What kind of fly fishing can a fella get into in Idaho or Wyoming in April?
flyguy66,
Before the snow starts melting off the mountains and blows all the rivers out, which shouldn’t start until late April or early May, the rivers of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming are fantastic places to fish.
The trout have been feeding all winter on various nymphs including stonefly, mayfly and caddis nymphs, and also on midges. Once the ice leaves the rivers and the water starts to warm just a bit, there will be hatches of mayflies like March Browns and BWO’s and of stoneflies (if the river has them) like Skwalas.
Early spring and late fall are my favorite times to fish the rivers of Montana and Wyoming.
Larry —sagefisher—
Flyguy66, take a look at my thread Dad and the Kid under the Fishing Reports section, going back to when I started it in April and you’ll get a good indeication of what, when and where for southeast Idaho in the spring.
Hope this helps.
Kelly
Thanks guys. Very informative stuff. Love the fishing reports!
Isn’t there a steelhead or salmon run up in Idaho somewhere? And when does that happen?
flyguy66 -
Can’t really speak to Wyoming, but I can assure you that there is plenty of great trout fishing in SE Idaho in April. If you go back to my threads on the Fishing Reports Forum for last year and ealier this year ( scroll back to the first week of January '09 for the '08 threads and sometime around early June for one that covers April '09 ), you will get some more ideas about places to fish, from small streams to a couple of the big rivers.
Just keep in mind that most smaller streams and rivers in Idaho are still closed that time of year. The Idaho general season opens Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, but most of the South Fork, a lot of Henry’s Fork, all of the mainstem Snake below the confluence NE of Idaho Falls, the Big Lost River and Birch Creek are open year round. If you can’t find a month’s worth of fishing on those pieces of water, you ain’t trying very hard.
John
For Wyoming, Tailwaters are generally the best fishing that time of year.
North Platte around Miracle mile or Grey Reef fish ok with streamers, san juan worms from most fishing reports I’ve seen.
Wind River, also fishes well that time of year, but a reservation permit is needed for that water.
Depending on altitude, may run into ice conditions. If looking for still waters, many of the reservoirs fish ok during that time period that are in the “lowlands” (Boysen, Alcova)
Yellowstone Park is closed to fishing until Memorial weekend.
Good luck!!
Paul