The Firehole has been pretty steady this past week - the previously forecast two or three days of overcast didn’t really materialize this past week, and it wasn’t that cool on the West side of the Park. 

That should change this weekend.

The Firehole’s flow rate today at 0600 near Madison junction was 221 cfs, with today’s mean 272 cfs, and the 20% marker 233 cfs.  She’s been pretty steady in this range for the past week;  there’s been no meaningful rain in the drainage this past week.

Water temps on the upper river have looked much better again this week - at the upper Firehole gauge station near Old Faithful peak temps have been 59 or less all week.  The lower river below the canyon is still heating up quite high during the sunny days - temperature peaks have still been running to nearly 68 F the past three days.

For this warm and sunny weekend coming - smaller terrestrials (mainly hoppers)  with droppers can make sense;  but we’ve had more luck with smaller tan caddis prominent in the afternoons and early evenings, as well as a few small (18-20) midges.  Baetis (and Mahoganies) will be available on the cloudy and overcast days - we’re headed back to fish the forecast cold and wet day tomorrow. 

When on the water Wednesday we say a fair number of quite small BWOs - in the  20-22 range, make sure you have some of the little BWOs in the box.

This could be the weather transition we’ve all been waiting for to bring the Firehole back to life…time will tell….

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Flies to have in the box:

Dries:  baetis - BWO, Blue Dun, Olive Sparkle Dun, Para-adams; Caddis - EHC, X Caddis, - tan, olive, black;  Midges - Suspender midgle, disco midge, your favorites you can see; your attractor package

Nymphs: San Juan Worm, red, brown, tan; PT; BHPT; BH Hares Ear, Copper John, olive; BH Prince; Lightning bugs, gold, silver, green/olive

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, brown, yellow, olive, black; Sparkle buggers, same colors; Girdle bug; Zonkers, assorted

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