Report by: SMITTY
Friday, March 12th, 2010
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Today’s Fish rating
Upriver: 4.5
Walk-In: No Report
Key: 1 = Go fish somewhere else
10 = Rent a helicopter and get here now!
Today’s Weather: Sunny, High 54 Low 33
The weather is telling us that spring is just around the corner! Cool mornings and nice comfortable afternoons. Blue skies and sunshine!!!
Crowd Rating
Upriver: 1.0 No Crowds
Walk In: 1.0 No Crowds
Key: 1 = Sleep late and fish where you want.
10 = Very crowded, get up early
Fly Fishing: The fish should be happy with the weather we are having today! It’s hard to forecast how the river will fish on a day to day basis. With some days better then others, due to weather and other conditions. There are many signs that this river is ready to pop. Trout are down deep and waiting for prime conditions. With Spring coming soon, warmer weather will follow, bringing more midge hatches. We’ll get a day of nice weather in between 2 or 3 of bad, and its not enough. With the right weather mixed with the right flows, fishing at Lees Ferry should explode.
March flows will bring the fish out of their deep winter holding areas and into the shallows to feed. Zebra midges, crystal midges, the black midge X, laser midges, glo-bugs, and San Juan Worms have all been producing fish in both deep water and shallow bars.
Walk in: I fished the walk-in just yesterday. The weather was perfect and the fish knew it. I only fished for a couple of hours and landed a good number of fish. Spring feels as though, it is just around the corner and bug activity is good…so the right flows+ more bugs + more fish= happy campers!!! San Juan Worms and Zebra midges were the ticket.
Spin Fishing: Spin fishing is reported as being successful. Bouncing glo-bugs on the bottom with some weight is the rig of choice. Treble hooked gold or silver lures such as Panther Martins and Rapalas, as well as marabou jigs are a couple of more choices you can go with. You might want to clip one hook off of the treble and give them a sporting chance.
• If you have some news you would like to report about fishing lees ferry, the walk-in section or up river please e-mail your report to: anglers@leesferry.com Attn. Lees Ferry Fishing Report
• We would be happy to have your input, and pass it along.
Fishing synopsis and forecast by Terry Gunn
Recent Fishing Conditions: Spring weather has finally arrived; thank goodness! It has been a tough winter from a weather perspective. In a normal winter we might get snow that sticks for a couple of hours, two or three times each winter. This winter we saw it snow 15 or 20 times; we have had over 3-in of moisture since the first of the year which is half our normal annual rainfall. So the arrival of spring is more welcome this year than most.

The best part of spring is the prolific midge hatches that occur as the days warm and the sun rises higher in the sky and sunlight returns to the canyon. The fishing is just now really starting to turn on as the midge hatches increase in magnitude, duration, and frequency.

Current water flows are just about perfect for wading and drifting and will remain at this level through May and possibly June depending on snow pack. Currently the snow pack in the Rockies is 80% of normal; however, March and April are often times of heavy snowfall in the Rockies.

Currently the fish are staging to move into the riffles to feed on the emerging midges. Many of the fish are holding in the deeper water at the tails of the riffles and are most easily reached by anchoring the boat in the deeper water and drifting a long leader midge rig into the slower water on the seam of the riffle. This will likely change soon, as the midge hatches increase and the fish move into the shallow water to feed on the concentrated midges.

The spawn has been a so-so event this winter, although the historic peak of the spawn has yet to arrive, (March 15) so it is not out of the question that we could still get a decent spawn. Most of the larger fish decided to take the month of February off; during this period we caught very few larger fish and lots of smaller (13 to15”) fish. I attribute this to the fact that most of the big fish were staging in the deeper water to prepare for the spawn. Most all the recent spawning activity has been taking place in deep water and more redds are appearing every day. A weak spawn this year would not be a real problem since we have such a large population of small fish from the prolific spawn that took place two years ago following the spike flow.

Fish Behavior 101.
Why fish eat and why they don’t.

“Any man who claims to understand fish is a fool.” TG

“When you are guiding; some days you will be the dog, other days you’ll be the tree.” TG

Fish are weird; there is just no getting around it. One day they are jumping in the boat, the next, they are nowhere to be found. Some people say that this is what keeps bringing us back to the stream, that this uncertainty we call “fishing” makes us more competitive. After all these years I do understand a little about fish and I would like to share some ideas on why fish are happy one day and not the next.

