Sun Valley Area Fishing Report - June 22, 2015

A great week is ahead of us as we experience a plethora of water opening up and becoming fishable for the first time this season. Brown Drakes are officially replaced by Green Drakes, and the Greens can be found on The Nature Conservancy portion of Silver Creek, the lower reaches of the Big Wood and the upper Lost River.

The Green Drake on Silver Creek is a bright colored bug, so have something to match it that isn’t the dull Green colors we would use on the Wood and Lost Rivers. We have Drakes for all the rivers and have a lot of the Colorado Green Drake that works magic on the Wood now and again when the Western Red Quills arrive in the fall. This fly matches both hatches wonderfully.

Silver Creek continues to percolate with Baetis, PMD and a lot of Callibaetis. Despite having excellent hatches and spinner falls the timing of these events has been the hardest part of fishing. Anglers willing to stay from 7:00 a.m. until total darkness will find great fishing at multiple points during these hours, but whether the best fishing is morning, noon, or night, is anyone’s guess. Anglers willing to stay until darkness will find that we are having one heck of a good mouse fishing year!

The Big Wood and the upper Lost will fish this week, but like we keep saying – Please leave your dogs at home right now. There is too much volume in the river for our four legged friends to fight. Pease wear a wading belt, or better yet, wet wade. Fish with a friend. Use a wading staff. Be Careful out there!

Beyond the Green Drake plan on seeing a lot of Stoneflies and Salmon Flies in the coming weeks. Stimulators in a variety of sizes and colors are a must have. They are also great flies to use when fishing a dropper. Droppers can be simple bead head Prince Nymphs and Hares Ears.

The South Fork of the Boise should start producing Salmon Flies this week, if not already. The Caddis activity should also be ramping up! If you have the itch to fish from a driftboat, look no further. Our other driftboat river, the Salmon, is also fishing well and getting better by the day. Big dries and droppers are all you need up here. If you go to either river, boat safely and enjoy all the sights and sounds that come with these wonderful day trips through Idaho canyons!

Happy Fishing Everyone!

Sun Valley Area Fishing Report Update

Quick update on the conditions on the Big Wood River: The current flow is 636 cfs while the median flow is 1,550 cfs. The Wood is clear AND fishable. It's still swift so be careful wading and it's likely to come back up again before dropping. There's not much in the way of hatches yet but the nymphing has been decent using #12 Copper Johns, #12 epoxy back Green Drake nymphs and #10 girddle bugs. ​There are a ton of Green Drake nymphs along the banks of the river and while that hatch is probably at least two weeks away, the poor-swimming (Green Drake nymphs are clingers) nymphs are all over the river. Try using #10 Royal Stimulators or #12 Parachute Adams as the indicator and use any of the mentioned nymphs as droppers. 4x leader and tippet size is perfect.

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Big Wood River Green Drake Nymph. Photo taken on 6/1/13.

Silver Creek:​ We are still waiting for the Brown Drake hatch to begin and as our weather starts to warm up so will the chances that the Drakes will start. The weather has been on the cool side with highs in the 60's and sporadic wind. Depending on where you are on the Creek, we have been seeing #16 pmd's, #16 Callibaetis and #18 Baetis. If you have a non-windy day and are willing to put a little time in you should find some good heads on the surface. Expect the evening fishing and sporadic Green Drakes in the Nature Conservancy section to pick up as the weather warms. Be armed with 12' 6x leaders for most of your non Brown Drake fishing. When the Brown Drakes do happen 3x and 4x are the normal leader/tippet sizes.

Big Lost River:​ The current flow on the Lower Big Lost river is 470 cfs with a mean of 880 cfs. It's obviously lower than normal for this time of year and clear. At 470 cfs it's pretty swift for wading but doable if you're careful. Not much in the way of hatches but nymphing has been working using #14 Copper Johns, #16 Lightning Bugs and #16 Zebra Midges. We have been using 4x tippet.