The Gibbon River persists with its split personality this week.  The upper river has cooled a bit and sections are quite fishable; the lower is at risk in our opinion.

The water temp in the lower river near Madison Junction hit very close to or above 70 F at least three days last week, and weather this coming week is due to be unseasonably warm.  Flows remain very low - 83 cfs this morning at 0600, with today’s average 93 cfs, and the 20% marker 85 cfs.

Even though restrictions on the entire river were lifted last week on the 22nd, our suggestion is that you don’t fish any of the Gibbon below Norris this week given the very warm week forecast.

At this point the meadows above Norris (it’s busy around the campground) are fishing pretty well with attractor dries with a flashy dropper and terrestrial patterns.  Try the attractors in the late mornings and hopper/dropper rigs during the afternoons and early evenings.  Smaller hoppers are performing better currently. 

Summer hatches are for the most part finished on the Gibbon now, but you might find some sporadic caddis in the evenings.  There might be an early Baetis out on the cooler, cloundy days.  Fall is coming, let’s protect this resource a bit longer and get to the cooler days.

If you’re new to our site, please check out our How to Best Use This Site page.

Flies to have in the box:

Dries:  Caddis - Goddard, Slow Water, EHC, Hot Butt Caddis (green peacock), X Caddis; Wulffs - Royal, blonde; PMDs are probably finished, but have a few in the box;  Baetis - it’s probably a bit early but it won’t be long; Your attractor package

Nymphs:  Lightning Bugs, green, gold, silver; PT- BH, FB; Copper John - original, red; San Juan worms, red, brown, olive, black; Soft Hackles, various; Rubberlegs, black, brown

Terrestials: Hoppers - Grand, Whit, Dave’s, Carnage, Kicking, Hoppinator; Beetles- Fire, Foam, HiVis, Sam’s;  Ants - Chernobyl, ParaAnt, black and cinnamon, CDC Flying ant, black, brown, cinnamon; Epoxy, same colors

Streamers:  Wooly Buggers, olive, brown, black

Technorati Tags: ,

Tags: River: Gibbon