[ARCHIVE] Stillwater River Report 05/28/18

Flows should decline a bit from the extremely high water earlier in the week, but will still likely be high and off color. The upper river may clear enough later this week to fish, but it’s an iffy proposition. If so, nymphing is likely the best option, with black, brown and coffee colored rubber leg patterns like girdle bugs and Pat’s rubber legs, or a san juan worm as well as similar colored stonefly patterns along with a beadhead trailer fly like a prince nymph, hare’s ear, batman or pheasant tail. Fish the very edge seams. In off-color water, use a color contrast of darker color patterns like black buggers or the Grinch either dead drifted or stripped. There is still a great deal of runoff ahead of us, and the river is likely to continue to fluctuate in response to temperatures and rain events. Look for smaller tributaries, tail waters and lakes to fish in the meantime.