Synopsis
Don’t let the forecast fool you; our upcoming erratic weather is great news for valley anglers. Our typical August, full of hot lazy days, will temporarily be replaced by mid-afternoon cloud cover and thunder storms which means prolonged hatches extending into the middle of the day. As a reminder, please use caution if in the presence of thunderheads a graphite rod in a lightning storm is a recipe for disaster.
Big Wood River
The Big Wood River has been fishing well in the evenings, but relatively slowly throughout the rest of the day. Anglers will find Caddis, PMDs, and Pink Alberts simultaneously hatching from about 7:30p.m. on into the evening. One challenge facing evening anglers is the abundance of small fish that tend to eat the fly before the big guys can get to it. Anglers can try to avoid this situation by picking out the larger fish and throwing the fly a few inches in front of them. Another technique used to produce nice fish in the evenings is to skate the fly instead of dead drifting it. Fish tend to key in on the rapid emergence and egg laying behavior of the caddis and will pursue a moving fly with vigor. Daytime anglers should either focus on the riffle water with a hopper dropper or some of the deeper water with nymphs.
Silver Creek
Silver Creek is all about the Tricos and the Baetis. Calm mornings on The Creek have been producing spectacular Tricos spinner falls followed by strong Baetis hatches. Baetis love cool, cloudy summer days, so if the current forecast is correct you can expect these strong hatches to continue into the next week
Grasshoppers are out in full force and will produce large fish during the middle of the day. Fish the hoppers along banks and in the channels between weed beds. Remember to significantly strengthen and shorten your leaders when fishing grasshoppers. The large flies will cast much better and you will have a fighting chance if a giant Brown Trout hooks your line. It’s not unusual to tie a hopper onto 7 feet of 1x line.
Big Lost River
Once again, the Lost is a little too high for good fishing right now. However, the reservoir is at 75% of capacity right now so we’re hoping that they will begin to drop the water below the dam over the next couple of weeks. If you do decide to fish below the dam try nymphing in the shoulder water or skating Craneflies across the river.
Upper Big Lost / Copper Basin
These waters are in great shape right now and well worth the drive over the hill. Anglers should start out with smaller flies like Caddis and Parachute Adams in the mornings and bump up to the big attractors in the middle of the day and afternoon.
South Fork of the Boise
Anglers can expect to find thick Pink Albert hatches throughout the afternoons and Caddis in the evening. Anglers have been reporting limited success on the large foam lately but with the hoppers just starting to show up in significant numbers this might improve over the next couple of weeks.
