Saturday, January 23, 2016

Jackson Hole Fall Fishing Summary Part 2

The Green fish great again this year. The secret is certainly out out on this river and its unlikely that you'll go without seeing at least another boat or two during a day's worth of fishing. When I started fishing the Green I would rarely ever see another boat down there, but unfortunately and inevitably word does get out. That's why I rarely write what river or lake I"m actually fishing when I write in this blog. Regardless of the pressure the fishing continues to be excellent if you know where to go and how to fish it. The hatches were great this year and we had excellent flows for almost the entire year. Young trout recruitment should be excellent and the growth rates on fish for this upcoming year should be stellar. The fall fishing was excellent with big healthy trout being caught and even some large kokanee salmon, fair hooked in the mouth I might add. Quite often these fish aren't eating aggressively but sometimes, for whatever reason, you do find them taking flies, both nymph and streamer patterns. I did have one particularly fun fall trip this year with my brother-in-law and a good buddy of ours. The fishing was good with both kokanee and trout being caught. Mostly nymph and streamer fishing but consistent action all the same. If you've never seen a kokanee salmon before they're a pretty cool fish. They're actually a landlocked sockeye salmon that turns the same bright red color after it enters the river. Just like in Alaska, whenever you find large groups of kokanee, as we do in many different rivers in our area, you tend to find trout adjacent to them. It can make for some pretty interesting fishing, mini-Alaska type fishing.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Fall Summary

It has been many months since I've written a report. It was a very busy fall and I will try to do a better job of keeping up with posts in the future. Our late summer and fall fishing was unbelievable this year, really some of the best I have ever seen. Consistent water flows all summer coupled with moderate water temperatures led to great fish growth and reliable feeding activity. I spent most of my time this fall fishing specifically in the Jackson Hole and western Wyoming area with no major trips out of the area for me as a result of being in nursing school. The Snake river was exceptionally good this fall. I've been seeing higher numbers of the abnormally large fish in the snake over the past few years with a large number of big browns being caught. It seems like the closer you are to the dam the more likely you are to see some of those browns. The big cutthroat seem to be spread around throughout the river system. Here are some pictures of Snake river fish including 24 and 25 inch brown trout caught by Scott Smith (check out the like to his blog) in the same day. A client of mine had landed a 24inch brown on a beetle pattern in July, in the same location as Scott's fish, that I believe was actually the same fish that Scott ended up catching. I'll post some additional fall updates here shortly.