Jackson Hole Fly Fishing Report 2.22.12

I ran the first wade fishing trip of the year today with Paul Combe from Boston.  It’s been snowy all month and the skiing has been fantastic, so I’ve been on the hill and not on the Snake.  A relatively warm storm rolled in yesterday with good snowfall up high and a rain/sleet/snow mix here in the valley. I called Paul and made sure he wanted to still go fishing in the windy, wet weather and he told me it was his birthday.  So we went… I kept my expectations low as we pulled on our snowshoes and headed out from the Wilson Bridge. We walked for a bit and then hopped into the river.  There were a bunch of Gray Midges on the water and even a couple larger Black Midges as well. No signs of risers, but still encouraging! We nymphed a riffle/run for about an hour with no success.  I started to wonder what we were doing and thought “Well, at least we’re getting some good exercise…”  We each had a swig of coffee to warm our insides from standing in the cold river and moved to the end of the run to see if any fish were in the trough against the bank. Sure enough we got into a few!  A few whitefish and then a couple of trout ate a #18 Black Zebra Midge. The last fish of the day turned out to be 19″! I assured Paul that was solid for this time of year and he grinned wide as he strapped his snowshoes back on…

Happy Birthday Paul!