Salmonfly Hatch Update, Tuesday Evening May 28, 2013 Colorado River
May 29th, 2013
Tuesday saw the greatest dry fly action yet for this year’s hatch. Action early in the day was just a bit slow to get going but, by late morning things started to heat up. Once again, a dry-dropper rig proved advantageous in determining when to switch to a straight up dry fly offering. We caught fish on big foam dries like Designated Hitters and Half-Cocked Salmonfly to name just a couple. Really, all of the big orange stuff was catching fish today. When we did fish a dropper, Kaufman Stone Nymph and Rubberlegs were solid, as well as a few fish that even took Beaded Hares Ear.
Conditions continue to improve, as stream flows at Kremmling have dropped slightly over the past couple of days with clarity now on the positive side of 2 feet. The bulk of the hatch is still distributed from Gore Canyon on down to Radium. It is interesting to note that as of yet we have not seen a widespread emergence below Sheephorn Creek down to Rancho. We have a theory on this based on water temps coming from Sheephorn being colder due to being mostly snow melt. The upside to this is we think that the emergence here will come slightly later as water temps warm and we will see the hatch prolong, thus keeping this great action going.
As far as the forecast for the current emergence, the hatch generally lasts 5 to 7 days, with 10 days being an optimistic long shot. That being said, if you want to hit it before it ends, take your sick days now and get to the river.