Idaho Fishing: South Fork Fishing Report

About Us | Contact Us | Outdoor News | Advertising |

Idaho Fishing Report

States

Lakes & Reservoirs

Rivers

South Fork Sponsored by The Lodge at Palisades
Swan Valley, Idaho

Date	25-Aug-10
Water Condition
Water Temperature

Conditions : South Fork: With flows coming out of Palisades Dam just under 9000 cfs, the river is in ideal shape for fishing. Fishing banks remains the most productive strategy. Try hopper and chernobyl patterns trailed by a cinnamon ant (#14-#12), and place them close to grassy banks, undercuts, and overhead cover. If you want to fish riffles, late afternoon are best when caddis begin emerging. If you do not get surface action, try soft hackled patterns in size 12-16 such as partridge and orange, partridge and green or badger and orange. Let them drift down a few inches to working fish. When your fly arrives in the area where fish are working, lift your rod tip to raise the fly toward the surface. An evening PMD spinner fall can bring some action to riffles.

Many fly fishers have forgotten how effective a #12 or #14 renegade is on the South Fork. Too bad: because fished as a dry fly or emerger it fly remains extremely effective up and down the river. Try it in riffles or drop it against the same features you fish with hoppers or chernobyl types. So for many folks it may be out of style, but for those few in the know it remains a stalwart pattern. Maybe you should give a try especially if you believe that fish get use to seeing patterns that are presented over & over again!

Reported by: Jimmy's All Season Angler

Hatches:	Patterns	Lures & Spinners




About: - It is between the Henry's Fork confluence and Palisades Dam that the South Fork is known as one of the finest dry fly rivers in North America. All of the Fish in the South Fork are wild and fish between eight and sixteen inches must be released because they are the prime breeders. Fishing Articles on the South Fork: Fishing The Famous South Fork of the Snake River			Brook Browns Cutthroat Rainbow Whitefish

Misc Info: - The South Fork is now open year round to provide additional angling opportunity and give anglers the chance to help native cutthroat trout by harvesting non-native rainbow trout. Fishing below the dam for spawning rainbows has been excellent in the past two weeks. The limit on rainbow trout has been removed, and we encourage anglers to harvest all rainbow trout they catch. No cutthroat may be harvested. The South Fork tributaries (Burns, Pine, Rainey, and Palisades creeks) are now all closed to cutthroat trout harvest and do not open until July 1.