Lochsa

Articles Trip Reports & Travel
101

… with heavy, wind driven rain, to breezes, and serious gusts, one of which almost blew me off a streamside boulder into the river, and bright blue sunny skies with big, bold, white clouds.

And the fishing was r…e…a…l…l…y s…l…o…w.

Fished four diferent sections of the river over about four hours. Caught fish in all of them. But not many, and only by covering a lot of water.

No hatches going on. Very few insects anywhere. Went with the salmonfly dry for the most part. Except in one place a fish came up about fifteen feet out in front of me three times for a natural. After that fishy passed on several good drifts of the salmonfly, changed out to a Duck’s Greek Drake and got him on the second drift.

Some of the places and residents.

The first fishy above took the fly very subtly in a deep, slow run where the lighting made it impossible to see him before he hit it. A bit of a surprise with that one.

The fishy in the fourth pic came from way down deep in a slow pool and was visible all the way from the bottom to the fly. Seemed like a long, long time waiting for him to get to it, and its hard not to pull the trigger too quickly in that situation.

The fishy in the last pic came up very aggressively in some very fast, medium depth water, chased the fly downstream several feet and hammered it almost before I had a chance to react.

Fishing may have been really slow, but the catching was just dandy. Ended up hooking about a dozen and landing seven or eight.

John

P.S. Did I mention that the fishing was really slow ??

102

…

Duh !!

I try to stay away from comparatives, like words ending in -er and -est, so I will just say that this is a truly beautiful stretch of the Lochsa.

I’ll add that I haven’t seen one that is prettier. It is a bit early for it to fish well, but the river is dropping and some of the fishies are willing. Fished the salmonfly here and hooked up with a half dozen residents.

Further upstream, I had some success with the salmonfly, but also fished …

… a golden stone for the first time this year. I saw one yesterday on another crick, so I tied some up this morning for today’s outing. Had four fishies eat the golden stone, including this 17" cutt …

… which was the biggest and strongest ( oops, there’s a couple -est’s ) fishy of the day.

The salmonfly got the most work today and accounted for thirteen or fourteen fishies in hand. It also got hit a few times, and turned a really big fish out in some heavy water one place I fished.

The golden stone got limited duty, but did land four fish and took several hits which didn’t hook up.

Hard to believe that the salmonfly has served as my primary fly for going on eight weeks. But it won’t be long before the golden stone / hopper version rules this river, and it will do so into mid-September.

John

103

John, I’m not real familiar with the Lochsa (pretty much all I know about it is from reading your posts), but what makes this stretch not fish well until later in the year, compared to some of the other stretches you’ve fished?

104

… there are always places to fish, but only a couple of them fish as well as they do later in the year when the flows drop to normal summer levels. And as the river drops, it opens up many, many places that just aren’t fishable when the river is high and ripping. Interestingly, one of the most productive places during the runoff is hardly worth fishing later in the summer. And a stretch just a hundred yards downstream which holds very few fish early turns into one of the most productive places in the twenty five miles, or so, of the river that I fish.

This particular stretch is rather narrow and has a lot of structure, as in very large boulders and good size holes. Narrow means deep. And it is fast. Like in really fast during runoff. Right now, there are places just a matter of feet off the bank that are 6-8-10-12 feet deep. Later in the summer, with less depth and slower water, it is easier to get the fishies to come to the surface for a dry.

Most of this spring, I’ve fished only five or six places, and when the water was really high, fewer than that. In a matter of weeks now, there will be so many good places that it’s a matter of being selective on each outing with a great variety of settings and water to choose from.

John

105

SAY WHAT ??

Been meaning to show some of the stuff along the way somewhere along the way. Those creek names are in the Nez Perce language. The signs are pretty new - replacing the signs with the old English language creek names. A sign of the times.

This is the bridge at Mocus Point. Cross that and you are on the northern edge of the Selway Bitterroot wilderness.

The river took a pretty good bump yesterday. Probably some of the higher elevation snow finally melting since there was minimal precipitation in the drainage the last couple days.

It was a good day for action in a number of places, but not such a good day for hooking up and landing fish. The salmonfly was the workhorse again, but the golden stone did hook up a few good fishies.

Fished several new places today.

And caught at least one fish at each one. In a couple of the new places, I had multiple hits. This guy hung on long enough for a photo op.

And one of the usual places fished pretty well today, especially considering the higher flows and the fact that a couple guys fished it for some time before I got on it.

It helps to have been on this stretch regularly for a couple months. As the water levels change, the fishies move around. They aren’t necessarily where you would expect fish to be hanging. This one came out of some pretty heavy water just out from the light colored rock in the lower right quadrant of the pic above.

He was one of six in hand here, and one of about a dozen that moved for, hit, or ate the fly. That was about par for the day - about a baker’s dozen in hand out of more than twice that number that at least looked at the salmonfly or the golden stone.

John

106

… is winding down …

… but still has a way to go.

Over the past three months, there have only been a few days when the river was “unfishable”, although the changing conditions made it challenging at times, to say the least.

