Stream Flow and Fishing Report for May 18th, 2011

Unsettled weather has hit Snake River country with a bang! Sunny and warm for a few days, then cool with showers for a few days. All rivers in the area are in runoff. This is good news, but the peaks on each river will most likely vary until when get more consistently warm temps and sunny weather. At the very least, ice is starting to come off of the lakes. Runoff will last longer on most streams than usual with the Snow pack at over 190%. But some rivers have shorter overall runoffs than others. Here are some of our projections -

Expect the Teton River and the Henry's Fork to be in fishing shape sometime in early June. One bright spot is that Box Canyon is clear and has at least some fair fishing is being experienced.

The Green and the New Fork should be ready sometime in around the end of June and first of July.

Most believe that the South Fork below Palisades Dam will be fishing well as soon as the reservoir hits 30% capacity, which will allow sediment to settle and the discharge from the dam to run clear. The rest of the South Fork should be ready to by the last week of June hopefully.

The Snake River below Jackson Lake Dam is at 8,000 cfs and will not be ramped down until much more of a significant runoff develops. As soon as we get down to around 5,000 cfs, the stretch from Dam to Pacific will most likely start fishing (dependent on water temps). The rest of the Snake will probably not be fishing until the end of July at the earliest. But we have been wrong on this before.

We believe that the ice on Lewis Lake will be off by the end of the first week of June. The Firehole and the Madison are having fast runoffs, but the jury is out as to when it will be fishing. Opening day on May 27th.

Remember, these are only projections and things will change. Be ready for a big, but not necessarily fast, runoff. And be ready for some awesome fishing once the runoff ends.