First and foremost the fish have to be present in the area of water that you are fishing.
Fish are not always going to be in the same spot. This is especially true at Lees Ferry where you have water that fluctuates on a daily and monthly basis. A spot that is stacked with fish at one flow may be a “fish desert” at another level.

FOOD and SHELTER: the two things that determine the location of fish.
If there is no food present there is no reason for a fish to be in a specific location. However, if you find the highest concentration of food, you will always find the highest concentration of fish, assuming that this concentration of food has been present long enough for the fish to locate it.

At Lees Ferry we have two different feeding plots (each with hundreds of sub-plots). The first is PROLIFIC MIDGE HATCHES. Midges hatch throughout the year; however, by far the largest hatches occur in the spring. The lifecycle of a midge is very similar to a butterfly; the adult midge’s sole purpose is to make babies. In a nut shell, this is how it works…the adult midge mates with other midges in a swarm, then the female lands on the water to lay the fertilized eggs, she stays on the water for a second or so then flies off the water and then lands again to lay more eggs (this is a survival mechanism which helps protect her from being eaten by a fish). The eggs slowly sink and eventually hatch into a larvae (think of a tiny caterpillar) the midge lives as a larvae for a long time, living in the algae and mud. Then though some miracle of nature the midge larvae get a call to pupate in mass, (think of a butterfly chrysalis). As they pupate the midge slowly floats to the surface. The size and color of the midge pupae varies with the specie and with 50 different species of midges inhabiting Lees Ferry we have a large variety of sizes and colors of pupae. When the pupae reaches the surface, the midge hatches through the husk and the adult midge crawls out, dries his wings and flies off to repeat the entire process.

Fish do feed on adult midges but mostly on the carcasses of dead midges that accumulate in back-eddies. The importance of a midge as a food source occurs in the emerging stage. When midges hatch they often do so in mass numbers and for long durations. The fish know this is happening and move into the riffles to feed on the emerging midges.

WHY DO FISH MOVE INTO RIFFLES TO FEED ON MIDGES?
Midge pupae are small, anywhere from a size #18 to #30. It takes a lot of midges to sustain a Lees Ferry trout; however, if you were to measure the midges as a percentage of total biomass, they far exceed all other food sources combined. Riffles are areas of river where the water transitions from very shallow to slowly deeper water. Do not confuse “points” with riffles, they look similar, however, the water on “points” transitions from shallow to deep in a short area. Fish move into the shallowest part of the riffles to feed on the CONCENTRATED MIDGES. Imagine if you had a thousand midges in a column of water that was 3-feet deep or 6-inches deep, the midges are going to be much more concentrated in the 6-inch deep water. This is why we often tell people that they are wading in areas that they should be fishing.

The other kicker to midge hatches is water volume: as the water flow increase the midge hatches decrease. This is something that I do not understand but I know it to be true. So the best midge fishing is always in lower water flows. If I were to put a number to it I would say the best midge fishing is in water less than 14,000-cfs. This is why in the spring, (March, April, and May) some of our best fishing is on the weekends when the water is at the lowest level of the week. We often see good midge hatches in September and October, but not the swarms that happen in the spring.

The other situation that makes fish eat at Lees Ferry is HIGH WATER FLOWS. Anytime the water flows are high (above 16,000-cfs) food is dislodged, moved around, and transported by the current. Here we are talking about WORMS and SCUDS. High water flows normally occur 4 months each year, the 2 hottest months, July and August, and the 2 coldest months, December and January…this is all about electrical demand and high demand equals high flows. There are exceptions and high flows can occur at other times if there is a high lake level in Lake Powell and high runoff into the lake. This happened 1983-86 and a couple of other times in the 90’s. The best fishing periods at Lees Ferry has always been preceded by periods of higher than normal water flows. In high water the fish will concentrate in the rifles and the tail out of the riffles to feed on the drifting food. In addition to the riffles, feeding fish can be found though longs runs between riffles. This is the time of year that the most productive fishing is usually from a drifting boat as opposed to wading.

WEATHER. Any change in the weather can shut off fish feeding. I cannot explain why this happens, however I guarantee you that it is true. I was in Placentia, Belize last year fishing with noted guide Eworth Gartbutt. A cold front was pushing through (it dropped to a frigid 78 degrees) and Eworth said “Terry, you realize that permit fishing and a north wind do not go together.” I thought to myself how fishing is fishing no matter where you are in the world.

