River Conditions: 5/2/16

Water Clarity: Becoming Muddy

Water Temperatures:  Mid-Upper 40’s-Low 50’s

Hatches: Brown/black Stoneflies, Hendricksons, Blue Quill

Suggested Patterns:  RL Stoneflies, Two Tone Stones, Simple Stones, Smethurts Twenty Bomb, Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails, Black Montana Prince Nymphs, Olive and Natural Hare’s Ears, Bob’s Softy, Wooly Buggers, Muddler Minnows, Drunk Dads, Sparkle Minnows, Kellers Nightmare, VFG Articulate Bunnies

Water levels are on the rise which was definitely needed. Especially for the smaller streams, many of them were at summer time low levels. With the water on the rise, expect it to become a bit dirty. This isn’t a bad thing, as the river gets flushed out lots of insects, crayfish, sculpins etc will get stirred up giving the fish a buffet of food. These are going to be great conditions to chuck some bigger flies in the water to entice a bigger fish. Big flies on heavy sink tip leaders can often yield some of the biggest fish of the year, and May is frequently one of the best months to make that happen! Also have some bigger nymph patterns in your box, big stoneflies, pheasant tails, prince nymphs and other similar patterns can draw interest. The important thing is to fish them deep and work the water thoroughly, extra thorough in muddy water since there is less visibility. We have rain in the forecast for the next few days but it looks like the air temps are going to warm up a bit which will help with water temps. Things will probably be back down into the mid 40’s with this rain and the cool air temps we’re having today but things will warm back up tomorrow afternoon. The bass fishing has remained good and so has the steelhead fishing. Good luck out there!

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