April 1st Fishing Report

Well March came in like a lion and went out like a lion, sorta, so I don’t really know what that is supposed to mean.  Any guesses? It’s certainly been an unusual spring with near record low flows for this time of year. Our Darby gauging station is currently reading 193 CFS, last year at this time it was at 882 CFS. The median flow for this time of year is around 425 CFS.  Bell Crossing is flowing @ 340 CFS vs, almost 2000 CFS LY. The cold nights, overcast, cool days, have kept our low level snow from melting quickly, We live a few hundred feet above town and we still have snow in our yard. If the forecast is remotely accurate we won’t lose much snow this week, either, at least not until the weeks end, when we see the temps reach up into the 50’s. Let’s hope it doesn’t get too warm too quickly. Despite the inclement weather the fishing has been surprisingly good. Even the dry fly bite has been better than average most days, it just starts a bit later - maybe 1:00-2:00 before there’s any consistency. Plenty of Skwalas around and anglers are having success prospecting with something in a size 10-14 range. We have about 30 different Skwala patterns at the shop and so far they all seem to be producing. As the fish wise up, there will be a few clear winners in the bunch but who knows which one(s) it’ll be this year. Seems to change from year to year. March browns are starting to appear in decent numbers in certain runs as well. Look for pockets of fish that are keying on this big Mayfly. They’ll be easy to spot, with their big sail sticking up on the water. BWO’s - yes everyday there’s fish chowing em. Question is do you want to play this game or just throw a big Skwala at em?  Your choice. If it’s a big fish give him a look at a big bug, if he refuses, switch. Otherwise find another target. The nymphing game hasn’t changed much, perdigons, stones, worms…the usual stuff. Streamers, anything olive or a sparkle minnow pretty much gets it done. Fish are starting to chase so the streamer bite is going to get good! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read last weeks report about floating issues and/or ask around and educate yourself. There’s a lot of issues out there. Shop is open everyday @ 9am. We’ll see ya out there. Be safe!