Impending weather change make fish at Lees Ferry not want to eat. It might look like a normal day, the sun may be shining and not a breeze is blowing but a storm is on the way and the fish know it and for whatever reason they decide to take the day off from eating. I saw it this week when I was fishing with a customer that I have fished with for 2 decades and the weather that day was a classic cold front, it was windy, cold, and spitting rain. My client is a good stick and at the end of the day he had landed 2 fish and his companion had landed 3 fish and they were all smaller fish. The next day started cold but warmed quickly due to the cloudless day and bright sunshine. They landed more than 30-fish including a 19-in football and several fish that were in the 18-in range. If they would have only fished the one day that might have concluded that the fishing at Lees Ferry sucks or that we are “blowing smoke” or overrating how good the fishing is…that actually happened with one trip last month when a couple of guys had a similar experience fishing with me one day with a cold front pushing through.

So poor weather makes for poor fishing most of the time, however, there are exceptions and I have seen some great fishing on days the wind is howling and the snow is flying. I can’t explain this but I can tell you that more often than not, a change in the weather will affect fishing in a negative way.

Lees Ferry Fishing History

I have probably spent more than 60,000 hours on this crick and I thought that it was time for me to pen a brief history of fishing at Lees Ferry, I’m not sure that I have all the answers; however, here is my best effort at explaining the fish history at Lees Ferry.

Let’s start in the beginning:
1963 Rainbow trout were stocked in the Lees Ferry reach of the Colorado River as were mayflies, caddis, scuds, cladophora (algae) snails and crayfish.
For the next 10 years nobody fished this stretch of river and these fish grew to immense size unmolested by man.
By the mid-70’s the Ferry was discovered, the limit was 10 fish and there were many limits that came out of this river that exceed 100-lbs. The limit was reduced in 1978 from 10 to 4 fish. Brookies and lahontan cutthroat were stocked in the late 70’s and also grew really big. The largest brookie that I ever saw weighed 5-lbs after it was gutted. The largest cutthroat was near 8-lbs. I caught a 33 1/2 in rainbow in 1984 and in 85 saw a 16.5-lb fish that was caught in front of the boat dock. There are rumors that a kid from Page once caught a trout that he cleaned and gutted and after he hiked back up ropes trail with the fish it weighed 20-lbs. We did not talk in inches at the Ferry we described fish in pounds. Lees Ferry was the best trophy trout fishery in the world. What created it and what happened to it? No one really knows.

The theory of new and fertile reservoir makes perfect sense from the standpoint that the new water in Lake Powell was full of nutrients, however, there was an exception to that theory at Willow Beach, the tailwater below Hoover that produced thousands of giant rainbows (state record rainbow 21-lb 5.5 oz, Sept 1966) 30 years AFTER the construction of the Lake Meade reservoir.

Could it have been something as simple as sewage that was allowed to flow into the river from Vegas and Page that dramatically increased the nutrient load and allowed trout to attain massive size? I truly believe this to be as good a theory as any and one that I have never heard discussed.

I started guiding here in 1983, the same year of the great flood when the river flowed at 100,000-cfs. This volume of water essentially stripped the river of all of the food and big fish need lots of food to survive. After the flood there were remnant large fish but not near the numbers that existed prior to 1983. By this time Arizona anglers were spoiled; I remember when people were disappointed because the biggest fish that they would catch in a day of fishing was ONLY an 8 pounder. Stocking of brookies and cutthroats were discontinued while the annual stocking of fingerling rainbow trout continued.

From 1984 through 86 the water releases from Glen Canyon Dam averaged 35-40,000-cfs. This is a bunch of water. Fish started growing again and by the late 80’s we were catching lots of large fish; I remember days where my clients would catch more than a hundred fish that were 20 to 24-in long. In those days almost everyone was using night crawlers with spinning rods (Larry Allen was fly fishing) and often the fish took the bait deep and died. In 1986 we pushed for and received a new regulation that required the use of artificial flies and lures only. Fishing got better and better. Kamloops trout were stocked but never did well.

In 1989 we had opened Lees Ferry Anglers Fly shop and Guide Service just in time for the government to begin studying the effects of Glen Canyon Dam with a program called Glen Canyon Environmental Studies (GCES) headed by David Wagner, (who later became involved in The Glen Canyon Institute, a group dedicated to the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam). For 2 years, releases were radically altered on a 2 week basis then the river was held level at 5,000-cfs for 3 days while measurements were taken. This is the famous time where all the fish became “snakes” with long skinny bodies and big heads. The poor fish condition was attributed to a nematode infestation; I say that the trout were starving to death as a result of the erratic flows.

