Burrr. It’s kinda cold, I’m thinking while Sittin in the dentist chair today. Above me, on the ceiling, is a picture of a drift boat floating in Teton park. Two dudes casting away, having a good old time. The guy in the middle, I strain to see clearly past the fingers and drill. He looks happy too. Is the gas even on? I’ll bet not, just air. They rip ya off that way, I’m sure. Maybe not though. Maybe it’s on to high and I’m trippin out! Maybe the guy in the middle is happy. He looks happy. If I was there, I would be happy. I’m in a dentist chair listening to easy hits and trippin on whether the guy in the middle is happy. Hey! I know that dude! He was a blast our senior year in 1987. All he ever wanted to do is fish and have fun. When he took the apptitude test in high school it said he was best suited as a “fun loving millionaire” or a fishing guide. I wonder what ever happened to that dude? I’ll bet he out grew the fishing thing. Had to, I’ll bet. His wife made him. All those kids and work. There is no way that guy kept fishing and having fun. I’ll bet he went to school and got a job right out of collage like most people. I’m sure he married a strict ( but oddly hot) collage girl. Most likely white coller, government or medical field, I’d bet. Had to move to the mid west and lives in a town of half a million people and commutes. Let’s see, dude is same age as me, He’ll be retiring in 15 years with full bennys. Wish I had bennys like him. I’ll bet his company would pay for all the stuff there doing to me right now. Whats that? Were done, I try to say through the Novicain and the goo goo gas. No say’s the big head with the shinny sharp thing. Is fishing fun? He said. Obviousely noticing my trance on the Teton photo. Ya… I say. I know the guy in the middle of that boat. We went to different schools together. Wow, small world, big head says. Does he still fish? Ya….He never did any thing else.

 

Snow Pack data for January 14th, 2010

I have been watching the snowpack a fair amount lately, not so much for fishing but because of an upcoming ski trip.  We are quite a bit below average and way below where we were this time last year.  Here’s the chart from the National Resources Conservation Service…63% not so great so far, but there is a lot of winter ahead of us, and still a lot of water in the reservoir as well.  Here is the link to the snow pack data if you want to continue to follow our progress.

http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/nrcs/updatesur/update-id.sno

SNAKE BASIN ABOVE PALISADES

                Basin wide percent of average     63%

 

Thanks for a great year!

On behalf of all the staff at The Lodge at Palisades Creek I would like to thank everyone who fished with us in 2009.   We had an excellent summer fishing with old friends and getting to know some new ones.  With great water this summer we had some of the most consistent fishing ever.   A special thanks has to go out to the many guests that came out to fish twice this summer…you know who you are..the lucky ones, Brummell, Miller, Nahorniak, Smith, Wertzberger…awesome.

We are still open for day trips and all the guides are excited about the fishing this fall.  The first real cold weather is expected to arrive this week and the we are eagerly anticipating a great Blue Winged Olive hatch and some aggressive Brown Trout.  If you want to catch that trophy Brown invest in some time on the river in October and November.  Call 208-483-2222 to book your day trip.

Thanks again for a great year.

Tight Lines,

Chris Jensen

Pat Kelly with a nice Rainbow…Is that a motor Pat?

An early morning Brown

What we all come for a “Cutty” on a dry fly.

Another type of Rainbow

 

Dry Fly Fishing at its Finest

August fishing can be hit or miss depending on our snow pack and summer temperatures.  During a drought year we often find ourselves nymphing on bright/hot/sunny/hot…did I say hot afternoons.   Well this summer nymphing is just a distant memory.  With temperatures in the 70’s…and a few days last week barely in the 60’s the dry fly fishing has been excellent.  We are seeing thick hatches of PMD’s, Caddis, Golden Stones, and even a few Blue Winged Olives last week on the cold cloudy afternoons.   We are also finding a lot of fish willing to eat hoppers.  Fishing has been so consistent this summer that many of our guests who came out in July or early August are booking a second or even third trip in September.  We look forward to seeing everyone whether it’s your first trip or your third for 2009.

Good Fishing,

Chris “Jigidy” Jensen

 

Stable flows + Great Hatches = Great fishing

The flow out of Palisades Dam has stabilized at 12,695 cfs.  This is a perfect flow, the water is cold and clear and we are getting good hatches of Pale Morning Dun’s, Caddis, and Golden Stones.  The river has been fishing very consistently on each section, fishing Golden Stone patterns tight to the banks, occasionally with a bead head dropper seems to be the best way to find the big fish.  The PMD’s start hatching around 1:00 and that means it’s time to find a riffle.  The fish have been more picky this year on the PMD’s and most of the guides have had the best success fishing emergers.

Fishing should remain very good this summer with all our cold water this year….looking forward to more Golden Stones and Hoppers in a few weeks.

Hope to see you soon!

Chris ‘jigidy’ Jensen

 

It’s On!

Salmon Flies, Golden Stones, Sallies, PMD’s.  They are all out!  Now is the time to be on the South Fork.  Flows are dropping each day, the water is clear and about 1:o0 each day ther river “Goes Off!”

Do what you must, but hit the river this week.

