Fishing season is officially open again in Idaho. It’s been a few years since spring runoff has had an effect on the opening weekend, but this year we are getting lucky with a decent runoff to help fill our reservoirs and ease the drought. It won’t make it go away, but every drop counts these days. The important thing is, despite some muddy rivers, we still have the best spring creek in the nation sitting in our backyard.
Silver Creek has started the season with decent weather and a lot of kind anglers. Baetis and PMDs are the main bugs hatching. A few hot days and we could start seeing Green Drakes on the Silver Creek Preserve and even Brown Drakes on the waters near Picabo Bridge. If you don’t want to play match the hatch, then consider Ants and Beetles. Anglers can get away with some pretty oversized patterns the first few weeks of the season. The big black stink bugs are well represented with Black Chubbies and other foam flies.
The other effect from runoff will be a few more anglers than normal on the Creek as the season begins. For the past few years anglers could find other places to fish with the lower river levels. The tailwaters will still fish well early this season. Consider the South Fork of the Boise or the Big Lost rivers if you want a change from Silver Creek the next few weeks. Both tailwaters fish relatively well with small attractors, terrestrial patterns and nymphs before the season’s first big Stonefly hatches on the South Fork and the Baetis hatches of the Lost River. Keep an eye on the flows, though, as they can change from fishable and boatable flows to quite the opposite very quickly. If you see the flows change, give the systems a few days for the fish to resettle into their favorite haunts and lies.
With a brand new season upon us and plenty of new norms to go along with it, we ask everyone to please stay kind, remain patient and mostly keep in mind that, at the end of the day, it’s just fishing. The act of going fishing is where it’s at. Catching the fish is fun, but never let that simple act become bigger than just being out there alone or with those you love. We’re all just trying to have fun and we can certainly do it together.
Happy fishing, everyone!