We are starting to see substantial reductions in the flows on the Crooked, which has been stepped down to about 200cfs in the past couple of days. The fishing has been great with tons of opportunity to fish nymphs, dries, and small streamer patterns to hungry Redsides. The standby nymph rig of a Scud or Mayfly nymph followed by a midge pattern is a good place to start. We’ve also been finding fish on small Stonefly patterns and Caddis larva/pupa. There have been strong hatches of both PMDs and the dark-bodied Mother’s Day Caddis in the past week, and at this point the cool weather hasn’t seemed to have put the bugs down too much. Swinging Wooly Buggers, Slump Busters, and similar patterns can be very productive as the flows transition to the lower levels we are starting to see, and a swung Caddis Pupa is always a solid option during the Mother’s Day hatch. We’ve received encouraging reports from our guides regarding the average size of the fish in the river this year. There great numbers of fish are continuing to grow and we’ve seen a couple of really nice-sized Redsides landed in the past couple of weeks.
Suggested Dries: Black October Caddis #14-18, Peacock Caddis #14-18, Black Foam Caddis #14-18, Purple Haze #14-18, X-Caddis #14-18, Cutters Caddis #14-18, Parachute PMD #16-18, Tilt Wing PMD #16-18, Parachute Adams #14-18
Suggested Nymphs: Black or Purple Zebra Midge #16-20, Black Winker’s Midge #18-20, Black Rainbow Warrior #18-20, Black Tailwater Tiny #18-20, Red or Black Two Bit Hooker #16-20, Olive or Brown Micro Mayfly #16-20, Olive Soft Hackle #14-18, Olive or Tan Sparkle Pupa #14-18, Black Lightning Bug #16-20, BH Pheasant Tail #16-20, BH Hare’s Ear #16-20, Hare’s Ear Soft Hackle #16-20