Jigidy

Here’s a fun video for you as well

 

Intrepid Anglers

With flows at 23,000 cfs coming out of Palisades Dam most outfitters have reported that the river is not fishing at all and conditions are “unsafe.”  But I remember flows in the 30,000 range in 1997 and happily guiding at 20,000 cfs so when John Rosser and Steve Beck showed up at the lodge for a few days of fishing I was happy to see what the river would have to offer.  Nobody had been out on the river since the flows went up so team Rosser was prepared for a “scenic” float through the canyon.  But low and behold…find a fishy looking spot…make a good cast…catch a fish!  We enjoyed a couple of good days on the water catching all our fish on nyphms but enjoying having the river all to ourselves!

When Gig Brummell heard that the fishing was actually pretty good he and his wife Jean along with their son Craig and a group of friends all decided to keep their dates and come on up.  They scored as well, keeping their nypmhs in the fishy water payed off with some big browns, lots for rainbows, a smattering of cutthroat and at time a few too many whitefish.  Each day the fishing improves and we have even managed to catch a couple fish on sallies and golden stones.

Flows have been stable now for nearly a week and we are anticipating the flows to start dropping quite dramatically any day now.  There have been good numbers of Sallies, PMD’s, Golden Stones, and even a few Salmon Flies flies flying around.  As flows drop the river should “Go Off!”

Stay tuned…enjoy the pictures.

Gig living up to his nickname “Big Fish”

Steve showing the world it’s possible at 23,000 cfs

Jean’s new nickname “Dry Fly Lady”

Gig proves once again that big fish can’t resist a well placed stonefly nymph

 

Damn…Dam…Pretty much shut us down

The flows on Sunday went from a managable 18,000 to 20,000 cfs and then on Monday to a staggering 23,000 cfs.  That type of flow makes it pretty difficult to row, let a lone catch a fish.  We are hoping the river is peaking today or at least in the next couple of days.  Check out the flow prediction page from the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service.

Dropping!

It looks like flows should be back to a more “fishable” stage by the end of the month.  Until then…I might go fish for some carp!

Here’s the link to the flow prediction page http://ahps2.wrh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=pih&gage=PALI1

Thanks for reading,

Chris

 

High Water Father’s Day

My Dad and I got out to do a little fishing on Father’s Day on the South Fork.  With the high water (20,000 cfs by mid-day Sunday) we weren’t expecting much and we were working on a limited time frame so the South Fork was pretty much our only option.  While doing ‘yard’ work in the morning we managed to land two fish right behind the cabin so we knew it was possible to catch some fish.  Our friend Luke joined us for the quick afternoon trip.  We fished some of my favorite spots around the falls on the ‘upper’ .  Luke caught two nice rainbows on a streamer before I even had a fly on my rod, and we managed to catch 5 or 6 more on nymphs plus the token whitefishies, while dodging the seemingly ever present thunder showers.  Which by the way are supposed to be done this week!  Come on sunshine!

All in all the fishing is not bad right now all things considered, the fish are in their usual spots…riffles, hiding behind logs, etc.  And seem willing to eat well placed nymphs and streamers.   With the reservoir officially at 100% capacity we are at the mercy of the inflows but hopefully those will be dropping in the next several days.  As flows drop and the water warms…the big bugs…aka Salmon Flies should start appearing on the lower river.

Stay tuned.

Chris

 

A great start to the 09 season…but wait not so fast.

TLAPC officially opened it’s doors this past week and with consistent river flows of 10,700 cfs for several weeks the fishing was good considering the water is still off color and there isn’t any dry fly action.  We had 8 boats going out on Monday and Tuesday and everbody caught fish while dodging rain showers and watching strike indicators. The water temperature was 50 degrees and all the guides were excited that the Salmon Flies were probably just days away.

Marshall Geller the lodge owner decided to stay an extra day as he has some friends coming into the lodge so he asked if I was available to fish with him on Wedneday.. I said let’s do it.  We were both looking forward to a nice day on the river together as it had been several years since we had fished.  The forecast was for rain, but that wasn’t the bad news, we quickly found out that the river had been raised overnight to 14,000 cfs…bummer…huge bummer.  That type of jump almost certaintly puts the fish down and with rain in the forecast we almost bailed to go see a movie in Idaho Falls.  But it wasn’t raining yet and you don’t own a fishing lodge to go see movies in I.F…so we decided to give it a shot.  The fishing was really slow but not impossible we managed to find several fish in riffles and side channels and as the day went on it seemed like the fish were starting to feed a little bit more.  All the fish we caught were on nymphs and it didn’t rain that much at all, in fact we finished the day with sunny skies and smiling faces.  We were both glad we spent the day outside on the river.

Now for the bad news…that was yesterday (Wednesday)…the river is up to nealy 18,000 cfs today and could go up even more in the coming days.  With all the rain we have had (18 days in a row now) the reservoirs are all full and their is simply nothing to do with the water except let it flow.  Hopefully flows will stabilize in a week or so.  Remember you can click the link in the column on the right side of this page for current flow information and we will keep you updated on the fishing and flows right here.

Keep your fingers crossed for low flows!

Chris “Jigidy” Jensen

Scott get’s one by “The Falls”

Doug knows how to find the Brown Trout