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My son and I were up wandering back and forth from Idaho to Wyoming this weekend. Hoppers where still small but extremely plentiful on the couple places we fished. On a small stream around 6000 ft they ran size 12 -16 and where abundant. On a river up at 8000-9000 ft the hoppers where size 14-22 and leaping around by the thousands and everywhere we looked. Smallest hopper we had where size 12 but that worked well on both. Not to name streams but the cutoff before Smoot for the river was just cleared of the last snow Friday. Need at least 12 inches of clearance to get through the mud still. Probable will dry out quickly but if you're dragging a trailer up for the 24th weekend I'd drive through Alpine despite the heavy infestation of ATVer and cows down low. The upper stretches of that river are fairly high compared to the last 5 years but gin clear and fishing extremely well. Too busy keeping my son safe with the fast current to get any pics on the river but got a couple on the small stream.
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Awesome pics Paul. Looks like a blast! I had a pretty good weekend on our favorite local water. Not high in numbers, but caught a nice 17 inch cutt!!! Looks like you found a cooler place ... it was insanely hot here.
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Very nice Paul, I got away for a few hours yesterday to one of our spots[sly], water was still a little high, I managed a nice Brown on a streamer, a nice Bow' underneath along with a few others that came unbuttoned. I did stick a decent one on top on a Yellow Sally, quite a nice stonefly hatch yesterday along with tons of BWO's.
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Josh,
Good work on the cutt. Aren't many in there. It was indeed cooler- awoke Sunday am and it was 43 degrees. High were in the 70's. Last time in that canyon 2 weeks ago I caught them mostly on nymphs but did manage 3 on hoppers. Are they starting to key in on hoppers much yet? That's about the only thing that will make may put up with the heat in there this time of year.
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Nice fish Mike. One of these days I'm going to have to buy some flies smaller than size 12 so I can fish up there in the summer. On second thought how hot was it? Maybe I'll wait for fall.
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It was hot yesterday, pretty decent in the morning but the wind started up about 11:00 and didn't stop, made it a little tough and the fishing (catching) slowed alot.
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Tried a hopper dry for only the last few minutes. My wife came along and we were both pretty exhausted at that point so I didn't experiment much. I did see some rises close to the banks. I think that they are keying in on hoppers and other terrestrials more now, but they are not quite in that reckless late summer mode yet. I remember toward the end of last summer catching them on hoppers almost every other cast. I imagine the dropping flows are going to help get us there during these next few weeks.
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Nice work Mike. The 11am wind blew on the other river Saturday, so I came home instead of moving over to the big one for Sunday. Had some BWO's and PMD's for an hour or two Sat., but nothing to write home about, so I never called you.
I'm headed further up that river this weekend to see if the Gray Drakes are out!
Looks like Paul was in the right spot though! I'm headed up there the following weekend if all goes according to planned. (I think I know the one he refers to!)
So many darn rivers in great shape, and again, so little time . . .
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In a week or 2 those hoppers should be good size and the fishing great. I'd guess the densities of those little hoppers had to be in the millions per acre. Never seen so many in one place. Just don't wait too long as the night time freezes restart in another 3 or 4 weeks and will put the hurt on the hoppers.
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Nice report and pics!
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