Runoff—You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet…

In many areas of the country, the peak of runoff is long over, and the prime fishing season is on. The fact that some areas are still experiencing terrible drought and runoff is the farthest thing from many of our minds. But in some places, the real runoff has barely begun.

Angling Trade recently polled fly shops across the country, and found interesting results: 38 percent of the shops say they have “just enough water” and the season looks great; however, 31 percent say they have damaging levels of water. Inversely, 20 percent report that they’re still dealing with serious drought.

The thing is, in places where there’s too much water, the runoff hasn’t even fully peaked. Area water managers and other scientists note that storms this spring, which dumped buckets of rain on cities such as Denver, actually added snow to the high country. Snowpack usually starts to decline in early April, but this year it still accumulated throughout much of May. In other words, there’s still a helluva lot of powder up high. And it’s still raining.

In the long haul, that’s positive for this season’s fishing. But you might stick to tailwaters and lakes for the near future.