Current River Condition

Water stays at a year-round chilly 46-49 degrees.

Flows and Water Conditions

6,500 - 13,500 cfs

Hatch Report

32 different varieties of small midges and a late July cicada.

River News

Glen Canyon Dam Operations
The purpose of this notification is to confirm that the release volume
from Glen Canyon Dam for April 2009 will be 600,000 acre-feet. Hourly
and daily average releases from Glen Canyon Dam for April 2009 will be
scheduled through Western Area Power Administration to be consistent
with the Glen Canyon Dam Operating Criteria (Federal Register, Volume
62, No. 41, March 3, 1997) and to also achieve, as nearly as is
practicable, this monthly volume.

We anticipate the release volume for May 2009 will be 600,000
acre-feet. This will be confirmed in a subsequent notification toward
the end for this month.

Beginning on May 21, 2009 releases from Glen Canyon Dam will be steady
at 8,000 cfs for a period of approximately 5 days to provide the Glen
Canyon Monitoring and Research Center an opportunity to conduct over
flight data gathering. Details regarding the specific hourly releases
during this steady release period will follow in a future notification.
Hourly and daily average releases from Glen Canyon Dam in May 2009 will
be scheduled through Western Area Power Administration to be consistent with the Glen Canyon Dam Operating Criteria and to also achieve, as nearly as is practicable, this monthly volume.
Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell
Snowpack conditions in the Upper Colorado River Basin have continued at or near average through the month of February and have entered March at 104% of average. One year ago, on March 1, 2008, the snowpack measured 126% of average so water year 2009 is shaping up to be somewhat drier than water year 2008. By this time of year the snowpack development season is about 80% complete and by the first week of April the snowpack typically peaks for the season. The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center�s March water supply forecast for Lake Powell for the April to July runoff season decreased from 8.0 million acre-feet (101% of average) to 7.8 million acre-feet (98% of average). Based on this forecast, with the projected operations of the upstream reservoirs and an 8.23 million acre-foot release from Lake Powell, the March 24-month study would project the end of water year elevation of Lake Powell to be 3642.48 feet above sea level. This projected elevation is 3.48 feet above the Equalization Level for 2009 (3639 feet above sea level). For this reason, the March 24-month study is projecting that a shift in operations from Upper Elevation Balancing to Equalization will likely occur in April 2009 (see Interim Guidelines Section 6.B.3) and the projected water year 2009 release volume from Lake Powell is 9.394 million acre-feet. For April, if the forecasted April to July unregulated inflow to Lake Powell decreases by a significant volume (on the order of about 400,000 acre-feet), it is possible that the April shift to Equalization would not occur which would result in a projected water year 2009 release volume from Lake Powell of 8.23 million acre-feet. The monthly release volume for March 2009 is scheduled to be 625,000 acre-feet. Daily average releases during March will be about 10,300 cfs. Monday through Friday releases will peak each afternoon to about 13,000 cfs with early morning releases of approximately 7,000 cfs. Weekend afternoon peak releases will be about 12,750 cfs with morning low releases near 7,000 cfs. The currently scheduled release volume for April 2009 is 750,000 acre-feet which will result in an average daily release of 12,600 cfs. Afternoon peaks will likely be about 15,300 cfs and early morning releases will likely be about 9,300 cfs.
Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology
The overall precipitation rates during October and November 2008 were well below average at approximately 55% and 80% respectively. In December, however, conditions improved significantly with precipitation measuring approximately 185% of average. Unfortunately this wetter trend did not continue with precipitation in January and February measuring below average at 95% and 80% of average respectively. The overall water year precipitation rate through March 5, 2009 is right on average at 100% 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 has an increased probability of being below 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 March 1, 2009of 32.7 million acre-feet which is 55.0 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.

River Fishing Report

Lees Ferry Fishing Synopsis and Forecast by Terry Gunn 4/17/09

Lees Ferry Anglers celebrates our 20-year anniversary this month and we want to thank all of our customers for making this possible.

Visit www.leesferry.com for daily fishing reports and updates.

