Spring runoff is in full swing, and with the heavy rains this week the river's high, muddy, and rising. When the water bumps a bit and kicks up some mud, or some rain’s keeping the bugs down, swinging a streamer or running an indicator rig can always produce fish when all else fails. Thankfully tributary opener is right around the bend (05/17) and that'll open up access to much clearer and fishable tributary creeks.

The weather has been great for the dry fly fishing, with warm nights and hot sunny days producing some wonderful hatches. The BWOs, Mother’s day caddis, grey drakes, and golden stones are all very visible in town and we’ve even seen our first salmon flies for the year. Parachute patterns in the 14-16 size range and foam stonefly patterns in the 6-12 range are all working well.

If the rising fish are few, or the dry fly bite hasn’t quite gotten going, try running a small nymph as a dropper under a stonefly. It’ll keep the fishing active, as nymphs are always on the menu, and it’ll tell you when the fish start keying in on the dries. When the fishing’s really a grind, running the indicator rig or tightline nymphing is a proven way to put a bend in the rod. Pat’s rubber legs are a bread-and-butter fly around here, though any bead head stone will get it done well.

Spring streamer fishing is always productive, and can make for some of the best trophy trout fishing all year. Overcast days and muddy water gets the big fish up shallow and feeding aggressively. Fish undercut banks, boulder fields, and the shallow heads of pools. Those big fish are hungry, though they’re trying as hard to find food as you are trying to show it to them. Opt for natural but visible colors On overcast days, dark black is preferable, though with some sun, brighter cream and yellow patterns are very visible in the mud. We like Galloup’s Kill Whitey, Lynch’s DnD, and the Dungeon for good shallow-fishing streamer patterns.