Big Lost River

Articles Trip Reports & Travel
1

AKA “Nowhere”

The forecast high today was 41. Don’t believe it hardly got above freezing all day. Started fishing about noon and finished at 4:00 p.m. - had ice in the guides for all but a few minutes later in the day.

Fishing was a bit on the slow side, and on and off. Had a midge hatch for about an hour, with a good number of fish up. Caught about a dozen bows on a griffith gnat during the hatch. Before that, picked up one on a t.c.t.k. and afterwards one on a midge dry and seven or eight on a soft hackle pheasant tail fished wet.

Most of the fish were around 12", with one going just over 14". The 14" fish took a size 20 parachute midge pattern just below where I am fishing. A really fiesty fish, as were several of the smaller ones.

Buzz fished some different dries and a couple nymphs, a chartruse rubber leg copper john and a bead body golden stone. He caught most of his ten or twelve on the small dries. His biggest, caught on the copper john, went about 15".

There were three trucks in the area when we got to our access point. Two groups must have gone downstream. We went upstream and got ahead of the other group, with their blessing. After that, we had the water to ourselves.

John

P.S. Those mountains in the background are nauga country.

2

Wow, nice pix. Thanks. Glad they closed the season on Naugas here, getting scarce. :slight_smile:

3

Thank You, John, nice report(and nice pics too!), and only “fuels the fires” for me needing to get out, again, soon!
By the looks of that upper garment you’re wearing… is that made out of the WINTER coat from an Idaho Naugha? It surely doesn’t LOOK like a Naugha’s hide was used to make it, so that’s why I ask!?!

Gads!! JC, so now, even the “Paulsbo Herd” of Naughas is getting thinner? Sad to hear, that. Wasn’t ALL that long ago, in fact, that was one of the strongest and most prolific of the Northwest’s Naugha ecosystems and gene pools.

4

I have a chair and was going to have it reupholstered in ‘Nauga’, but may have to go to common old leather, what a shame!

5

Nice pics John. It’s been a long time since I fished the Big Lost. Looks like the snow is manageable there.

6

Flybinder -

I hesitate to tell you, considering what happened last time this subject came up, but it is kip over gortex. Quite warm and definitely windproof / waterproof.

John

7

Lew -

There was quite a bit of snow in the area over the winter. But the BLM did clear at least two of the access roads. There have been enough people fishing there this year that there are decent trails through the snow, which is still 12-18" deep in most places, so getting to the water is quite easy.

Once in the water, which is at 91 CFS right now, a bit on the low side, wading is very easy, and in some areas there is snow-free bank to walk.

Access to my favorite stretch is across private property and has not been cleared. We thought about postholing through up to a foot and a half of snow for the best part of half a mile, and decided to wait to fish there until more of the snow is gone. But not sure I can wait - may go back later this week and just deal with whatever is there ( which, given the forecast, may be more snow than there was the other day ).

John

8

Buzz and I fished the Big Lost yesterday, late morning til midafternoon. There was still quite a bit of snow on the access to my favorite stretch of the river, but on the way in there was enough of a crust to walk on, with an occasional step through to solid ground, most of the way to the water. By the time we came out, the snow had softened somewhat and we had to posthole for a good part of the walk. But now there is a good track, and if all goes as planned, I will use it again tomorrow.

The weather forecast had been for increasing cloudiness and snow later in the afternoon. Wrong. Turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, but rather cold day. The sun provided plenty of warmth, but not to the guides, which were iced most of the day.

We started too early. Very slow for the first couple hours. Picked up a bow here and there, and a couple very nice ones, and a few brookies when I decided to go with a streamer for a change of pace. For a while, it seemed like I had forgotten everything I ever knew about fly fishing - kind of a fog about why won’t this work or what can I do now or why don’t I just pack it up and go home.

Things started picking up around 1:30. A mixed midge and bwo hatch, which can make fishing this river really challenging, and sometimes downright exasperating - and one of the best fly fishing experiences I know of. About the time the fish started rising, I remembered what I was trying to do. Had to keep changing flies and experimenting because some fish seemed to be keyed on the midge larva, some on midge pupa, some on bwo nymphs or emergers and a few on the bwo duns. Most of the rise forms said emergers, but at the same time a lot of fish were staying down taking nymphs, pupa, and larva. The fish that did take the duns were in some really fast water and for the most part looked like they were after emergers - but they did come up for the dry fly.

At one point, at the transition between a shallow riffle and the head of a small run, I was sight fishing to a dozen nice bows. Caught several of them, but one of them drove me nuts, being an obstinate cuss that kept taking whatever I wasn’t fishing at the moment.

We had to quit about 3:30 so Buzz could make it home for a St. Patrick’s day family dinner.

We met just upstream of here at 3:30 -

Just above the little island is one of the best runs on the river. Buzz estimated there were as many as fifty fish rising on and off for the hour or so he fished this run before we met up. But he couldn’t find the right fly.

I didn’t get the opportunity to fish this run yesterday. But I know how Buzz felt. One day last March I spent an hour on this stretch of water with anywhere from ten to fifteen 15-18" rainbows to sight fish to at any one time. I probably cast to more than fifty fish that day - caught six or eight, and felt completely defeated.

On other occasions, when the fish are all eating the same food form and you have the right fly on, you might stick 12-15 fish before moving on. Another day last year, in the tailout just above the island, I landed four 16-18" bows on four consecutive casts on a soft hackle p.t.

Yesterday, Buzz ended up with about a dozen bows, the biggest at 18", and I picked up about 20 bows, most in the 14-17" bracket, and 5 brookies running 8-12".

We had the river to ourselves. That is pretty much the norm. Because this place is somewhere that is a long way from anywhere and feels like nowhere when you finally get there.

