Run Off 2012

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

That time of year, at least here in Western Montana and Northern Idaho.

Last year we had a late, long, and large run off out here that kept most folks off the chocolate covered water for quite some time.

But run off doesn’t necessarily have to keep you off the water. There may well be open water in your neck of the woods that doesn’t look all that great but will fish well, or maybe even really high water that looks good that you wouldn’t consider fishing at those levels which might fish great in that condition.

Last year I started fishing in Northern Idaho about two weeks before the run off peaked. Fished several times a week, with dry flies, through and beyond the entire run off period.

Sandy mentioned fishing one of the rivers down in SW Montana when it was running really high and off colored and doing very well at a time when everyone else was looking at the river and then driving on down the road - looking for what ??

DUB mentioned fishing on one of the well known Western Colorado rivers during run off and having excellent fishing, with the river all to himself.

I think DUB was using a drift boat. But in most systems, really high water tends to push the fishies to the edges, and bank fishing and wading fishing along the edges will probably get more fish than covering much water further from the bank.

One of our local guides told me some stories about fishing a few of the Western Montana rivers during run off. Tough duty, for sure, and very few took on the task, but Bryce caught fish that a lot of people just dream about catching in optimum conditions. It should be noted that Bryce is pretty much an animal when it comes to fishing tough situations.

So … maybe you won’t be able to find water to fish during run off, but if you go looking you might be surprised at what is available.

One word of caution. One small mistake around high and fast water can have catastrophic consequences. Playing it really close to the vest, and wearing a suitable PFD, are definitely recommended.

Have fun. Be safe. Catch some fishies.

John

2

I think you’re right about the big fish coming out to play in those conditions, but wading is so problematic that they are safe from me. If I could go back to my younger days, I would be a drift boat driver - then I’d really be a danger to them.

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Latest snowpack projections for the Wyoming River basins. Released yesterday. http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/nrcs/snowtrend/snowtrend.htmlOn a related note, a friend of mine is a state hydrologist, and they went up into the Wind’s to try and take measurements near the snotels. They could not find any measurable snow amounts in any of the areas. Runoff in Wyoming is expected to be brief… Probably back to fishing most streams by early June if this weather holds up.

Paul

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John -

That graph shows part of the picture.

I didn’t look back a couple days, but I suspect that that Lochsa water flow at 20,000 cfs was an all time record high for this time of year – an identical thing happened during the past several days on the Yellowstone north of the Park where I spend the summer, and elsewhere in our area.

Although the colder weather the past couple days is helping slow the melt and reduce these extraordinary early runoffs, and there’s been some additional recent snowfalls at higher elevations, the existing snowpack is considerably below average the farther south you go in states like Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

Although the y-t-d precipitation has generally been good in some of these areas, the lower than normal snowpack, and the earlier that normal runoff, might not bode well for stream levels and fishing on into the summer.

6

Northern Idaho, the west side of the Bitterroot, is still in pretty good shape for snow. The big surge was more a rain event than run off of snow melt. I didn’t check the records for this time of year, but the 21,800 CFS a couple days ago on the Lochsa was about the same, maybe a bit higher, than the peak on June 8 last year, when we had really big snow pack and a late run off.

The Bitterroot here in Montana is also running really high the past few days - pretty much chocolate, and the Clark Fork is ripping, too.

I think we will see a few days, maybe a week or more, of relative stability, and then another big push for the real run off, and then the gradual decrease to summer flows. In Northern Idaho and Western Montana, I think we will have a pretty decent water year, and I’m pretty optimistic about some lights out salmonfly fishing in the very near future, followed by a summer of golden stones and hoppers, and then the October Caddis.

A few days ago, Wednesday evening, we had a golden stone at the house. Couldn’t hardly believe it. Considered it a harbinger of things to come - good things !!

John

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Northern Idaho, the west side of the Bitterroot, is still in pretty good shape for snow. The big surge was more a rain event than run off of snow melt. I didn’t check the records for this time of year, but the 21,800 CFS a couple days ago on the Lochsa was about the same, maybe a bit higher, than the peak on June 8 last year, when we had really big snow pack and a late run off.

The Bitterroot here in Montana is also running really high the past few days - pretty much chocolate, and the Clark Fork is ripping, too.

I think we will see a few days, maybe a week or more, of relative stability, and then another big push for the real run off, and then the gradual decrease to summer flows. In Northern Idaho and Western Montana, I think we will have a pretty decent water year, and I’m pretty optimistic about some lights out salmonfly fishing in the very near future, followed by a summer of golden stones and hoppers, and then the October Caddis.

A few days ago, Wednesday evening, we had a golden stone at the house. Couldn’t hardly believe it. Considered it a harbinger of things to come - good things !!

John

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We have off color water now, but not enough water to float areas I was fishing last year.

9

Better to have wet feet than have wet feet. :roll:

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As you mentioned, the peak last year was on June 8. What I was trying to say, perhaps not very clearly, was that these high water levels during the last week of April have more than likely never been seen before in April – they are all time record high water flows for this time in April.

When the Yellowstone peaked last week in Livingston at around 11,000cfs, it was the highest it has ever been (at least for the last 86 years or record keeping) on that date. The previous high for that date was in 1946, at around 8,000cfs (as I recall - don’t hold me to that exact number though, I’m trying to remember what was reported on last week.)

I don’t know whether you look at this particular Snotel report: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/reports/SelectUpdateReport.html , but if you select a state you can create a report of all the watersheds in that state to see the overall snowpack by watershed. If you look at the Idaho panhandle, for example, you’ll see that the snopwpack is in good shape compared to a normal year, but the snowpack gets progressively less as you go south. The same thing is true of Montana, moving from the northwest to the southeast across the state.

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If runoff gets out of the way this early, the salmonfly fishing could be unreal…

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… run off gets out of the way ??

Go here …

… get a proper drift on one of these …

… one might be a fluke …

… two might make you think …

… three, even with a long distance release, makes it real …

… and four, makes it certain …

They’re ready to eat salmonflies as of this afternoon.

John