Quote Originally Posted by herefishy View Post
Sounds like the ( fire ) damage didn't impact the river too badly?
... and it wasn't really so much "damage" as "effect".

There was a significant amount of rain on the Bitterroot last weekend that raised the streamflows from about 400 CFS to over 4,000 CFS in not much more than 24 hours. That washed a lot of fire residue of some form or another from this summers fires into the system.

On Monday, the flows had dropped a lot and the river was running clear with usual great visibility, but it was the color of diluted coffee. Regardless, something around a couple dozen fishies were willing to play with a salmonfly dry* over the course of several hours.

By yesterday, the streamflows were again down quite a bit and the color had cleared. Even more trouts were willing to engage with the salmonfly dry, and in less time. Good thing since the temps never got out of the 30s, the clouds never dissapated, and the breeze had a real chilling effect.

John

* The salmonfly dry is a variation on the FEB Hopper ( http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...tw20090810.php ) tied with orange thread on a size 6 3X long hopper hook, a burnt orange and dark brown antron FEB, medium brown foam body and barred orange MFC centipede legs, with a light blond elk hair wing. That makes 20 consecutive months, and counting, that dry flies based on the FEB platform have fished successfully in Northern Idaho.