Salmonfly hatch is going on right now on the Blacksmith Fork River. I checked it out yesterdy after school for about an hour. A couple of refusals by a couple of nice sized browns. I had one brown on (I was trying to reel in some slack line, the fish took, I jerked the rod which proceeded to send twirly loops around the end of my rod, effectively clamping the line against the rod tip—I hope I’m not the only one this kind of crap happens to). I let loose a couple of
SHiDs and reeled in the rest of the line, sans fish.
This was a little lower on the river, about a half mile above the old, removed dam. I was using my struggling salmonfly pattern, but I didn’t see any salmonflies in the area. So I moved upsream. I started seeing a trickle of salmonflies above the road around the water gauging station. By the time I got above Shenoah Picnic site there were quite a few salmonflies. I pulled off 1/4 mile below the dam and caught a 10″ brown and was refused by a very nice brown (17″?).
If you’re fishing there today, I’d go above the dam.
I spent Friday & Sat Night up there with the fam. Great trip! We saw the flies as we drove up Friday night. By 2pm Sat they were every where. The fish were picky. Seems they took th goldens or mayflies more often than they would hit the salmons. First time I’ve ever seen a sf & the kids loved catching them.
Jarrod,
In the spot I was at, seemed pretty much the same as far as trout pickiness. I have really only had a couple of really amazing fishing experiences with the SF hatch as far as the fishing goes, where they really seemed keyed in enough for me to catch a fair number with a SF imitation.
It’s good to hear the kids weren’t “scared” of them and would catch them. They’re pretty cool. Last night I got out a video I took of them hatching that I took about 7 years ago. It’s definitely something to watch them hatch. Did the kids get a chance to see that too?
Dang, I’m out of town for a few days: the lilacs are blooming on Park St or Butte, which means the salmonflies are about ready to emerge on the Big Hole River.
ER,
Salmonflies on the Big Hole would be fun! It’s one of those rivers on my “bucket list.” I usually stop around the Bear Trap on the Madison as far as heading north and the Ruby River when going west when I’ve fished Montana. I’d love to spend 2-3 weeks hitting western Montana one of these summers.
This is a slow salmonfly year for me since I was sick at the beginning of the hatch and now this week it’s my daughter’s 12th birthday, my son graduated from high school last night and tomorrow is the last day of school. So nothing doing this week. By next week when I can finally hit the rivers again it will be over. I should be able to pull in a few on a SF pattern though as there are always a few still keying on them.