Report by: Ted Welling
Saturday February 28th, 2009
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Today’s Fish rating
Upriver: 5.5
Walk-In: 4.0
Key: 1 = Go fish somewhere else
10 = Rent a helicopter and get here now!
Today’s Weather: Partly Cloudy / High of 63 and a Low of 41
Today’s 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!

Today’s Fly Fishing: Was reported as good, a little slow in the morning hours. At somewhere around 10:00 AM it started to pick up. A report from another guide had it fishing well all day long. It is still ham-n eggs as far as patterns go. Fishing success was mixed this past weekend, we think that the larger fish are “hunkered down” and getting ready to push into a full blown spawn. We also speculate that this will be a year of deep water spawning and we will see fewer fish in the shallow waters.
A very large group of trout was spotted today spawning in deep water, these fish have just moved into this area in the last couple days.
The most successful techniques today involved fishing deep water, drifting out of the boat, and using long leaders (14 ft.) with lots of lead.
The back eddies were active with feeding fish, sipping all the midges that are trapped in these areas, becoming more active as the day progresses.
The flies of choice are the same, worm patterns, midges, and egg patterns. And of course dry and dropper rigs in the back eddies. Some anglers are doing well with wooly buggers down deep as well.

Here is the most recent report from the walk-in section
Report by, Aaron Reming
Walk in:
My dad and I fished the walk-in on Friday and I figured I would email you a report. The fishing was slower than normal. We each managed to hook 12-15 but we had to work for each fish. We hooked a few in shallow early, but they seemed to be in deeper water the rest of the day 5-7 feet. We were using orange san juan worms and zebra midges in white and maroon. We caught fish on all of the flies with the worms being the best. We had to use 2-3 #1 split shot and 8-10 foot leaders. Most of the fish were 15″-17″ and we each managed to land one or two in the 18″-19″ range. We mostly fished the boulder section. We only saw one other person all day and he was spin fishing. The best fishing was early and late, with the toughest fishing being from 10:30-2:30. Overall the fishing was probably a 4 out of 10.

Aaron Reming

Spin Fishing: Spin fishing is reported as being off the charts, same technique is used. Anglers are bouncing glo-bugs off the bottom. Others are reporting doing well with marabou jigs. I spoke with a single angler fishing alone that caught a tremendous amount of trout over the weekend using a small marabou jig. When I decide to spin fish, the jig is the only lure I use. Once you learn how to use them, you will agree they are one of the single best buys for spin fishing here at the ferry, at $2.00 each you can’t go wrong.

• 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.

