Lost River Outfitters fishing report May 22, 2018
Last year’s water was enough for two years. This winter, you would have thought we would
have to spread it out over two years.
Snow drought in December, January, and much of February made it look
like that may have to be the case. We
did have a wet fall, and then late February here it came. Back-country skiing finally kicked in, and
there were some very nice powder days on Baldy.
Snowpack got up to 100% and it keeps coming. Then it got warm and started to rain and
won’t quit. Morel season has
arrived. What does this mean for our
season? Quite a lot actually, although
you may have to be patient to visit your favorite pool on the Big Wood or your
favorite reach on the Big Lost and be content with some whitewater boating
instead of leisurely float fishing the Salmon.
We finished our steelhead season on April 18. Our last angler landed four deep water
steelhead. We averaged nearly three fish
on the beach a day on our trips. We had
two double digit days in the mix. The
largest steelhead was a wild 30 inch buck and a 25 inch bull trout was
landed. We got our share of steelhead in
the upper river this year and angler pressure was low, so it was a pleasant
March and April. We moved out of the
steelhead lodge on April 16th and are already looking forward to
next year. With last year’s huge runoff
and flush there should be a nice return coming back.
I was anxious to return to the low country to see what the
reservoirs had in store in late April.
Every one of our local reservoirs had more carry over water than they
have in years. Anderson was ice free in
February. Still water fishing in the
spring is something that many fly guys/gals overlook. It doesn’t take much to make the
transition. A sink line, some wet flies,
a float tube and fins is about it.
Lakes and reservoirs grow some of the biggest fish on the planet and our
local still waters rival any place in Montana or Wyoming. Every still water presents a different
challenge whether it is pattern, place, or method, but that is the joy in
making it work. Reports from all of our
local reservoirs have been amazing, if you are in the right place at the right
time. Anderson gave up bass, bull trout,
big pike minnows, a couple of landlocked Chinook, perch and a few trout so far
this year. The best bass on one of our
outings was 21 inches, but many in the 14 and better. The largest bull trout was 25 inches. Full sink lines stripping streamers is my
method.
Mormon has been a bright spot too. The rainbows have been unbelievably large
this year and fat. Largest landed 23
inches and probably over 6 pounds. Size
14 midges and callibaetis are hatching in huge numbers. Big zebra midges or nymphs under an indicator work in the bays. I still like stripping streamers for the big
tug there because you can fish 1 or 2x. Full sink line and green or brown buggers with
or without a hackle and a bead. There
has been traffic, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Pick a cove and fish it slowly with a fairly
quick retrieve at the end of the cast.
Magic has had its moments. Midges
are starting to hatch so Seagull Bay should start to fish with indicators. I have had good success stripping perch
buggers on a full sink line for both browns and rainbows. The perch populations have exploded as the
full reservoirs give them shallow bays to spawn in. That means more food for the predacious
rainbows and browns.
Good reports have
come from the Little Wood Reservoir, Fish Creek reservoir and Mackay
reservoir. There is no lack of still
water fishing to be had. Trail Creek is
open!
Our opening day on the local rivers will offer limited
fishing. The Big Wood today is flowing
at 2,100, which is really not very safe to hang around yet. Flows at Stanton are 1380. Flows at Camas Creek are 137. Outflow of Magic in the canyon is 1,700. You could probably jet boat the canyon, but
even that is big.
Silver Creek will be
crowded but our fishable stream water this weekend. It is flowing at 161 cfs. Look for some late morning PMD’s, possible
afternoon callibaetis. With over cast
skies you can always have the possibility of seeing baetis. I would anticipate that the brown drakes
should fire up the first week of June, possibly even the last few days of May
given our fairly warm spring weather. We
have all of our usual custom drake patterns ready for you at the shop. Stop in, before they are gone. It should be a big drake year for some big
browns this year. Big water
redistributed them last year and last winter many big guys showed up chasing
streamers.
The Big Lost is flowing at 1,790
above the reservoir and 1030 below the reservoir, and 291 at Arco Both reaches are too cold and big above and
too big below for any decent fly casting.
The Little Wood has shown some promise this Spring. Please treat it right as it has been dead for
ten years because of too little water, too much hot water, and poor water
quality. It is such a beautiful little
stream and can have amazingly pretty big browns that it needs all the help it
can get.
Our Yellowstone year is pretty well booked, although if you
are interested we might be able to squeeze in another June date. We have one three day window left in late
September fishing the N.E. corner of Yellowstone. Those dates are September 21, 22, and
23. There is plenty of water in the
Park, and it is still raining there as well. The Lamar River is flowing at 9,750 cfs. That will spread out the cutties. We
start June 5 in Yellowstone and return June 23.
We have another trip August 5-10.
Our September runs from the 5th to the 23rd. If you have not fished Yellowstone it should
be on your bucket list. We can
help. 208-720-3813 is my cell if you
want more information or my email is scott@lostriveroutfitters.com.
We are stocked with all the bugs, tippets and gear you need
for the opener. Stop by and say hello,
share a fish story, purchase your controlled hunt permit before the end of May,
pick up some fly tying hooks for your next pattern, or shop for your
significant other. We are always glad to
help you find the right thing.
Fish far and fine,
Scott Schnebly
Lost River Outfitters