Recent Fishing Conditions: Spring arrived with a roar at Lees Ferry. In my 26 years here I have never seen so much wind and nasty weather. Most springs we can expect one really windy day each week. This season we have had as many windy days as calm days. Despite the weather we have seen some good fishing. The spawning has mostly concluded; it was a deep water spawn with very few fish using traditional shallow water spawning areas�the exception was 4 mile bar. Beginning in February and through March we caught few large fish because they were all actively spawning in deeper water than we can effectively fly fish. The past few weeks the larger fish (18-in +) have started to reappear in the riffles and are actively feeding on midges.
This last week we actually had 2 nice days of weather in a row and the midges popped�there were so many swarms that they looked like smoke on the water. Mid April is usually the turning point for weather patterns in this part of the state, it turns moderate and is dominated by high pressure. When this happens, the fishing is going to get really good and the midge fishing is going to be on fire for the remainder of the low water release period, at least through May and likely through June.
Over Memorial Weekend (May 22-27) there will be constant water releases of 8,000-cfs so that the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center can conduct flights to photograph the river for monitoring purposes. It is very likely that this flow will result in PHENOMENAL FISHING, both upriver and in the Walk-In section. Normally this is not a busy weekend at the Ferry so you should put this trip on your schedule.
The current water flows are perfect wading and drifting flows for fishing Lees Ferry. These same flows will continue until the high summer flows begin in July. 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. 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. Current snow pack in the Rockies� is in excess of 100% of normal.
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.
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. Fishing techniques have been mixed between using a �heavy nymph rig� which is a 9 to 12-ft leader, strike indicator, split shot, and dual fly rig, a �double tiny� rig with a long leader and 2 bead-head midges on 7X, or a dry and dropper rig. 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.
LEES FERRY ANGLERS CELEBRATES 20 YEARS IN BUSINESS.

20 years in a few paragraphs:
In 1983, I moved to Lees Ferry to guide for a year or two as I pondered what I was going to do with my life. The fish were giant, the river was
flowing at 45,000-cfs, and I lived in my boat. A couple years later I met the love of my life, Wendy Hanvold, who was waiting tables at Marble Canyon Lodge. She asked me if I would teach her how to fly fish. The rest is history.

Most of the 80's, I spent the summers in Alaska and co-founded Crystal Creek Lodge. In 1989, I decided I had enough fun in Alaska and an
opportunity to open a fly shop at Lees Ferry presented itself. Russell Sullivan, Wendy Hanvold and I decided to open Lees Ferry Anglers Guides
and Fly Shop at Vermillion Cliffs Lodge. We leased a "sprawling" 300 square feet in an old gas station and proceeded to make a $15,000
opening order with Orvis (yes, we were originally an Orvis shop and Orvis endorsed outfitter). The day that the UPS truck arrived with our opening
order the 3 of us were standing by with hand trucks to help unload the heavy boxes. The driver hopped out of the truck and carried 3 boxes which contained our entire opening order into the shop. We spread it out the best that we could over the 300 square feet and the shop still looked pretty empty.

Our first guide (besides Russell and myself) was Bill Shultz. Jeff English joined our staff a year later. We opened our business during the largest
fishing down-turn in the history of Lees Ferry (experimental flows of 1989-1991) and despite the down-turn we survived and grew our business.
During the 90's the fishing got better and in the process we became one of the largest retailers of fly fishing equipment in the southwestern US. Our guide service became one of the largest guide services in the country employing 14 full time fishing guides. We expanded our fleet of guide and rental boats to more than 20 boats and Ted Welling invented the Bead Head Zebra Midge in our shop.

In 2000, Jeff English became a partner in our business. Jeff came from a real estate background and suggested that we needed to own our real
estate. A short time later Cliff Dwellers Lodge came up for sale. The lodge was run down and in desperate need of way too much work. It took us a while but we decided that this was the best move that we could make for our business. We bought the lodge and went to work renovating it and moved our fly shop and all operations to Cliff Dwellers in June 2001. Our timing was great! The same year we moved in, the western US went into the worst drought in history and the Lees Ferry fishery began another decline that lasted for a few years. Once again we survived and our business has thrived, the fishing has experienced a dramatic improvement, we have done well in the lodging and restaurant business and our enterprise continues to grow.

Russell Sullivan retired from the business in 07 and is living the good life. Jeff English and I still guide full time. Wendy "Hanvold" Gunn, my wife of 13 years is general manager of Lees Ferry Anglers and Cliff Dwellers Lodge. What began as 300 sq. ft. has turned into 30 acres, with a fly shop, guide service, rental boats, rental equipment, gas station, convenience store, restaurant-bar and hotel. Our staff during our high season usually exceeds 40 people and we are proud to work with each and every one of them...it is because of them that we are where we
are today. I have never had so much fun in my entire life as I have had watching this business grow and it has been a great ride. On behalf of
all the staff of Lees Ferry Anglers and Cliff Dwellers Lodge we want to THANK YOU, OUR CUSTOMER, for making it possible for us to celebrate or 20 year anniversary.
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