In the early 90’s, following the studies and erratic flows, the fishery crashed hard; there were hardly any fish left in the river. We asked the AZ Game and Fish Department to stock fish at Lees Ferry and they responded by stocking 60,000 “catchable” trout in the river. With 20-20 hindsight, this may be the single biggest mistake that we ever made at Lees Ferry. With the “native” trout population depleted, the introduced fish interbred and possibly became the dominate strain of trout at the Ferry. I remember that a year after the 6-in “catchable” fish were stocked they were all 18-inches, shiny and fat river rockets (they were very recognizable due to their hatchery origins, tails and fins were distorted). A year and two years later they were still 18-inches. I believe that their growth was not limited by food but genetics. These fish interbred with the native fish and that Lees Ferry gene still pops up once in a while and we see a fish well into the 20’s but they are rare. Stocking at Lees Ferry was stopped with the exception of a few fingerlings released with nose tags to try and track their progress.

The 90’s saw Interim Flows at Lees Ferry which changed the way Glen Canyon Dam was operated. The same flows were designed to protect the environment of the Grand Canyon and the Lees Ferry trout fishery (hard to believe but the fishery was once that important). The regulated river flows, a full reservoir, and high snow pack in the Rockies, all combined into perfect conditions for the Lees Ferry trout fishery to boom throughout the 90’s. My business grew to where we had 14 full time guides and there were plenty of other guides working the river as independents. It was boom time not only for the fishery but the economy was hitting on all cylinders. The fish were big and there were lots of them. Anyone could catch fish at Lees Ferry and people came from all over the country to fish this river. Lees Ferry Anglers Fly Shop became one of the largest retailers of fly fishing equipment in the United States. In 1996 we saw the first experimental “flood” which had little effect on the trout fishery but brought the concept of “saving and restoring the Grand Canyon” through artificial floods, into every living room in America via every network and cable TV station in the country.

Then came the Great Western Drought. In the summer of 1999, Lake Powell was close to full with reservoir storage at 23.5 million acre-feet, or 97 percent of capacity. 2000 was a really dry year with very little runoff. The Bureau of Reclamation was being pressured by the Grand Canyon Trust and other environmental groups to study the effects of steady flows on the Colorado River, since there was no water coming in this was the perfect year for them to conduct an experiment where they could also reduce water going out of the lake. So a very hasty experiment was organized where the flows were reduced to 8,000 CFS for June, July, August, September, and October. These months are normally high water months. There we were, with a river that is chock full of big trout (One estimate at the time from the AZ. Game and Fish Department was Lees Ferry had 50,000 fish PER MILE), and the water was suddenly reduced by more than 50%. Well, guess what happened? The fish got stressed, there was not enough food, and the fish started dying. Too many fish, not enough water and food equals disaster and the fishery crashed AGAIN. The 8,000-cfs experimental flows caused much more damage to the resource than the trout population crash: Conditions were perfect for the propagation of the New Zealand Mud Snail. Prior to the experimental flow we had seen not one Mud Snail, at the conclusion of the experiment the Mud Snails were everywhere in the river, the New Zealand Mud Snail population had become established and exploded to levels that were incomprehensible. In addition to this the conditions created by the low flow experiment had allowed the explosion of growth of tamarisk trees, an invasive, exotic specie of tree, to grow in thick carpets all along the river, right down to the edge of the 8,000-cfs level. We organized groups to pull tammies and I spent my days guiding and pulling trees and we were able to save many of our fishing areas from being overcome by these trees. There was nothing that we could do about the snails…they were here by the billions.

During the next 5 years (2000 through 2004) unregulated inflow to Lake Powell was well below average. This resulted in Lake Powell storage decreasing during this period to 8.0 million acre-feet (33 percent of capacity) which occurred on April 8, 2005. This time the fishery did not bounce back like it had every other time, nobody understood what was going on, me included. The fish were growing slow, there were not many of them and we had several years of poor spawns. The Bureau of reclamation conducted another High Flow Experiment; the timing of this flood was very poorly timed to occur when no flood had ever previously occurred on the river. It happened in November. No one knows why (timing?) but this flood really hammered the aquatic food source. The scud population was severely depleted and it has taken several years for the population to recover.