John

P.S. The blue line is the track of the daily flows for the past three months. The line of brownish triangles is the median daily statistic ( flow ) for 84 years. The “compression” of the graph tends to visually minimize the dramatic differences between the starting point at about 2,000 CFS and the peak at almost 22,000 CFS.

107

… heading west from Lolo, there are no traffic control stop signs or signals for almost 200 miles, the approximate distance to Lewiston ID.

Except one …

… but it is temporary. And should be gone in another week or so.

If you are ever headed across U.S. 12 in eastern Idaho, this place is worth a few minutes of your time …

Bernard DeVoto was a well regarded historian in the mid-twentieth century for his work on the explorations of Lewis and Clark and John Wesley Powell ( as I best recall his claims to fame ). Wallace Stegner, probably the most prominent writer from the Western United States over the last half of the twentieth century was quite the fan of DeVoto and refered to him in his own writings about the explorations of Powell on the Colorado Plateau.

And one more place well worth a few minutes if you time it right …

…

… is the Idaho Fish and Game Hatchery at White Sands, on the confluence of the Colt Killed Creek and the Crooked Fork Creek, which is the beginning of the Lochsa. The count is the number of chinook salmon that have made it back to Walton Creek and turned up that creek to the fish ladder that takes them into the holding area at the hatchery. There are some huge salmon in the holding tank right now, but the lighting when I was there this morning wasn’t good for getting pix. Maybe next time over.

The fishing continues to be slow. Fished a bunch of places and picked up a fish or two or three in most of them, all on the salmonfly dry. There were more salmonflies around today than any day yet this year.

The “fish of the day” came up out of deep, slow water to intercept and eat the fly - the remarkable thing was that instead of the usual golden color rising to the fly, there was a bright red rise. This was one of the very deeply colored fish I have caught this year.

In the last place I fished, one fish rose several times for naturals right out in front of me. He passed on several good drifts of the salmonfly so I changed out to Duck’s Green Drake. First drift and he hit it, but I was a bit slow on the trigger, just not really ready for him, and missed the hook up.

Scouted another new place which looks like it will be dynamite when the flows drop to summer levels. Won’t be all that long now.

John

108

… so I made another stop.

Other than the historical aspect of this place, the camas were at their peak.

Nice way to start the day. After that stop, it was on to a bunch of different places to fish.

Hooked and / or landed fish at all seven stops. Some places were better than others. But all of them were better with dramatically lower flows than even just a couple days ago.

Two were real gems. The new place that I scouted for the first time a couple days ago. Gave up five fish in hand plus a few interesting refusals and splashy hits that didn’t hook up. The last splashy hit came just as I was fiddling with some gear and thinking, as I watched the slack line out in front of me, it was about time for a fish to eat the fly. Didn’t eat it, but I probably would have hooked him if I had been focusing on fishing instead of goofing off.

The other gem was my last stop, which can be dynamite, but is also rather fickle. Today it was dynamite. Just as I reached the bank and started pulling line off the reel, a fishy rose about fifteen feet out from me. Second cast past his rise and it was fish on. Over the course of the next half hour or so, I had a dozen fish in hand and a half dozen refusals and / or hits that didn’t hook up - all on Duck’s Green Drake.

This fishy is pretty typical of those landed, with a few larger and a few somewhat smaller.

Over the course of the day, I had about seven or eight fish on the salmonfly dry, one on a golden stone, one on a yellow sally, and around twenty on the green drake, all those in hand. Saw somewhere around another dozen between refusals and hits, with those spread around among the salmonfly, golden stone, and green drake. But overall, the green drake maintained a solid record of very few refusals and really solid hook up and landing rates.

John

Note - This was my 40th day on the Lochsa this year and 100th day since 5-23-11.

109

… and only fished the new stretch plus some distance upstream on some more new water, and then the place I usually end my day.

Had a fishy hit a Duck’s Green Drake almost immediately. And then I lost the fly in a tree. Then I lost another one when a fish wrapped the 5X tippet around a rock and went bye-bye.

Finally did get into a few fish. First up …

… on the salmonfly.

On the new water, I found a really neat hole…

… and picked off three more cutts with the salmonfly …

Had some other action along the way on this stretch in the form of several refusals and a couple hits. But overall it was very hot temps and very cool fishing and very messy having to deal with a number of unusual and weird gear problems.

On the old stretch, which is really starting to show the effects of the lower flows as runoff wanes …

…I managed one cutt on a salmonfly. Had a couple other looks at it, but there were several fish rising and not for that big fly. So I went with a Duck’s Green Drake and picked up a few more.

I also fished a new pattern today - an FEB PMD, kind of, tied on a size 16 Daiichi 1640 but using Uni-Stretch rather than antron, plus StretchMagic for the FEB. Used the same tying sequence as on the drake, just downsized to about a size 16 ( in conventional hook size terms ) fly. The “kind of” is that I didn’t have any yellowish Uni-Stretch and used a medium brown for the FEB abdomen. Had a bunch of looks and light hits on it, but only one fish actually hooked up and needed help getting back to the crick.