John

9

Nice report John. I know the feelings you were feeling very well. Some days fish can make you feel like the king of the world, and other days they can make you feel like a dolt. If they’d just obey our rules, it would always be easy, and not near as much fun. Why don’t you move that river a little closer to home? Then we could be frustrated a lot oftener.

10

Fished the Big Lost from about 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. I arrived about the same time as the hatch, maybe a few minutes later. Midges and blue wing olives.

Had planned to head downstream and fish the same water we had been on Monday, but a nice old fellow from Jackson WY beat me to the parking area by a couple minutes so I let him choose. He wanted to go downstream, so I headed upstream.

Tried a copper john in the first pool and caught a pretty nice bow, and lost another one. Then it became obvious that they were going to be high in the water column so I tied on the most elegant fly in my fly box - an unweighted midge larva called the t.c.t.k.

Good choice. It rides at just the right place in the water column for these bows. Took another five fish in a matter of minutes at the riffle just above the pool, then moved on. About 50 yards upstream, there were about 15-20 fish rising consistently. Took eight or nine of them in about thirty minutes, staying with the midge. It was starting to look like a fifty fish day ?!

Continued upstream and covered a lot of really neat water, and saw a lot of rising fish and sight fished to a good number, also. But the hatch had fallen off, and the water was a bit slower and deeper, and the catching fell off with it. Did manage to land several nice fish, including a 20" bow which turned out to the biggest of the day.

Came to a really nice pool - very fast riffle dumping into it just before the river swings left. Had on a bwo parachute with the midge dropper. Took two really nice fish with the dry in just a few minutes. Then decided to give the quigley cripple a shot since most of the fish rising in the pool did not seem to be coming up for duns. Caught a beauty on the q.c. but lost it releasing him.

Then things really slowed down, around 3:30. Started back downstream, with a rust copper john under an indicator. Figured the hatch was gone, the temps were falling, and the fish would go deeper. Picked up another nice fish rather quickly, but then had to cover a lot of water and move a fair piece downstream before getting another one. After that, it was a fish here and one there.

By 5:00 I was back to my starting point. Decided to try the next run downstream and then head for the truck. Picked up a couple more fish, and then put the gear away. Just about then, a light snow started. Whereas the weather forecast had been for snow from early afternoon on, it held off until I was finishing up - actually had pretty nice weather all the time I was fishing.

The fish today were noticeably bigger than Monday. Only a couple of the 27 or so fish I caught were less than 14" and six or seven of them were over 17". Most of them took the t.c.t.k. Other than that fly, the catch rate was about the same for the other four flies I tried.

11

John.
Have you had any luck using the tctk on the South Fork?

12

Lew -

Yes.

Take a look at the Fly of the Week t.c.t.k. third quarter '07. Fifteen browns, ten cutts, and fifteen mountain whitefish in about five hours one day last April is more than “luck.” Without looking, just working from memory, two thirds of those fish took a t.c.t.k. trailing a r. l. stonefly nymph, and most of the trout took the t.c.t.k.

Also, one of my Fishing Reports on the South Fork notes taking a 22" brown, and a couple others, on the t.c.t.k. just a few days ago. Whenever I use it as a trailing fly on the South Fork, something good happens.

John

P. S. The fish that I have on in the picture for my South Fork - Home Water is the same fish that is shown in the write up for the Fly of the Week. Buzz and I went out that day for the sole purpose of getting some pictures of a fish taken on that fly - we got a bunch between us that day, and used that one for the write up because of how well the fly showed in the close up.

13

Yesterday, Buzz and I fished the Big Lost from about 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Temps were in the low 40’s, some cloud cover, not much in the way of wind. Pretty crowded - one fellow was headed upstream when we started, and we ran into another fellow later in the day who had started downstream of us.

I got off to a good start, with a t.c.t.k.

Four nice fish in the first hour. Then it slowed down for me. Ended up with about eight bows, some pretty nice fish on a variety of flies, dry, nymph and wet, and that many brookies, much smaller, that all took a streamer.

Buzz did somewhat better, about twenty bows, with quite a few coming on dry flies. Not to say this one is typical, but he had several pretty much like this.

Had a very good bwo hatch during the afternoon. Lots of flies on the water, but not all that many fish up compared to the last outing there. Buzz had tied the dry fly he used quite successfully based on his observations last time over there. He hit the nail on the head. I thought the bwo’s were a bit bigger, and the trout knew it when they saw an oversized example of the local fare.

The snow was littered with bwo’s as we walked back to the truck - couldn’t hardly stand to leave, but six hours on the water was enough.

14

These are some of the flies that worked well for Buzz last time we were on the Big Lost.

The foam head emergers are on size 20 dry fly hooks, the f.c.t.k. ( fifteen cent trout killer ) are size 18 Dai-Riki 135s and the bwo parachute is a size 20 of Buzz’ design.

He promised to have some for me when we go back Monday. May not be a great day for a hatch, but it will be a great day, anyway.

15

Well, the Big Lost closed today until the general season opens Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We had planned to spend the day there, BUT the weather forecast was for downright nasty conditions.

Just checked the actual weather report, as of noon today - temp 26f feels like 13f, snowing, winds out of the NNW at 15 mph gusting to 25.

Man, am I glad I’m sitting here reading the weather report rather than over there in those conditions, last day of the winter stream season or not. That wind would be blowing right down the river. Casting would be nearly impossible, even downstream !!

Don’t usually fish the tailwater in the summer ( irrigation season ) because the flows typically run around 500 CFS which makes most of the river unwadeable. But the mainstem of the Big Lost and its forks and tribs make for some fine summer fishing in the midst of some outstanding scenery.

Might be a while until you hear more reports from me about this very special river. Hope you all enjoyed hearing about our winter outings, and come back for more later in the year.

John

Until then