Sun Valley Area Fishing Report - November 3, 2014

A week of fall/winter limbo is upon us. The daytime and nighttime temperatures will not budge. The good news for the fish, is at least one more week of temperate conditions. The good news for the angler is the fish will use this extra time to keep trying to fatten up for winter. A seasons worth of “getting educated” gets tossed aside when the fish decide it’s time to fatten up!

Expect a lot of Nymphing when the hatches aren’t present. You can also expect to see quite a few fish holding in the middle of the pools. When the hatches aren’t prolific, the fish have no reason to move to neither the head nor tail of the pools to dine on the hatches that get compressed in the shallower water. With very little food in the waters stratus the fish will favor a holding lie over a feeding lie. This may mean deeper Nymphing than what we are used to.

Be sure to cast your offering well up onto the shelves in the pools and let the nymph bounce the bottom and drop into the deepest parts of the river. This would be a good time for a double nymph rig. Fish your favorite nymphs in tandem with a large size as the lead fly and then drop a smaller nymph from the lead fly hook shank. This adds weight and depth and helps anglers get the flies where they need to be!

Anglers that still want to match the hatch and squeeze every last hour from the dry fly season that they can, Silver Creek should continue to produce decent Baetis hatches. The South Fork of the Boise can also produce some nice late fall hatch activity. This is the infamous Fall Baetis so have plenty of your favorite 22 and 24 sized patterns.

A few more things to keep in mind this week:

*Don’t leave your wet wading boots in your vehicle overnight. If you do, take them in the house and run them under hot water in your bathtub to thaw them out.

*Pack some dry clothes, no matter where you fish. Hypothermia can be very real for anglers this time of the year.

*If you travel to fish, do so with water, food, a full tank of gas, tire chains and a sleeping bag.

*If it gets stormy – Fish Locally! The fishing can be epic under the low pressure of winter storms!

Happy Fishing Everyone!