The Fly Shop

Green River Fishing Report:

March 13:

With a warm, mild winter; and a mild, albeit windy spring upon us, It’s time for Spring fishing on the Green River. We are currently seeing low flow conditions on the river (800-850cfs), and with current conditions anticipate the fish being selective early. Be ready with fluorocarbon tippet, in smaller sizes (5x-6x), for nymphs. And longer (9’+) monofilament leaders, for dries (again terminating in 5-6x). The river is quite wadable in many spots, just anticipate sharing the water in high traffic areas, and plan to share deeper navigable areas with the passing boats.

The A Section:

As with most springtimes, anticipate the fish to be primarily feeding on worms, sowbugs, and midges. Hot patterns for nymphing,can include but are not limited to:

- San Juan Worms (Red, Brown)

- Ray Charles - (Grey, White, and Tan; sizes 16-18)

- Zebra Midges - (Black, Red, Brown, Wine; sizes 18-20)

- Grey Soft Hackle - (sizes 18-20)

Nymphing with a 6’-9’ long nymph rig (to the bottom fly/weight) will tend to be the most successful. Anticipate earlier in the day for the fish to be more keyed into the worm and sowbug. With them accepting the Midge more readily in the late morning, and into the afternoon. There have been a few Blue Winged Olives on the water, and while they may not be a prime food source, it could be worth having a few of these in your box as well

Dry fly opportunities will depend on the wind and the hatch activity. When the conditions are firing, you can have an opportunity to trick some surface feeding fish on small midge and cluster patterns. 

- Griffith’s Gnat (sizes 16-22)

- Fuzzball (sizes 16-22) 

- Parachute Adam’s (sz. 18-24)

- Brooks Sprout Midges (sz 20-22)

- BWO Film Critic (sz. 18-20)

There are a few fish to be found on Streamers still, but with higher crowds, on brighter days, anticipate them being tricky. Fishing your favorite single hook or articulated streamers will still work fine, This time of year the fish tend to favor Black, White, Olive, Grey, and Olive/Copper, and Rainbow colors. Streamers like the Mini Gonga, Sex Dungeon, and ever popular Wooly Bugger are good choices. Try fishing them on an intermediate, or type 3, sink tip fly line, and a slower, less jerky retrieve tends to attract more strikes.

The B Section:

As with the A section, the B Section is seeing similar feeding activity to the A section, with the possibility of seeing some Winter Stones on warm sunny days. When you see a lot of fish rising to Dries this time of year, you can sometimes get away with a small cricket or ant pattern. And you can typically size up your tippet to 4x.

- Double Ugly (size 12-16)

- Swisher’s PMX Cricket (12-16)

- Chubby Chernobyl (Black sz 14)

The Streamer is fishing better on B than the other sections currently, similar colors and line weights to the A.

John Sparger