SE Idaho Streams

[mashtom]

A fine day indeed! Thanks for sharing your great adventures!!!

[JeffHamm]

That is a fantastic river. I really enjoy your trips. Thanks for taking me along.

- Jeff

[JohnScott]

Today was a very special day. Jeff Hamm sent me a collection of flies he uses for trout in New Zealand to see if they would catch cutthroat trout here in SE Idaho. Best place I know of for that challenge is Big Elk Creek.

The problem was, I've never fished Big Elk this late in the season. With temps dropping and the flows dropping, I really wasn't sure that the fish would still be in there. But ... only one way to find out.

Headed to a spot that has been very good to me this Fall. The same spot another visitor from that part of the world, Peter Morris of Blue Hills, Australia, recently hooked into the same fish I had caught ten days earlier - a 20" plus cutthroat. Just seemed fitting that these visitors from New Zealand would work the same water as that other visitor from Down Under.

This spot should look familiar by now -



Add a Water Cricket -



And come up with this -



And this -



That was for openers.

( Continued next post )

[JohnScott]

But the challenge was a bit more than just catching cutthroat on Jeff's flies. He suggested that he liked to fish these flies as you would a dry fly or nymph - casting upstream and keeping close contact with the fly.

That is a technique that I have not used with wet flies. But it was Jeff's challenge and his way of doing things, so I committed to it. Felt a bit awkward, but the first cutthroat solved that problem.

All told, the Water Cricket accounted for seven fish in hand, a couple long distance releases, and several hits that did not hook up, in five different spots with an interesting variety of water. Almost all of those came using Jeff's approach, although several hits came while using a down and across swing.

Also tried the Dun Spider for a while. Add that fly to this water -



and you might get a really nice cutt take it on the lift, but not hook up well.

Back to fishing with the Water Cricket, I finished up at this spot -



With this fish, last but not least at 16" -



Really was a great day. Using Jeff's NZ flies on some of my favorite cutthroat water was truly special. This goes down as one of the most memorable days of my fishing year.

For some more scenes and fall colors, click on the photo.



Not sure I will fish any more streams this year. Snow is forecast within a couple days here in the valley, which means there could be a fair amount in the mountains. MIGHT get in another day or two, but don't count on it.

[Steve Molcsan]

Holly post-holes those are nice fish...

You need to switch to boo...

Just because....

[JeffHamm]

Great report John! It's amazing how effective those flies can be fished upstream, especially in the kinds of streams you chose to test them on. And the spots you've chosen are exactly the kind of water you're looking for to fish these that way. Down stream in this kind of water can be a bit more difficult because the fish can see you, but upstream, the fly drifts like the natural. The current activates the soft hackles, which produce just enough movement to suggest "I'm alive", and because the fly is under the water, it can't just fly off easily making it an easy target. Of course, they also work when fished in a traditional "down and across" method, and on the swing or the lift, they can be deadly too. In fact, these flies are exceptionally versatile, so I find them a great exploration pattern. Great stuff. I can't say it often enough, but thanks for running this experiment for me, I feel like I've almost caught a cut throat myself now!

- Jeff

P.S. I wish I could take credit for the upstream idea, but alas, this is how Stewart recommends fishing spidesr in his book "The practical angler", which appeared in the 1830s! He also recommended 3 spiders, one being the Baillie Black spider, the dun Spider, and a "red spider" (which was a yellow body, natural red hen hackle). In Pritt's book, North Country Flies (also from the 1800s), the first pattern he lists is the water cricket! These patterns, and the technique of upstream fishing them, have been around for a long time. I've found, through my experimentations, that these guys knew what they were talking about. Of course, Stewart was a professional angler, who sold the trout he caught. So, he had to know what worked or go hungry!

[JohnScott]

What with the weather as nice as it is, decided to hike up Big Elk Canyon. Took along the fly rod, just in case. Didn't really need it. Water is very cold, with overnight air temps well below freezing. No fish in the obvious places, nor the unobvious places.

Fished a couple spots - that means I drifted a fly through them - not expecting much, and got exactly what I expected. But I wasn't at all disappointed.

Definitely the last day of our Indian Summer and maybe the last really nice day, weatherwise, of the year here in SE Idaho. Can't think of a place I would rather spend it.

It did occur to me that I haven't mentioned The Slide, or at least I don't recall mentioning it. About seven years ago, a whole bunch of rock let go from the north side of the canyon a couple miles up from the trailhead. Slid right down across the creek. Dammed it completely. A number of people who were upstream of The Slide when it happened were trapped in Big Elk Canyon for a couple days. But the lake that formed behind it overtopped it in a matter of days and Big Elk Creek was on its way to recovery.

A couple years ago I talked to a fellow who had hiked into Big Elk the day after the slide. He recounted the dead fish in the dry streambed, and fish almost dead flopping in the shallow pools where the deeper holes had been. Not a pretty sight.

The first couple years that I fished up here, The Slide was very obvious - a wide path of bare rock coming down from a ravine and across an otherwise meadow area. These days, if you didn't know about it, you probably wouldn't guess at it, for all the foliage and flowers and grasses that have taken hold over the years.



Some remnants of The Slide are still obvious. And will be next summer when I get back up to Big Elk Creek for some cutthroat fishing.

[mgliss]

John, Its great to see familiar water, and some unfamiliar water.
I have a lot of exploring left to do in this area.
I have a few pics of Big Elk Creek you might appreciate!
(This was the same day my friends and I passed you and buzz on the trail)



I cant wait for next years Big Elk season!!!

[JohnScott]

This will be my last post on this thread. I'm going to continue posting regularly on my fishing outings, and maybe some hikes, but they will be under a new thread titled " '09 Elkhorn Bamboo Challenge."

I've certainly enjoyed creating this thread and several others on this Forum over the course of '08, sharing some good times and beautiful places with you all, and participating in the discussions they generated on a variety of subjects.

Hope you all enjoy going along on my '09 outings.

John