Rock Creek flows are very, very high. Fishing has been just ok. We expect to start seeing a few caddisflies around in the next week. Streamers have been fishing really well. It seems that as of right now, no one fly is working consistently - keep changing flies and you'll keep catching fish. This will change once runoff flows stabilize.
If you're floating, be safe. If in doubt, scout it out. To be frank, these flows are extremely dangerous right now. We would recommend waiting to float and fish until after flows drop below 3000 cfs at the guage linked below.
That said, the fish are still eating. We recommend wading side channels for the best fishing. See below for our tips for fly fishing Rock Creek near Philipsburg.
Here are a few tips for fly fishing Rock Creek:
1. Fish the side channels, slow inside deeper bends, runs with a couple feet of walking speed water and structure, riffles, and undercut banks.
2. Try swinging or stripping a copper/gold kreelex minnow in any walking speed water you can find along the banks, and at these flows even up along the grassy drop-offs if the water is in the grass.
3. Try a black and purple chubby with a medium length dropper of a hot bead worm or pink pearl core worm.
Here are a few fly suggestions:
1. Micro-chubby size 14, in black and purple
2. Purple Haze size 12-20
3. Blue Winged Olive Emerger size 14-16
4. Kreelex Minnow size 6, in copper/gold
5. TJ Hooker size 12-14, in coffee/black
6. Pheasant Tail Nymph size 16-20
7. Hot Bead San Juan Worm size 10, red with a hot orange bead
8. Zebra midge
9. Pink pearl core worm
Flows and looking ahead:
3890 cfs at the time of publishing this report.
Here is a link to the Rock Creek USGS Water Information.
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