Fishing Report for November 11th, 2010

Tis' the season that steelhead fishing is on our minds and many of us have headed for the streams of British Columbia, Idaho, and the Pacific Northwest to get our fix. We have good reports coming back from the Clearwater, the Grande Ronde, and the Deschutes.

But keep in mind that, although winter is fast approaching and air and water temps are pretty low, we still have some very good fishing happening in our area. The Snake, the South Fork, and the Salt all have decent dry fly action at certain parts of the afternoon with imitations of blue-winged olives, micro caddis, October caddis, and mahogany duns. Furmimsky BDEs (size 16), Parachute Adams (size 14 to 16), Copper Hazes (size 14 to 16), Purple Hazes (size 14 to 16), Elk Hair Caddis (size 16 to 18), X-Caddis (size 16), and orange Stimulators (size 12) have been doing the trick when the surface action starts to happen. And as usual, the more overcast it is, the better it can be.

Nymphing continues to be solid throughout the day, but especially from 12 pm until dusk. trout are podding up in structure pools, eddies and riffles, and all it takes is a double nymph rig drifted through a couple of times to get a take. Later in the day, nymphs dropped 16 to 20 inches from a large dry attractors are working well in riffles. Black or red Copper Johns (size 14 to 16) and Tungsten Midge Pupa (size 14 to 16) in black or olive have been producing best.

But nothing says fishing in November like streamers. Streamers are not necessarily bringing in the numbers that nymphs are and dry flies can, but they are bringing in some very large fish. They can entice big cutthroat to strike out of sheer aggravation, especially those holding alongside a number of podding fish in riffles and eddies. This is also the case for brown trout on the South Fork and the Salt as they pod up for spawning.

And don't forget forget about other waters in our region that still have marvelous fishing this time of year. Montana's Beaverhead has been really good with streamers and large nymphs for this stream's big brown trout. The Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley and downstream of Livingston is also a good choice. It holds large browns and cutthroat that get pretty made when a baitfish imitation gets a little too close.