I figured it out; it came to me suddenly in February 2006. In mid February, the sun climbs high into the sky which allows sunlight back into the canyon and lets us to see into the river… This particular day I looked around and saw a river that was full of Algae…it was everywhere! This was something that I have not seen in years and something that I forgot that I was not seeing. It dawned on me that the river was suddenly healthy and it had to be a result of the large inflow into Lake Powell the previous year and the reason that our fishery had been doing so poorly for the past several years was the fact that there was hardly any inflow into Lake Powell and the lake and river WAS STARVING FOR NUTRIENTS!!! Now those nutrients were back. The above normal winter snow pack and runoff into Lake Powell in 2005, stirred up a tremendous amount of nutrient laden sediment that had accumulated at the lake mouths of the Colorado River, San Juan River, and the Green River. Lake Powell elevation increased 43-ft. and the rivers flowing into the lake mixed the sediment and nutrients into the lake water. The turning point and the beginning for the recovery of the Lees Ferry fishery occurred in 2005 when Lake Powell had the first above normal snow-pack and runoff year since 1997. Since then we have had normal or above normal runoff almost every year.

The increased nutrient load in the lake and river is evident by the dramatic increase in aquatic vegetation and aquatic organisms that has occurred throughout the river since 2006. The fish population is back to near the levels of the late 90’s. The river is full of large and healthy fish. For those of you that remember what the fishing was like in 1999 and 2000you should be as excited as I am about the current conditions and what the increased nutrient load should do for the fishing at Lees Ferry. In 2008 we got another experimental flood. This one was of short duration and happened at a more “normal” time, early March. We don’t know if it was a direct result of the flood or what but the new Zealand Mud Snails have essentially disappeared ever since. Immediately following the experimental flood, just about every fish in the river was spawning…this is something that we have never seen before and have not seen since.

Last year, 2009, the average fish that I was putting into my net was a very fat 17-inches, and we were catching lots of larger fish. Then we had the invasion of all the fish that hatched 2 years ago from the epic spawn that followed the 2008 experimental flood. Now the river is chock full of all sizes of fish from 12 to 20-in, however, we are currently catching lots of the smaller fish because there are so many of them and they have yet to be educated (I’m working on that). I do not remember a time where the river ever held so many different year classes of fish as we see today; this should bode well for several years to come.

What the future holds for this fishery is in constant dispute. A couple years ago, Living Rivers and The Center for Biodiversity threatened the Arizona Game and Fish Department with legal action if they were to stock fish at Lees Ferry. There are those that want to see Glen Canyon Dam removed so the river can once again flow free. Trout are being blamed by many (with little or no scientific evidence to support the claim) for harming the Humped Backed Chub in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon trust is currently suing the Bureau of Reclamation to try and force them to run steady flows from Glen Canyon Dam, they want low flows in the summer, winter, and fall, high flows in the spring. They think this is going to help the Chub. Not sure what this would do to the trout fishery but it the Grand Canyon Trust prevails in the lawsuit it would seriously reduce and almost eliminate the ability of Glen Canyon Dam to generate electricity. This would put thousands of tons of additional carbon in the atmosphere since this electricity will have to be replaced and the only feasible replacement is construction of yet another coal fired plant somewhere in the southwest. And of course there is the least predictable and most important ingredient of all…the weather. It is possible that we might not be out of the drought and that Lake Powell could once again enter a dramatic decline. On the other side there is always the chance that the flood of 1983 could once again occur and wash everything away.

I cannot waste my time worrying about what might happen to the river that has given me and many others so much. I’m just going to keep doing what I have done for most of my life…helping others to enjoy the beauty of Glen Canyon, guiding and sharing my knowledge of trout and fishing, and to continue to do everything in my power to help to protect this National Treasure, the Lees Ferry Trout fishery.

Lees Ferry Fishing Tips: I have been using 6 and 7X fluorocarbon tippet and feel that the lighter tippet results in a much higher success rate than say 5X. Anglers might argue that they break fish off on such light tippet but my argument is that in order to break a fish off, you first have to first get a fish to eat your fly and you are going to get more eaters with lighter tippet than heaver tippet.
When wading the riffles you need long dead drifts. There are 2 types of drifts; perfect dead drifts and all other drifts. Perfect dead drifts catch fish at Lees Ferry; all other drifts don’t catch fish here. You get a dead drift by mending the line, then throwing slack line on the water. If your line is straight from your rod tip to your indicator or you move your indicator during the drift, then your drift is not perfect and will not catch fish. The key to success is to stay over fish, get the flies down to the bottom, and get a long, perfect dead drift.

