Sun Valley Fishing Report
SUN VALLEY / PICABO AREA FISHING REPORT — NOVEMBER 28, 2018
A winter day on Silver Creek.
Fly Fishing with a backdrop of snow and blue sky overhead is one of life’s simple joys. We are blessed here in the Sun Valley / Picabo area with some of the world’s best winter fishing. With the snow on the banks anglers can easily find areas that haven’t been fished simply by walking until the tracks end. If you haven’t built up a winter fly box, take a few minutes here at the shop or a few evenings behind the vise and tie up a few!
Here is a list of essential winter flies that will cover your fishing on all our area waters. If you are going to fish dry flies for the Midge hatches there are only a few we use. The Griffith’s Gnat is the main stay as it is easy to see against the winter glare in the rivers surface. We always combine the Gnat with a Trailing Shuck Midge pattern, normally about 18 inches apart.
If you are going to fish large nymph patterns try a Prince Nymph, Hares Ear, Zug Bug or Girdle Bug. You can fish these in tandem or with one of the micro nymphs listed below. Fishing any of these with a beadhead will help get you to the bottom where the fish are and in most cases this is enough weight to forgo having to use any external lead on your line.
In regards to Micro Nymphs, here are a few favorites of ours. The most common fly is the Zebra Nymph or Zebra Midge. These can be fished in a variety of colors. Black and red are the most effective, but a brown, purple or olive color are also commonly fished in the winter. Brassies are also a great choice in the winter. Fish these in copper or red colors. They make great flies to fish in tandem with Zebra Nymphs, because the copper wire helps the fly sink fast, pulling other small flies down with it. Again, about 18 inches is the norm when fishing tandem flies. Subsurface flies can be fished closer together, at about 12 inches if desired.
Finally, have a few Streamers with you and fish them according to the light. Fish bright flies like a Coffey’s Sparkle Minnow on bright days and fish darker flies like olive Buggers and Zonkers when the clouds roll in.
Have fun on the water this week. It should be a quiet one on the river with very few pre-Christmas anglers out there!
Happy Fishing Everyone!