It looks like spring, it feels like spring, might just be spring. Warm weather finally. Green grass, trees budding, lots of smiles in the shop. I like it!  Sounds like most folks who were on the rivers over the weekend had a great time. Kinda nice when all things line up. Weather, good water conditions and weekends. A recipe for a good time.

This week looks great too, with the weekend coming with overcast and rain possible. But still, warmer conditions. The rivers are all in pretty good shape. The Cda is clean, a touch high but honestly very doable from wading to drift boating. The St. Joe came up a bit, not much but still very good conditions. The Clark Fork is at a pretty good flow, a bit off color but 3-4 feet of vis on the banks and that's all it really needs.  

Here is some great news. The Skwalas are showing up, salmonflies too, and many other bugs. These are the big boys of spring we all wait for. Look for them on the warmer days. The colder days will stall these hatches a bit, but not totally. The stonefly nymphs are moving around now so if you are not seeing much surface activity, get down with some bigger stonefly nymphs. We have a great selection of both dries and nymphs, so we have you covered either way. An olive Chubby Chernobyl with a 2-3' dropper with a heavier stonefly nymph is a great place to start a day with. The colder weather next week may turn it into more of a subsurface game, but it could turn into a good mayfly thing too. Blue wing olives and March browns should be the main two players if that happens. Sounds like there are a few salmonflies starting to pop off too, so a bigger salmonfly pattern could be a lot of fun. The streamer game is great as well. Nothing fancy needed; mid-size (#4-6-8's) black or olive sculpin patterns fished close to the banks. Keep them in that zone. The water is still moving so really try to keep the fly swimming close to the bank versus away from it.  The trout are less likely to move too far out of their lies to eat in fast water.

There are plenty of great lake options right now. If you want to chase some warmwater species like pike, bass, crappie do so. There are several great trout lakes around too. The warm weather is really perking up the warmwater game. I did a bit of carp fishing over the weekend, and it is starting to kick off pretty good. We also saw several bass kicking around in the shallows. Mostly largemouth, but I’d think the smallies are starting to move into the shallows now. We’ve been getting several great reports from folks out trout fishing on lakes here in Idaho and also several in Washington. Pretty standard spring techniques for this--sink tips or full sinks (depending on where the fish are holding) and leeches. Or if you want to run chronomid rigs under indicators, this will get them too. The water temps are very favorable now, so the trout are not holding too deep, and a medium to fast-sink tip is usually good to go. The panfish gig is great now. I had a great day last week chasing crappie and it should only get better as it warms up.  Look for depths at 10-12 feet with new weed growth and suspend a couple balanced leeches under an indicator, and you’ll giggle like a little school kid all day long. I’d be poking around the rocky banks now with a sink tip and a flashy bait fish pattern too. The smallies are sure to be on the hunt. Probably one of my favorite spring target species. The larger females will be in the shallows and a fat 4-6 pound smallie on a fly rod is a really good time. MFC’s articulated sparkle minnows in yellow/brown or straight white are my two most favorite flies for them.  Keep them moving quickly and hold on!

As a side note, we’ve been getting quite a few questions from new anglers and anglers new to our area about what good flows are for our rivers. This is a pretty broad question, but it comes up quite a bit.  Regardless of what the flows are, it’s always a very good option to go and see for yourself and put a visual to a number. Obviously, there is a threshold of good and bad, but it really means nothing if you don’t have something to compare a number to. We do our level best to give our customers a thorough idea on what the flows are and try to base our intel on our results and how we fish, but everyone is different and we all have different comfort levels.  To try and break it down a bit, there are really two angles to consider.  Are you a wade angler or boat angler?

Higher flows can still be handled with a boat but maybe not if you are a wade angler and you don’t have much experience on the oars?  How confident or strong are you as a wade angler?  Without question, safety is the utmost concern and we do our best to keep you informed of any issues.  But it is absolutely up to you to make the best decision based on your comfort levels.  So, even if the flows are way up and it's a beautiful day out, maybe go up the river, take your rod, pick a morel or 20, glass up some elk, throw the Frisbee for the pooch and maybe find a little pocket to wet a line.  But get intel, keep a journal, and put two and two together for yourself. It takes time and is all part of the process and learning.  Be safe out there guys, it's a beautiful time of year and there’s tons to do. Fishing is just one of them. See you in the shop or on the water! Cheers!!

Tight lines!

Tyler