South Fork Boise River, ID: There’s pink cahill carnage going on in the South Fork Canyon right now—meaning between the dam and Arrowrock Reservoir—but you better get in on it while the getting’s good because it won’t last much longer. In fact, you better throw a line before Monday or you may be SOL.
That’s the word from Matt Brower at Idaho Angler in Boise who say the water is going to drop from 1,600 (cfs) to 600 cfs on the 22nd.
“The hoppers are just getting started and we’re still seeing some goldens (stones),” he noted. “The pink cahills are on fire...but guys should hit it before Monday because once they drop the flows the fish will take a week or so to recover and start acting normal again.”
Bummer, yo. That pink cahill/Albert hatch is sick and I remember it well from my days stomping around Idaho. The only good news in this situation is this: at 600 cfs wade fishers can negotiate the river better. And, at those flows the fall buffet begins, meaning anglers should start seeing more flavs, fall caddis, and craneflies.
“The South Fork has fished well this year and the fish (rainbows) are healthy and big,” Browner said. “If you can fish it before Monday take some size 16 or 18 Harrop CDC thorax patterns to match those cahills. You could also hit the upper South Fork, which won’t be influenced by the drop in flows; it fishes like the Boise’s other tributaries—lots of small fish on dry flies, a lot of fun with a three-weight.”
Owyhee River, OR: So the South Fork Boise will be out for a week. What to do? Don’t pout. That’s for damn sure. Get that rig gassed up and head to Oregon and throw a line on the Owyhee, the not so secret secret stomping grounds of the Boise angling crew.
Why? Because that river holds some massive browns—actually it holds lots of massive browns—and they’re smacking the hoppers silly right now.
“Hoppers is all you have to know about the Owyhee right now,” Brower said. “Throw a Rainy’s Grand Hopper or a Morrish Hopper, size 8 or 10. The Chernobyl stuff works, too, but that Rainy’s is tough to beat.”
Looking for a 20-inch plus picture fish? The Owyhee offers as good a shot as anywhere else to land that brute.
Bighorn River, MT: “It’s been good but inconsistent on the Bighorn,” reports Andrew Schriener at Bighorn Fly and Tackle in Billings. “On the days when the hopper fishing is on it’s as good as it’s ever been. It all depends on the weather; if you get bright sun and some wind it can be great. We’ve been getting most of our fish on a Rainy’s size-10 Grand Hopper, but the Morris Hopper, size-10 in pink, works, too. We’re still seeing some caddis in the evening, but that dry-fly activity is slowing down. Underneath your best bets are to run caddis pupa, San Juan worms, and gray Ray Charles (sow bugs).”
Yellowstone National Park: Dick Greene, owner of Bud Lilly’s Fly Shop in West Yellowstone, was in the northwest corner of Yellowstone when grizzlies attacked three different people, at three different campgrounds, a couple weeks ago. Here’s what he had to say about the experience:
“We had breakfast in Cooke City with the people who were at the campsite where one of the guys got bit,” Greene shared. “They said it wasn’t exciting, that they didn’t even hear the guy. People just slowly realized there was a body out there.
“Bear spray sales went way up, I know that,” Greene laughed. “We saw people jogging in town and walking dogs and everybody had bear spray on them. Then we saw fish and game go by with the trouble bears—there heads were poking out. Then all of a sudden nobody was carrying bear spray. It was l like they said, ‘OK, all the bears from around here are gone and now we don’t have to worry about them.’”
Yellowstone's small creeks are a good bet right now. Here, a friend plies Duck Creek for browns and rainbows.
Greene’s grizzly stories don’t end there. While fishing Soda Butte Creek he came across a bison carcass, an animal that was hit by a car. The next day while driving past Soda Butte he saw a bunch of people looking down into the willows where the bison was and a grizzly was feeding on it. Hmm, probably a good thing the bear wasn’t on that bison when Greene first showed up.
So, how was the fishing? “Fishing in the northeast corner is good right now and it should remain that way for a while,” Greene noted. “Soda Butte was tough though—there were about 200 bison moving up and down the valley and they stirred the water up and the whole place smelled like feedlot. Usually we catch 30 or 40 trout a day while fishing there but we only got six or eight each. I’m sure it was due to those bison.