-Ted Welling, Lees Ferry Anglers & Cliff Dwellers Lodge

Fishing Synopsis and Forecast by Terry Gunn 2/18/09
Come by and see us at the ISE Outdoor Show, Cardinal Stadium, Feb 27-Mar 1.
Recent Fishing Conditions: Spring has arrived at Lees Ferry, I have always considered Feb. 15 to be our first day of spring, not only is the weather warming but the sun is moving higher in the sky and once again flooding the canyon corridor with sunlight. As usual, the midges are responding to the arrival of the sun and the hatches are beginning in earnest and the trout have just this week begun to move into the riffles to feed on the emerging midge pupae. The last few days I have been drifting a worm and a midge in the deep tail-out of the riffles and 90% of the trout have been eating the midge.
The spawn is just trickling along; it started with a bang in early December and has been slowly increasing in intensity the last few weeks. I get the feeling that the fish are currently staging for a major push into a full blown spawn within the next couple of weeks. Although it is important to keep in mind that spawn of the past 2 years has been off the charts in intensity and survivability so the fish may take a break this year.
The current water flows are perfect wading and drifting flows for fishing Lees Ferry and these same flows will continue for the next several months. I expect the fishing this spring to be a banner year and likely better than the last several years. The average size of the fish is the largest of this decade; most of the fish that I put in my net are 16 to 17-in with many that are larger. I recently had a father and son get a double hookup and both landed fish in excess of 20-inches at the same time. It has been more than 20 years since I have seen this happen. A few days before, a client landed a substantial 24-in long fish and I’m seeing a bunch of big fish in the river. We are also starting to catch some of the “little guys” that were part of the mass spawn of last year and the year before, these 12-in fish are growing fast and I always remind everyone that it takes small fish to make big fish.
Is this a peak before another down turn in the fishery? No, this is the beginning of a trend that is set to continue for at least a couple of years, and if nature cooperates and gives us moisture in the Rocky Mountains, and Lake Powell continues to rise, this trend of healthy trout populations and good fishing will continue for the next several years.
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 nutrient load in the water that enters the river from Glen Canyon dam. The increased nutrient load in the lake and river will be evident this coming spring by the enormous and dramatic increase in aquatic vegetation and aquatic organisms throughout the river.
For those of you that remember what the fishing was like in 1999 and 2000…you 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.
Lots of stuff happening at the Ferry and it is all good!
Recent Fishing: With the water flows once again fluctuating and lower flows; we have been fishing from the boat as well as wading the riffles. The best fishing technique has been using a “heavy nymph rig” which is a 9 to 12-ft leader, strike indicator, split shot, and dual fly rig. I have been using 6X 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.
Word has it that the “walk-in’ is fishing very well. There are times in the spring that this area actually fishes better than upriver. Look for this area to continue fishing well until the summer high water arrives.
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/
The experimental steady flows that occurred in September and October 2008 (12,000 constant) were beneficial to the river and are scheduled again for 2009. In years past, the flows in September and October have been the lowest flows of the year and have reset the “green line” to the 5,000-cfs level from the 12,000-cfs level of the summer flows. This has effectively reduced the food supply in the river by a significant amount. Then the higher flows of November and December arrive; but because of the declining sun angle and the shade of the cliffs, photosynthesis and aquatic production in the river declines and the areas of the river that were desiccated by the low flows do not regenerate until the following spring. This did not happen this year because of the steady flows in September and October the green line stayed high. The current fluctuating flows (7,500-cfs to 13,000-cfs) are continuing to keep the green line higher than in years past. There have been prolific midge and black-fly hatches every day and it appears as though the scud population has a higher density than any time since 2004.
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
New guides at Lees Ferry Anglers: The last couple of years we have had several long time guide staff move on to bigger and hopefully better things. Last year we had 3 new guides join our team, though new to our organization they are not new to guiding. Luke Blaser, Tom Jones, and JD Miller have joined our team. They bring with them a couple of decades of combined guiding experience on various waters around the world, college degrees, and an enthusiasm for guiding that is contagious. I’m proud to introduce these fellows and I’m sure that you will agree that they are a great addition to our team.
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. A more recent sampling 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

Glen Canyon Dam Operations
Snowpack conditions in the Upper Colorado River Basin continue to be above average through the month of January. On January 1, 2009 the snowpack above Lake Powell measured only 107% of average. By January 31, 2008 this snowpack had improved to 111% of average. As of February 11, 2009 the snowpack measured 106% of average. The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center‘s February water supply forecast for Lake Powell for the April to July runoff season is 8.0 million acre-feet (101% of average). Based on this forecast, Reclamation is currently projecting a shift in operations from Upper Elevation Balancing to Equalization in April 2009 (see Interim Guidelines Section 6.B.3). For this reason, the February 24-Month Study projects the annual release from Lake Powell during water year 2009 to be 9.431 million acre-feet. As forecast conditions change, Reclamation will update these projections monthly. The monthly release volume for February 2009 is scheduled to be 600,000 acre-feet. Daily average releases during January will be about 10,000 cfs. Monday through Friday releases will peak each afternoon to about 13,500 cfs with early morning releases of approximately 7,500 cfs. Weekend afternoon peak releases will be about 13,250 cfs with morning low releases near 7,500 cfs. The currently scheduled release volume for March 2009 is 625,000 acre-feet which will result in an average daily release of 10,200 cfs. Afternoon peaks will likely be about 12,900 cfs and early morning releases will likely be about 6,900 cfs.

Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology
Precipitation rates during October and November 2008 were well below average at 55% and 80% respectively. In December, however, conditions improved significantly with the estimated precipitation rate of about 185% of average. The preliminary precipitation total for January 2009 was 95% of average. The overall water year precipitation rate through February 12, 2009 is 104% of average. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for temperature and precipitation over the next 3 months indicates that temperatures in the southwest have an increased probability of being above average while precipitation will likely be near average in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Upper Colorado River Basin Drought
The Upper Colorado River Basin is experiencing a protracted multi-year drought. Since 1999, inflow to Lake Powell has been below average in every year except water year 2005 and 2008. In the summer of 1999, Lake Powell was essentially 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 and 2008 drought conditions eased somewhat with net gains in storage to Lake Powell. On September 30, 2008 the storage in Lake Powell was 14.5 million acre-feet (60 percent of capacity) which is still well below desired levels. Reservoir storage in the Colorado River Basin continues to be below desired levels with the overall Colorado River system storage as of February 1, 2009 of 33.0 million acre-feet which is 55.5 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:
“GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE!!”
*****CLOSEOUTS******
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. Choice 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, Sandy Willie, 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
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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
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800-962-9755