Patagonia's got a New Wading Boot Sometime in February, I was in Paul Considine’s office, who is our fly fishing buyer at North 40 Fly Shop.  We were going over spring travel plans, and fairly sarcastically he said, “Patagonia’s got a new wading boot… it’s $500 and they want us to come check it out in Portland.”  “Why Portland?” I asked.  “Danner is going to make it.”  I think we both thought that it was interesting but there was no way we were going to interrupt a busy schedule to fly to Portland in the middle of the week to see a $500 boot.  Our bestselling premium boots at that moment being about $200 or less. Patagonia's new wading boot won this year's IFTD Overall Best of Show. Here are our picks for Best of IFTD 2018. A few weeks later, Dexter Levandoski, our Patagonia sales representative followed up with ...

Coeur d'Alene River The current flow is 433 cfs at Cataldo and dropping slowly.  Well, summer is officially here folks.  Hot weather and lower summer flows mean picking your battles properly.  Early morning and later afternoon to evening are going to be your best bet now for good fish activity.  Hoppers, beetles and ants and are all on the menu.  Pmd's, caddis and rusty spinners will be your go-to mayflies for each day.  Lots of flying ants are around and the fish are looking for them.  My typical rig for this time of year will be a medium to smaller hopper with rubber legs and then a dropper of a beetle, or a flying ant.  You’ll want to concentrate on the faster riffles and pocket water midday and the undercut banks and against big rock faces with deep water with the hoppers too.  Twitching them is a good thing.  Give them ...

Lochsa River (ID) Flows are at 970 cfs at Lowell. Fishing has been great!  Summertime fishing on the Lochsa can be truly amazing.  Anglers have been reporting catching fish on those same attractors patterns we wrote about last week. Most folks are heading up high on the river past Wilderness Gate-Way. The more productive fishing will be in the tributaries. The water is cooler and crisp for keeping trout happy. I have been told that the construction delays have not been any longer than 15 minutes. If we were you, we would be leaving as early in the morning as your body allows you to, to get up the river. The better fishing on the main stem will be in the morning and later in the evening. Hoppers in the afternoon could bring some fish up if the water temperatures don’t rise too high. North Fork Clearwater River (ID) Flows are 1,520 cfs...

Missouri River If you like wading the Missouri River, your time has come.  The water has fallen below the 6K mark.  It will likely be in the 5K range for some time, but who knows.  It’s been really hard to predict the flows this year.  In any event, the higher waters are over.  From now on, it will be low and likely lower. Nymphs The Zirdle continues to be a popular fly and is still producing for some.  Purple or grape weight flies are another solid go-to.  You’ll want to trail with your favorite scud/sow.  Lots of #14-#18 mayfly patterns are working like the venerable green machine.  It won’t be long before the zebra in #18 and #20 takes center stage again up toward the dam.  Micro mayfly nymphs of the pseudo, trico, bwo variety are always in there.  Further down, you can roll with a larger grouping of ever-popular jig ...

Methow River (WA) The Methow is continuing to drop. The current level is 540 cfs at the Twisp gage station. Just when you think you might get a break from the heat, it goes back up again. The joys of summertime fishing! With that said, I have one word for you, hoppers. From what I've been seeing, depending on where you are at, it doesn’t seem to matter much what color you use. The important thing to do when using hoppers of other foam bugs is to keep twitching it. Dead drifting will not get you as much action as keeping that bug moving. You won't need to lay that bug down on the water nice and quiet. A better explanation would be to make it plop down. Those trout are listening for that sound and it will help get them to key in on your hopper pattern. With water temperatures being what they are, cast into or right on the seam...

Clark Fork River (ID) Flows are bouncing from 4,000 to 35,000 cubic feet per second daily. The river has roughly 5 feet of visibility. Water temperatures are around the upper 60s, and wet wading has never felt so good. Fishing has been good. There are plenty of caddis, PMDs, and western yellow mayflies in the mornings and evenings to keep the trout looking up. Try using dry flies like a #12 light cahill, #16 PMD comparadun, a #14 foam caddis, a #16 brown elk hair caddis, or a #14 purple parachute. If your only window of opportunity is midday, use nymphs like a #14 red three dollar dip, a #14 Taylor’s gut instinct, a #12 hares ear, or a #12 dirty bird. Swinging an olive baby gonga might hook you into something larger than you were expecting. Lake Pend Oreille Water clarity is between 7 to 8-feet, and surface temperatures are around 71-7...

When these clumsy pilots hit the water, a trout’s dinner bell rings loudly. It amazes me how many anglers buy grasshopper flies in May and June. Either they are stocking up so they don't run out come August, or they simply can't wait for the prime time to fish them. In either case, I can’t blame them. Fishing hoppers is one of summer’s best thrills and the opportunity to fish them comes at just the right time—just as matching the minuscule Trico wears you down and you long to throw something big. Grasshoppers spend the first 10 months of their lives as eggs. Once they hatch, they become flightless nymphs. It takes about a month for them to transform into adults, during which the juvenile hoppers molt approximately five times. If you pay attention you’ll probably encounter those nymphs hopping around from late spring into mid-su...

The North Fork of the Clearwater River begins its journey, towards the ocean, in the Bitterroot mountains of eastern Idaho.  The river is roughly 135 miles in length and is blocked by Dworshak dam, a few miles up from its confluence with the main stem of the Clearwater River.  It is host to a variety of species but is best known for its spectacular cutthroat trout fishing and the bull trout that reside in its deep pools.  Once host to thousands of steelhead before it was dammed and off the beaten path, the North Fork provides some of the best dry fly fishing for cutthroat trout in the state of Idaho. We left Lewiston, Idaho to make our way up to our campsite at Aquarius.  It takes a little over two hours to get there as you head west up highway 12 through Orofino.  The campground, at Aquarius, hosts a nice beach, has running water, p...

Fishing new water can be a daunting yet rewarding task. Most will agree that catching a 14-inch cutthroat on a new river is more gratifying than catching one from your local watering hole. Fly fishing seems to lose its freshness if you fish the same caddis hatch on the same stretch of river day after day. When you start to name the fish you catch and remember where they feed every evening, it’s time to explore a different river or lake. What’s even worse is if the fish start to recognize you! If you start to see that “Good evening, Tom” look from the brown trout’s eyes after you put it into the net, it’s time to move to the other side of the country and start over. Once you arrive in Maryland..., you will want to follow these 10 tips to figure out how and where to fish. 1. Visit your Local Flyshop Fly shop employees have a we...