South Fork
Daylight Savings ends this coming weekend, so alter your fishing plans accordingly. We are in the “winter maintenance flow” regime below Palisades Dam. Reduction has flow down to 1540 cfs at Irwin, 1800 cfs at Heise, and 600 cfs at Lorenzo. Flows will stay around these amounts through the winter. Water storage reigns supreme in the minds of water managers. These flows are great for walk-in-wade fishing, but a bit tough on hard sided boats. They are also hard on resident fish because they are concentrated into certain water types and therefore more susceptible to disease and overfishing. Streamer fishing is by far the best way to fish the river now. Brown trout are migrating and are particularly aggressive, so presenting these patterns around overhead cover, late in the day, or during unsettled weather is the best way to attract them.
Flies to fish:
