Troy here from SFS, good morning from Stanley, Idaho! We are putting the finishing touches on the new shop this week and will be fully open for the weekend.
Conditions are starting to look good; there may still be a bunch of cutthroat spawning. That’s fine though, they will soon drop back into the system and start their early summer feeding binge. Until then, the fish in the system will be predominantly stocked rainbows and concentrated in the water where the stocking truck dumped ‘em. Town to Sunbeam dam is a good cut-off to use for the fishable water. If you care to venture further downstream, go for it but I would mainly focus on the ultra slow inside bends and eddies.
Couple of cool things happening hatch-wise around here and on the Middle Fork: Caddis, salmonflies, a couple baetis here and there. Pretty pumped about the salmonflies, they haven’t been much of a staple around here for a few seasons. The Middle Fork is more of a sure thing most seasons so if you’re headed out there bring the big bugs. With the flows dropping daily I’m optimistic about a fishable salmon fly hatch on the Upper Salmon. That’s gonna be the first one since about 2012. We’ll see if it shakes out, but if it’s a bust the goldens will pop and that will signify the beginning of dry fly season up here — that’ll be fun.
We floated today from Squaw Creek to East Fork. Not much to report on down there other than that the east fork is muddy. More of a prospecting mission than anything but it felt good to throw some bugs around and see a few fluttering salmonflies around the bushes. Upper river around town definitely has some fishable runs. Cast real tight to the bank or along the seams of the inside bends and see who is lurking there. Be prepared to lose some flies on the timber… all part of the game this time of year. Good luck out there and check back in for more reports and such in the future.
Guided trips are booking now. The combination of limited availability and a stellar fishing forecast has our trips filling fast.