With recent warm up’s in temperatures and the ice finally draining from our rivers brings lots of eagerness to hit the river. With lower returns of fish this past fall seeing spring on the horizon bring lots of hope for new and more fish in our systems. During recent outings to the river, water temperatures are still on the cold size. Temps have been around the 33 – 35 degree mark due to all the run off from snow melt. This brought the rivers up and put a great stain to the river. Tailwater fisheries and small river have been fishable but the big water on the Grand had been too high to fish, exceeding 15,000 CFS. Some new fish have shown up with these bump in flows, but mostly just “shuffled” fish around system. Still a mostly winter hold-over fish.
While fishing in cooler water temps, lighter tippet and leaders are still necessary. Stained or off-color water we have been bumping up to slightly heavier leaders. On the terminal end, eggs and nymphs and been most productive. Yellows and dulled-out orange colors have been best. Generic nymphs such as stone flies, caddis, and prince nymphs have also been productive. Colder water temps and higher water have made swinging tough. Fishing intermediate heads and heavy sink tips will be go too. Generally in cold water smaller flies are slightly more productive, but in off-colored water try bumping the sizes up to compensate for clarity.
Our 10 day forecast show some of sun and temps in the low 40s. Fishing should become more productive once we see water temperatures reach the high 30s into 40s.