Big Wood River Midge Shucks
Midge. Big Wood River
Warm temps and lots of bugs on the Big Wood at the moment. By Saturday and Sunday we could see daytime highs around 60! Now is the time to be on the river...
Nikon D200 & Nikon Micro 105 lens with extension tubes
Lots and lots of midges on the Big Wood right now and the dry fly fishing is really good at the moment and probably will only get better unless we see drastic changes in our weather. I was on the Wood in Hailey and north of Ketchum today and while there were certainly more bugs North Valley, there was still plenty of good stuff as far downstream as Hailey. The last two weeks of March really are some of the best weeks of the year for dries on the Wood.
Undoubtedly, midges are the most important aquatic insect for us fisherfolk during the Winter on the Big Wood River. On warmer days the number of midges on or near the water can be quite phenomenal. Today was around 44 degrees in Hailey! Spring like. Incidentally, according to The Mountain Express Newspaper, our largest snowfall since New Years has been 1 inch. 3" to 5" inches are expected on Wednesday... Anyway, as it was so warm today I checked out a couple of spots on the Wood, both of which were in Hailey. Needless to say, there were MANY midges. I sat near a deep eddy and watched tiny rise forms blip away on the foam line. The fish were spooky, but gorging on the little morsels that were readily available. Here are a few images from today.
Images taken with the Nikon 105 2.8 Macro & Extension Tubes.
Midge shucks on the Big Wood River