The turning point and the beginning for the recovery of the Lees Ferry fishery occurred in 2005 when Lake Powell had the first above normal snow-pack and runoff year since 1997. Last year we had almost exactly the same conditions. The above normal winter snow pack and runoff into Lake Powell in 2007-08, stirred up a tremendous amount of nutrient laden sediment that had accumulated at the lake mouths of the Colorado River, San Juan River, and the Green River. Lake Powell elevation increased 43-ft. and the rivers flowing into the lake mixed the sediment and nutrients into the lake water. It usually takes several months before we see this mixing affect. The increased nutrient load in the lake and river is evident this spring by the dramatic increase in aquatic vegetation and aquatic organisms throughout the river.
The high flow experiment, 4/08, was basically a non event as far as the fishery is concerned. It came and went with few visible changes to the river or the fishery. For more details and to see my complete comments go here: http://coloradoriverconservancy.org/

For details on Lake Powell conditions and snow-pack, go here: http://lakepowell.water-data.com/

For a real time graphic view of water releases and ramp rates go here: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/uv?09380000

The AZ Game and Fish Department has detected whirling disease in a very small percentage of Lees Ferry trout that were collected for a random sampling. More recent samplings have turned up no sign of the disease, which may mean that it was a “one time” exposure, where the disease was not established or that the disease is present but at a very low prevalence. Anglers should still use caution in cleaning their equipment both before and after they have fished here or in other waters. For more information visit: http://www.whirling-disease.org

Terry Gunn
Lees Ferry Anglers Fly Shop, Guides, & Rentals
Cliff Dwellers Lodge
http://www.terrygunn.com
http://www.leesferry.com
http://www.cliffdwellerslodge.com
800-962-9755
Fax 928-355-2271

Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell
The unregulated inflow volume into Lake Powell in January 2010 was just below what was forecasted at the beginning of January. The unregulated inflow to Lake Powell for the month of January was 304,000 acre-feet (75% of average). This was about 26,000 acre-feet below the unregulated inflow volume that was projected in the January 2010 24-Month Study. For this reason, the elevation of Lake Powell at the end of January was about 2 inches below what was projected in the January 2010 24-Month Study. The end of January Lake Powell elevation was 3622.14 feet above sea level which was over 4 feet lower than the elevation on January 1, 2010. The release volume for January 2010 was 900,480 acre-feet. Daily peak releases for power generation in January were 17,500 cfs during the morning and afternoon with lows of approximately 9,500 cfs in the very early morning hours. In February 2010 the scheduled release volume for the month is 640,000 acre-feet. Peak releases each day for power generation in February will be approximately 14,000 cfs with lows of about 8,000 cfs.
In addition to the daily fluctuation pattern, instantaneous releases from Glen Canyon Dam also fluctuate to provide approximately 40 megawatts of system regulation to maintain stable conditions within the electrical generation and transmission system. These momentary fluctuations for regulation are very short lived and typically balance out over the hour. Glen Canyon Dam also provides a level of reserve generation that can be called upon when unanticipated outages occur within the generation system. When an outage event occurs, reserve generation at Glen Canyon Dam can be called upon and this additional reserve generation is typically maintained for 2 hours or less. The official Water Supply Forecast (April-July Unregulated Inflow Volume) for Lake Powell issued by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center was updated during the first week of February and is now 5.8 million acre-feet (maf) which is 73% of average. The January official forecast for Lake Powell unregulated inflow was 6.2 maf which was 78% of average.
Based on the updated February forecast, the February 2010 24-Month Study projects that the water year release volume from Lake Powell will likely be 8.23 maf pursuant to the Interim Guidelines. However, the operating tier for Glen Canyon Dam in water year 2010 is Upper Elevation Balancing and under this tier there is a possibility for an April adjustment to the operational plan which could incorporate either Equalization releases or Balancing releases. Given the current conditions of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, it is possible, if hydrologic conditions become wetter than what is currently projected, that an April adjustment to Equalization could occur. If this adjustment were to occur in April, the projected water year release from Glen Canyon Dam could be greater than 10.5 maf.
As of early February, given the hydrologic conditions within the Colorado River Basin and the range of possible inflow scenarios that could occur in 2010, Reclamation estimates that there is about a 25% probability that an April adjustment to Equalization will occur. This estimate is based on many factors that are changing through time. Reclamation will update this estimated probability each month to provide stakeholders some probabilistic estimate of the possibility that Equalization will occur in water year 2010.
Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology
In the Upper Colorado River Basin during water year 2009, the overall precipitation accumulated through September 30, 2009 was approximately 95% of average based on the 30 year average for the period from 1971 through 2000. For water year 2010 the dry conditions have persisted. Estimated percentages of average precipitation for the months thus far in water year 2010 are as follows: October 85%, November 40%, December 130%, January 100%. The Climate Prediction Center outlook (dated January 21, 2010) for temperature over the next 3 months indicates that temperatures in the northern reaches of the Upper Colorado River Basin have an increased probability of being above average. Accumulated precipitation over the next 3 months are projected to be near average in the Upper Colorado River Basin (above Lake Powell) while are projected to be above average in the Lower Colorado River Basin (below Lake Powell).
Upper Colorado River Basin Drought
The Upper Colorado River Basin continues to experience a protracted multi-year drought. Since 1999, inflow to Lake Powell has been below average in every year except water years 2005 and 2008. In the summer of 1999, Lake Powell was close to full with reservoir storage at 23.5 million acre-feet, or 97 percent of capacity. During the next 5 years (2000 through 2004) unregulated inflow to Lake Powell was well below average. This resulted in Lake Powell storage decreasing during this period to 8.0 million acre-feet (33 percent of capacity) which occurred on April 8, 2005. During 2005, 2008 and 2009, drought conditions eased somewhat with net gains in storage to Lake Powell. As of February 9, 2010 the storage in Lake Powell was 13.93 million acre-feet (57.29 percent of capacity) which is still below desired levels while the overall reservoir storage in the Colorado River Basin as of February 9, 2010 is 33.14 million acre-feet (55.72 percent of capacity).

