Spring Fishing Has Arrived

Snake River

Wilson and South Park boat ramps are now open.

Decent fishing on the Snake continues with better surface action. There have even been hookups on larger foam attractors. We are starting to see a more Capnia stoneflies with each passing day. No consistent action on their imitations but that will be happening soon no doubt. While slower water types remain the place to target, we are now seeing more action in faster currents – primarily the heads of riffles and in faster seams. Hit all of this with dries and dry-dropper rigs.

Streamer fishing has been decent although eats are slow for the most part. Continue to use small-ish baitfish imitations fished on floating or intermediate sinking lines and retrieve slowly. Tandem rigs are starting to out-produce singles.

Dry flies – Micro Winged Chernobyls, Mini Purple Bruces, Furimsky BDEs, Mating Midges, Parachute Midges, CDC Midge Emergers, and Chez’s Krystal Wing Midge Emerger.

Nymphs – Duracells, Soft Hackle Hair’s Ears Jigs, Eagan’s Iron Lotus, Lightening Bugs, Perdigons, Booty’s Day-2 Midge Pupa, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges, and Rojo Midges.

Streamers – Booty Call Minnows, Slump Busters, Fruit Rollups, and Krystal Buggers.

South Fork

Palisades Dam boat ramp is accessible as is Wolf Eddy and Byington. Spring Creek Bridge and Conant are a little rough but still accessible and better than a couple weeks ago for sure. Just be sure to do a little grunt work.

Midges are still the name of the game and it’s been quite good over the past several days. The upper reaches in Swan Valley and the lower reaches below Byington remain equally productive. Eddies, riffle current margins, and seams are the waters to target with dries, dry-droppers, and double nymph rigs fished shallow. We are even starting to see active feeding along banks with slow to moderate currents.

Streamer fishing gets a little better with each passing week. The best action has been on the lower reaches. Fish these with floating lines or sinking tips in the INT to 3ips range and vary up your retrieves. There is starting to be just as much activity with faster line strips as there has been with the slower retrieves that were go-to earlier in the winter.

Dry flies – Griffith Gnats, Renegades, Mating Midges, Parachute Midges, Parachute Adams, CDC Midge Emergers, and Chez’s Krystal Midge Emerger.

Nymphs – Duracells, Copper Johns in red or black, Egan’s Dart, Perdigons, Zebra Midges, Ice Cream Cone Midges, and Stalcup’s RS-2s.

Streamers – J.J. Specials, Arum’s Lil’ Kim, Kreelux, Coffey’s Sparkle Minnow, Pine Squirrel Zonkers, and Slump Busters.