IF YOU FISH in the Rocky Mountain West, your success on many waters is often dictated by the Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec). Nowhere is this more evident than in the Snake River watershed in Wyoming and Idaho. Bureau managers have a lot of demands to meet. Flood control, irrigation, and municipal water use are of prime importance, probably in that order. Way down the list—and I mean way down—sits ecological concerns and recreation, including fish and flyfishing.
For decades, BuRec had a terrible reputation in fishing circles. Due to the havoc their flow regimes created on the waters of Wyoming and Idaho, some in Snake River country referred to it as the Bureau of “Wrecklamation.” Extreme high flows could be the norm for weeks at a time, only to see levels drop by ninety percent or more in less than twenty four hours, leaving trout and baitfish dying in dried-out side channels.
Aquatic invertebrates
