The Fall River is another one of the lesser visited rivers in the Park during the summer;  for another in the same southeastern sector of the Park, see our Bechler River update post from yesterday.  Like the Bechler, things haven’t changed a great deal in the past week. 

Like the Bechler, its remote setting also makes it a bit harder for us to obtain reliable updates -  we’ve got a buddy headed up the Bechler drainage this weekend, we’ll have some better data shortly.

The overwhelming theme of the information we’ve been able to garner in the past two weeks is that the Fall River continues to runn incredibly low this late summer, almost at record levels.  Local guides are still predicting the Fall’s flows will tumble to record low levels before the seasonal rains in September and October.

There is only one flow gauge on the Fall that is continuously monitored, it’s on the river outside the Park border, above the Yellowstone Canal near Squirrel, ID.  The river was flowing at 515 cfs this morning at 0845, with today’s average 703 cfs, and the 20% flow marker 529 cfs.  The Feds don’t report temperature recordings from this gauge station, but certainly the opinion of those we spoke with is that water temps have been running dangerously high most of the summer, particularly on the lower river.

Don’t forget the Fall River below Rainbow Falls remains under a Park advisory - it is not to be fished between the hours of 2 PM and 5 AM.

All that said, this is still a river running through one of the most fantastic areas on earth, and there is fishing to be done.

The weather has been a bit cooler this past week as compared to the week before, and we may (note I said may) be due a cooler trend next week - it’s about time.  Before the cooler weather it will be windy - there’s a red flag warning for the lower river area today. 

The overwhelming concensus is that for the bulk of the day you have two best choices for prospecting when the hatches aren’t active - a terrestrial dropper rig (hoppers, beetles and ants are working, generally smaller sizes) as well as a smaller hopper - dropper rig.  Standard nymph droppers will work, though most folks are using smaller bead heads (BH prince/hares ear/your favorite) and Lightning bugs.
 
Hatches working include primarily include PMDs (mostly early AM) and Caddis (mostly after 2 PM), there might be a few midges earlier in the day. 

As noted above, the higher you go, the better hatches and fishing are likely to be.

If you have been in and fished the river, we will gladly credit you for information we can post in an update, please shoot us an email!  As we get more data, we’ll provide better information to you.

If you’re new to the site, check our How to Best Use This Site Page.

Flies to Have in the Box

Dries:  PMX, red, yellow, black and lime; Parachute PMD;  Electric Caddis, olive; Emergent Spakle Pupa; Parachute caddis; X Caddis, olive, black; Poly Wing Caddis;

Nymphs:  BHFBPT; SF PT; Copper John;  Caddis - Mangy,

Pulsating/Electric, Super Pupas; Prince / MegaPrince / BH Prince; Lightning bugs, gold, silver;

Terrestrials:  Grand Hopper, tan; Parachute Hopper; Daves Hopper; Ants- variety: Beetles - Foam, Fire, smaller

Streamers / Other:  Black Bugger; Bow River Bugger; Girdle Bug; Orange/brown rubberlegs

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