Check out: www.kutv.com/content/outdoors/default.aspx
I have had some people that are fishing on their own (unguided) tell me that they are having a difficult time catching fish. The fishing has changed from the peak of 2000 and many people are not adapting to the new conditions. The current fish population is lower than it was in 2000 and there are not fish “everywhere” in the river like there were several years back (this is probably the reason that we are seeing better conditioned and larger fish today). Just because you might have been successful in one spot on the river in the past does not mean that particular spot is always good. There are many times of the year that the water flows, or conditions are not right to hold fish at “famous” spots such as 4 mile or Dam Island. It is often challenging, even for a good guide, to stay on top of where the fish are and what they are eating; but we do have the advantage of spending a lot of time on the water.
Lees Ferry Anglers - Fly Shop Specials:
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PATAGONIA- Women’s Stretch Jacket was $315.00 now $175.00
Call for all current sale items as they change quickly.
Cliff Dwellers Lodge:
Our lodge has rooms with cable TV (20 channels), in-room coffee, and the basic amenities. Choices of rooms are ONE king-size bed, TWO doubles and TWO queen-size beds. Also our group unit we call the HOUSE, sleeps six with two baths, dining area, kitchen, patio with a view, and cable TV. Rates vary with season. We are excited about the cool fall season and have some great “black board” specials planned. Patio dining is available. (Enclosed in the winter months)
Meet the Guides:
THE GUIDES AND STAFF OF LEES FERRY ANGLERS have thousands of days on this water, and over 100 years combined fish-guiding experience. Captains’ Terry Gunn, Jeff English, Skip Dixon, Rick Smith, Natalie Jensen, J.D. Miller, Luke Blaser and Tom Jones make up our guiding staff. Lees Ferry Anglers is proud of our fly-fishing guide team! Wendy Gunn, Ted Welling, and Kris Stoudt work in the fly shop to provide you with the best customer service in the industry.
Email: anglers@leesferry.com
Lees Ferry Anglers
HC-67 Box 30
Marble Canyon, AZ 86036
Toll Free 1-800-962-9755
Direct 1-928-355-2261
Fax 1-928-355-2271
Copyright © 1996-2009 Lees Ferry Anglers and Flyshop
All rights reserved Lees Ferry Fishing Report
Terry Gunn
Lees Ferry Anglers Fly Shop, Guides, & Rentals
Cliff Dwellers Lodge
http://www.terrygunn.com
http://www.leesferry.com
http://www.cliffdwellerslodge.com
800-962-9755