Talking Trout Spey
Spring has sprung, bugs are popping off, and trout are eating with reckless abandon! The last couple weeks have been filled with over 1,400 miles of road through Idaho and Montana in search of big trout, followed by back-to-back trout trips here on the Lower D.
River Conditions
This week we had a bit of a rise in the flows due to the spring rains. This brought the river from a mellow average of around 4,200 cfs to a slightly more boisterous 5,400 cfs. With this bump in the flows we have just a slight tinge of color coming from the White River. This change is giving us the much needed cover to sneak up on some wary trout, but not enough to shut down fishing below Sherars Falls. With higher flows the fish will push closer to the banks, so be sure to make some casts close to shore before wading out. Water temperature has continued to climb, topping out at 52 degrees this week. With warmer weather and water temps we are seeing March Brown hatches along with some of our larger Sedge and Grannom Caddis. There are still some Blue Wing Olive Hatches happening as well.
What’s Happening
When I returned from my trip to Montana I checked in with a buddy of mine who had been guiding to see what had been going on when I was out of town. The report I got was that the pre-stonefly hatch nymph bite was on! The next day I had a guide trip and put his intel to the test. He was right—trout are sharking the stonefly nymphs like they mean business and the shifting tides of spring fishing have begun. Every year there is a turning point when the stonefly nymphs become more active in their migrations to the river banks, and the fish really key in on this. You can almost always fish a stonefly nymph out here with success, but the month leading up to the hatch definitely takes the cake as being the best time for them. We are also seeing the first really large emergences of March Browns and early season Caddis. The Caddis I have been seeing the last few days have been so large I almost mistook them for a late hatch of Skwallas. Keep your eyes peeled around noon to 2 p.m. on cloudy days for March Browns and have your caddis dries ready on the sunny days. When fishing the March Brown hatch I like to throw a small size 18 Pheasant tail as a dropper or fish a double dry with a small Blue Wing Olive to cover a couple different bases. If March browns are hatching most of the time there are some Blue Wing Olives coming off too.
Trout Spey Talk
With warming temps on the river the trout are more active. Swinging olive sculpin patterns has produced a fair number of aggressive takes. When fishing these patterns on the trout spey rods I like to cover water more thoroughly than when I am steelhead fishing. When I find a pod of fish I tend to work that zone really heavily. With each addition of line or step down the run I use a three presentation progression to find what the fish find most attractive that day. Some days the fish are aggressive and want to chase the fly, other days they want a more passive swing. I start my three presentation progression by casting straight out, mending the line to add slack, sinking the fly and tip. As soon as the line begins to tighten I’ll throw a downstream mend and passive swing the fly into the bank I’m standing on. The second of the progression requires the same setup to sink the fly and tip, but as the line begins to tighten I will pop the rod tip up and down by a couple feet, pulling tension then dropping slack with each pop. This will animate the fly as it swings, making it appear as a baitfish in distress attempting to swim to the bank as it dies. The third in my progression uses the same setup as the first two, but instead of swinging a set distance of line I will actually strip the line in, making the fly flee at a high speed to the bank. When I catch a fish I take note of which of the three presentations that fish ate and run with it for a while. If I’m not finding any signs of life after a while I will go back to the three cast progression and see if the general mood of trout has changed to a different preference of presentation.
Flies That Are Working
CDC Split Wing March Brown Size 12 & 14
Comparadun March Brown Size 12 & 14
CDC Blue Wing Olive Cripple Size 16 & 18
Hi Vis Parachute BWO size 16 & 18
Purple Haze Parachute Size 12, 14, 16 & 18
Pink Bead Hares Ear Size 16
Pink Bead Pheasant Tail Size 16
Roza’s Red and Green Tag Jig Size 16
Silver Bead Pheasant Tail with Hot Orange Collar Size 18
Silver Bead Green Glo Brite Perdigon with Hot Orange Collar Size 16
Jig Bead Head Girdle Bug Size 8 & 10
Jig CDC Stone Nymph Size 10
Elk Hair Caddis Size 14 & 16
CDC Sedge Caddis Size 14 & 16
Olive Sculpzilla Size 4
Black Sculpzilla Size 4
Kreelex Minnow Size 8
Thanks for tuning in to my fishing report! The weather is just going to get better and better and the need for a sweatshirt or puffy is quickly waning. I hope everyone stays safe wading in these slighter higher spring flows and finds plenty of fish doing so. See you on the water!
