Central Mountains - Idaho

[JohnScott]

This was going to be Monday's Destination. Since my wife had some time to get out and enjoy the weather and the forecast for today was just as good as tomorrow, we went today. Gorgeous day - bright sunshine, light breezes, and pleasant temps.

Not a bad backdrop for a spring creek in the mountains -


Rigging up my 3 wt just before noon - a bit early, but better than too late -


This is a pretty typical stretch of water - full of bows and brookies -


My favorite hole - lots of fun currents to play - and usually some nice bows as a reward -


Fished for a little over three hours. Started with a two tone ( black / olive ) copper john and picked up a couple small bows. After a slow first half hour, a great bwo hatch came off and lasted for the best part of two hours. Quite a sight - the brilliant white snow banks along the creek side just littered with bwo duns. And the fish were so obvious in the absolutely clear water - whether just holding in the current, nymphing, chasing emergers or taking duns.

Both the bows and brookies were eager for duns ( parachute bwo in a couple different sizes and styles ), emergers ( quigley cripples ), and some midge larva ( t.c.t.k. as a dropper ) while they were at it.

By the end of the hatch, had picked up somewhere around 25-30 fish, about two thirds rainbows ranging from 6-12" and the rest brookies ranging from 5-8". After the hatch ended, picked up a few more. Pretty typical day on this creek. There are some bows up to 15" here, but they are few and far between, and the biggest brookies run under 12".

On the way home, we stopped to look at another section of the creek. In addition to a few bwo's, there was a caddis on a snow bank. Will have to keep my caddis box handy on the next trip over there, probably later this week.

A nice variety of wildlife to top off the day. A couple hundred or more antelope, most at some distance but a couple bands quite close to the road which made for good viewing. Tried to get a photo of one group of about 25, but they were gone by the time I got out of the truck. Saw several deer in one meadow. And the real treat was three Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, unfortunately at some distance. But nice to know that they are still around.

[sagefisher]

John Scott,

Looked like an absolutely beautiful fishing day on the stream. Great pictures, thanks for them. See if you can do another series like that in a month when everything is greening up for spring. Oh yea, see how the trout are then too.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[flyfishfairwx]

Beautiful area, is it anywhere near the Fish in, is in Idaho

[JohnScott]

Ray -

It's about 200 miles, as the crow flies. By car, it's quite a bit further.

John

[Wild One]

John you're making me so homesick it....well, makes me sick!

I'm glad that you're out enjoying the greatest this country has to offer and thanks for sharing a few with the rest of us stuck somewhere else.

[JohnScott]

Another beautiful day in the mountains. Started here about 11:30 a.m. A bit chilly, but the fish were up early today and were ready for lunch about the time I got it out for them.



This is one of many really neat stretches of water. Too busy facing upstream fishing to notice the mountains in the background.



Covered about a mile and a half of water in about five hours, just hitting spots that usually hold some fish, fishing to rising fish, sight fishing occasionally, and fishing to water that looked promising.

The fare for the day was parachute bwo's and soft hackle pheasant tails, served up by 3 wt rod and furled leader. The p.t.'s did best earlier, but when the hatch got going, the fish preferred to come up for the dry. Fished a good part of the afternoon with a dry only, and went back to the combination after the hatched tailed off.

The catch consisted of smaller bows and brookies, and overall, the fish were smaller today than usual. But lots of them. Somewhere around three quarters bows and one quarter brookies. Five hours of nearly non-stop action. Something over fifty fish, and bunches that looked but didn't take, or just bumped the fly for fun.

[alra195]

John,

Your a lucky, lucky man. Looks like great fun on those stretched of water. Hey, thanks again for the CDC Caddis. I've got a couple of dozen in various shades and sizes tied up. I'm off for ten days of fishing in PA at the end of next week. I sure hope I run in to a few Caddis hatches to give that pattern a try. Thanks again for sharing the info. I'd tell you to keep having fun but from the looks of your past few trips I'd be wasting my breath.

[JohnScott]

Buzz and I fished the spring creek for about five hours today. Nice day, comfortable with only light breezes early and a bit quieter later in the day. A lot of the snow has melted, very little at creek level, which is about 6400', but still some at 12,000'.



Another typical piece of water - bunches of fish in this little hole. Buzz fished it just as he started and I hit it about three hours later. We both caught a good number of fish here.








Between the two of us, we ended up with somewhere between 125 and 135 fish. As usual, the bows outnumbered the brookies about 2 to 1. (continued below)

[JohnScott]

(continued from last entry)

Buzz with the last fish of the day - a nice bow.



The size 18 two tone black and olive copper john was very productive today while the fish were after nymphs, and a size 18 parachute bwo dry did well for a good part of the afternoon. Buzz fished similar flies, and his mix on nymphs and dries was about the same as mine - 40 to 45 on the nymphs and 20 to 25 on dries, each.

Didn't see another person there today. But we did see bunches of antelope both coming and going. And on the way home, we saw a herd of about 35 mule deer. I've only seen one or two in the area while fishing, and some sign, so it was a real surprise when we ran across this herd.

[JohnScott]

Spent a couple hours on the spring creek this afternoon. Really nice day, but a bit breezier than forecast. This was a special trip. I wanted to catch a fish on the Elkhorn 1489-6 Spey Rod that I won in the April drawing, and this was the most likely place to get one with some good photos to update my "Thank You Elkhorn and FAOL" thread on the Fly Anglers Online forum.

After catching about half a dozen fish with the Elkhorn Spey Rod, using a size 16 parachute march brown, I did go back and get my 3 wt.



This was the first of the six on the Spey Rod. A steelhead in training.



This was taken for Brian, at Elkhorn, because he really liked the idea that I was going to catch a small brookie on the long rod and post it on FAOL.



After I put the Elkhorn away, my Winston 7'6" for 3 wt really felt like a feather. Put on a size 16 CDC biot caddis and went fishing.

Fished for about two hours, hitting several places I like on this section of the spring creek, and a couple new spots. Both the bows and the brookies were eager, and really went after that CDC caddis. In two hours, I caught about thirty fish, mostly bows, as usual. Besides the fish that took the fly, there were a number of refusals, and some really little brookies bumped the fly, not being big enough to eat it. The bows that were big enough to eat the fly ranged from about 6" to 12", and the brookies were in the 5-8" range, with one exception that went right at 9".

Will likely go back up again later in the week, since Buzz wants to get back up there soon.

Probably will not be using a two handed cast on the next trip.



John