing low and slow. We're seeing a lot of fat, feisty rainbows like this one...
July should bring some incredible dry fly fishing on all the area rivers. It won't be long until hatches begin in earnest, and I will try to keep you updated along the way. If you have questions or are interested in fishing in our area, give us a ring at 208.787.0082. Hope you are all enjoying the summer fishing.
A nice Henry's Fork Brown
