Water levels are good on the Crooked, but we’ve seen a lot of sediment and algae moving through the system which has put the fishing off to some extent. There are still fish to be caught, but we aren’t seeing the consistent, seemingly endless action that the Crooked sometimes produces. There are decent numbers of Caddis and PMDs out on most days, but the off colored water seems to have put the fish down a little and dry fly fishing is sporadic at best. We’ve been seeing our best numbers with the standard Crooked indicator rig of small Mayflies, Caddis, and Midges. Darker patterns that have a good solid outline for fish to see have been our top producers, and we’ve been fishing slightly larger patterns (#14-18 for Mayflies and Caddis, #16-18 for Midges) with reasonable success. A swung leech pattern or small streamer can be a good bet in these conditions, and can entice some of the larger fish we’ve started to see in the Crooked this year. It’s hard to say when things will pick back up but I would think water conditions and fish behavior will improve relatively soon. The heat of summer typically offers great Caddis hatches and excellent fishing on the Crooked, check back for updates as conditions change!
Suggested Dries: Black Foam Bodied Caddis #14-16, Black Elk Hair Caddis #14-16, Purple Haze #14-18, X Caddis #14-16, Tilt Wing PMD #14-18, Parachute PMD #14-18, Hackle Stacker PMD #14-18
Suggested Nymphs: Black or Purple Zebra Midge #16-18, Black or Red Winker’s Midge #18-20, Black Beadwing Midge #16-20, Black or Pearl Rainbow Warrior #16-20, Micro Mayfly #16-18, Olive Anato-May #14-18, Black or Red Copper John #14-18, Black or Red Lightning Bug #14-18, Copper Microstone #14-16