Snake River Fishing Guides Jackson Wy

6.8.2015

Our Snake River Fishing Guides Jackson Wy are gearing up for another stellar season and look forward to getting you out on the water! Given this info below in the article from JH News and Guide, we’re thinking that the Snake River might be fishable towards the end of June based on the current runoff scenario. We will keep the info updated as best as possible. Meanwhile we’re offering trips down to the Green River and wade trips on the lower portion of Flat Creek. To book your trip for the 2015 season please call us @ 307-739-7020.

Wet May shifts water plans

May rains pounded the peaks and valleys of the Snake River basin at more than one and a half times the normal monthly rate, and the sopping soils and swollen rivers have altered water managers’ plans for the year.

The precipitation up at elevation last month was of the frozen variety, and the late boost to the snowpack is now showing up in river flows, said the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mike Beus.

“The wet month sustained an increase in the snow at the very high elevations, and when it was hot over the last several days we got higher inflows from the snowpack,” said Beus, the bureau’s Upper Snake Basin water operations manager. “Meanwhile, it’s been wet down in the Snake Plain and into the Magic Valley, and demand dropped pretty dramatically.”

The result is that summer water demands from Jackson Lake are projected to be much lower than they were a month ago, Beus said.

“It’s expected that American Falls and Palisades [reservoirs] will meet our needs,” he said. “Instead of a six-month [irrigation] season we only have to cover four months, so I don’t think we’ll have to pull as much out of Jackson Lake as we had anticipated.”

Summer releases from Jackson Lake Dam had been projected at 4,000 cubic feet per second through July, dropping to 3,000 cfs in August.

Beus’ updated Jackson Lake prediction calls for releases of 4,500 cfs into next week, then 4,000 cfs for a one-week period. After that he expects to be able to taper down to 3,500 cfs, and hold flows there for one month.

As of Thursday Jackson Lake was 100 percent full, and Palisades was at 88 percent of capacity.

Runoff and the Snake’s flows had peaked almost a month ago, on May 8, until they were eclipsed the last week of May. They’ve stayed high since then, topping out Tuesday at about 17,500 cfs where the Snake flows into Palisades.

“The recent peaking flows are mostly the snowmelt driven by the heat,” Beus said. “If we had snow remaining over larger areas this could have been a flood scenario.”

Flows are looking like those from a year ago with “a much better snowpack” than Jackson Hole logged this winter, Beus said.

The water manager said he expects a decline in runoff over the course of the next week. There’s about a week’s worth of snowpack left to melt on Togwotee Pass, he said.

“Absent a huge rainfall, [flows] will continue to taper off,” he said.

In the meantime, streams and rivers around the valley will continue to run high — although U.S. Geological Survey monitors show there’s plenty of variation.