BACKWATER ANGLER

Memorial day weekend is over. Water flow on the Gunpowder river is 84 CFs and clear . Morning water temperatures at Falls Rd are still in the 63-64 F range, and afternoon Gunpowder river water temps have been on the rise. Yesterday afternoon a water temperature of 72 F was reported just above the high trail pool. Further downstream, at Big Falls Rd, a reading of 70F was recorded this morning, a little more than 6 miles below the dam.

Which prompted a few questions from anglers this weekend that can be summarized as:

What’s going on with the water?

To answer this loaded question I’ve used excerpts from the fishing report blog archives to give water temperature and fishing for Memorial day weekend a historical context.

2007: The Gunpowder river is clear and flowing at 85 Cfs.Water temps at Falls Rd through Masemore are 63 to 64 F. We’ve had Caddis and Sulphurs for a solid two weeks now.

2006:The river is low, clear and warm at 66 F.Midday fishing has been tough. Spinner falls in the evening have been slight but with a few warm evenings ahead try your luck close to dark with a #16 or smaller dun trailed by a #14-16 spinner. 7x tippet will make a difference…

2005:The river is in great shape. It is clear and at 120 Cfs. Dave just stopped in to report seeing a hundred and fifty rises in about an hour and a half yesterday at Masemore. He’s been fishing the river for 25 years and is out today enjoying the sunshine.

2004:These fishing reports were to good to keep to myself…Thanks to Russ and Greg for submitting them for all to enjoy.

2003:Currently the gauge at Falls Rd. reads 2.3 and flow is 201CFs, water temp is 50F and the water is a little off. Yesterday lots of anglers were casting to rising fish as the Sulphurs made their presence known.

Note:In 2004 and 2005 water temps recorded during the same week of the related posts was in the high 50’s in 2004 and 52-54F in 2005.

The trend of warmer water temps flowing in the Gunpowder river the past two years has allowed for larger and more varied hatches, (more species) faster growth rates among the wild browns and stocked Kamloops rainbows, and more enjoyable wet wading. Oh, about the insects…we’re still seeing Caddis, sized #16-18 and Sulphurs in the #12 to #16 range sporadically throughout the day, but mostly mornings for caddis as the river is cool and late evenings for ulphurs as the water is cooling from Falls Rd through Bunkerhill Rd access points. Midday fly fishing has not been as productive but with a gate change in the works this week we should get back to a more traditional emergence of Sulphur duns and caddis from 2:00 till 6:00 PM with Sulphur Spinners returning around dusk through dark.