Jay Peck's Blog

Earlier this week we got a good shot of rain came through the area. Depending on where you are, it will have a lot to do with how your rivers and creeks are fishing at this time.

Starting with the inland trout fishing. Most of our in land trout water was affected by the rainfall early last week. Going into this week water flows should have receipted enough to come back into fishing condition. Also we finally had a break in the weather and water temperatures are on the rise. This week we could see some of the first of the springs, insect activity. Be on the lookout for both olives and Hendrickson hatching. The timing of these hatches will most likely be from late morning to early afternoon. Obviously hatch timings are going to vary from one trout stream to the next.  

Mid April still prime steelhead time. I am fully settled in and now fishing the Salmon River at Pulaski, for the remainder of the steelhead run. Rainfall from earlier this past week definitely had an effect on water flows. As of writing this update water released from the dam is at 750 CFS, up from 500 CFS we had last week.  This is still a comfortable level for both fishing and running the Drift boat. The drift boat makes covering a lot of water more efficient, which is important because the steelheads are spread out through the river. True to the theme of this spring, covering water and fishing smart continues to be the name of the game. Water temperatures over the past week have been cold. Temperatures are fluctuating from 38° to 42° in the upper river. The lower river water temperatures have been fluctuating a few more degrees on a daily basis. I suspect we’re going start seeing water temperatures in the mid to upper 40s on a daily basis going forward, with the warmer weather that’s coming. Hopefully the warmer water temperatures will encourage the steelhead to start chasing flies a little more aggressively. The warmer water temperatures will definitely turn the swing fishing on. This weeks productive flies, have been a smaller group most of our fish were caught size 4 and 6 Black will buggers and a variety of size 6 and 8 stonefly nymphs. I suspect the smaller group of flies this week is due to water temperature fluctuations. When water temperatures are fluctuating the upper 30 to low 40-degree range on a daily basis, this can make the fish crabby and a little picky about the flies.

A reminder, I still have dates for spring steelhead fishing April 18,19,21 and April 25,26 opened up. Early May is still open, we call May, swimming season. A great time to fish for steelhead with two-handed rods and a singing fly. Our friend Rick Smith, also has dates available for both April and May. Feel free to call if you have any questions Cell 585-233-0436