Hard to believe that we are already at mid-year. Not sure if I will continue this thread since it will get to be kind of repetitious now that runoff is almost over and the changes will be more a matter of degree and different hatches rather than the rather dramatic day to day differences in river conditions encountered during runoff.

And … I’m ready to get on some different cricks in the area as they settle down and become more wadeable. Guess I’ll just see how things go, and take it on a day by day basis, judging whether there is anything noteworthy to report.

John

110

JS - Nice looking fish and fishing spots … I’m still check’in in on you from time to time… Here in the East it’s been too hot to fish and the Spring Creeks are too low for me to do any fishing. We need some rain badly. My lawn looks like straw. Keep after them!

111

… as run off has ended and the river is dropping slowly toward late summer lows. Today’s flow was just over 1200 CFS. Much lower than when I started fishing there in late March.

Everything changes, well, most everything. Some places are very different but still provide good fishing.

The water is probably four feet lower now than just a couple months ago. The fish don’t have so far to come up, but a fair number did come up today.

This stretch started to catch my attention the past couple weeks as the lower water started giving it some character. Always fun to take a shot at some new water.

It was very productive, with most of the fish eating the FEB golden stone but a few dining on Duck’s Green Drake.

Even in the deeper, slower water fish were willing to come up and surprise me.

This one, particularly, as the steelhead in his hybrid mix came out - as in he came out of the water several times between hitting the fly and hitting my hand. Not something a cutthroat would do, for sure.

Fished one of my regular stops, dealing with it after several people had been fishing it earlier in the day. It was slow, but both the golden stone and the green drake got a little action.

Planned to fish another spot, but it was occupied when I arrived. Maybe he realized it was the stretch where I caught this 19 and 1/2 inch cutt a couple weeks ago ??

Made one last stop. A couple light hits and a couple good looks. And a bunch of footprints here and there.

Which brings me to one of the main points of this update. There are a LOT of fly anglers fishing the Lochsa these days. And there will be a lot around for another month or so. It will be tough going for strangers to this system. But, if you know the river and know the kind of water the fishies like, there are plenty of fish to catch.

John

112

I keep getting confused are you employed by the Montana or the Idaho Tourism Bureau, or is it a regional deal? I really don’t know how you stand the pressure of constantly producing those photos. Those of some pretty spotted fish you are playing with there. Are you telling them that is a skwala or a grasshopper?

113

I have enjoyed John’s posting about him fishing the Lochsa. Thanks John!
For the past 12 years we (FAOL) have been enjoying the fishing on these beautiful waters
I am looking foreward to Sept 22 - 29, 2012 for our annual Idaho Fish In.
Personally, I prefer fishing the Selway. Lowell, Idaho is where it will all be happening in Sept.
Come one, come all. We had 63 members attend one year and there was room for double that.
October Caddis hatch (hopefully) will be during out time down ther. Even if we miss it, the fishing will be great.

Denny

114

… and it can be a bit fickle. Fished some old places and some new places today with a variety of flies. …

… with an FEB golden stone …

… and a Duck’s Green Drake …

… and then a BWO version of Duck’s fly …

On downstream a few miles, fished some new water …

… and had the biggest fish of the day explode on the golden stone …

Caught several more fishies in this stretch, and then headed for home, stopping to fish the place I started. Had some pretty good action there on the golden stone, drake, and a new Cased October Caddis pattern that I tied a couple days ago and fished for the first time today. Had three fishies on it …

That last fishy is a harbinger of things to come - five to six weeks from now it will be FEB October Caddis time. In the meantime, most fishing will be with the golden stone, but I’ll start nymphing with the Cased October Caddis occasionally also.

A few days ago, a very large fishy startled me when he rose for a natural about 50’ up and across from where I was fishing. STEELHEAD !! And it was a HUGE one. NOTE - see post #116 below.

Today, I had a deja vu moment - twice. This time the fishy was farther away, about 75-80’ straight across the river the first time, and about the same distance the second time, which was a couple hours later. What a treat !! The tail on the one that I saw today looked to be a full 6-8" deep, and the half of his body that I actually saw was well over a foot, and probably more than 15".

It might have been a chinook salmon today, but from the color it definitely struck me as a steelhead.

John

115

Now - back to Denny’s regularly scheduled commercial for the Idaho Fish-In. :wink:

116

Do the Chinook and Steelhead both get up that way about this time of year? Or do they come all summer?

117

Karen -

I haven’t paid much attention to the timing since it is not legal to target steelhead on the Lochsa and I have no interest in fishing for the chinook.

Having said that, it is my impression that they both arrive with the run off. I know the salmon were in the system high up where I spend my time in early June. And an acquaintance caught a couple steelhead while fishing one of the FEB salmonflies that I gave him, also in June. I did hook, but didn’t land, a steelhead on a rubber legs stonefly nymph while the water was still running very high.

The two ( or three ) fish that I’ve seen in the past week might have actually been the same one since the one ( or two ) yesterday was just a few miles upstream of the one I saw a few days earlier.

John

118

… in the tank …

… with more to come.

Thinking about the big fish I saw the past couple trips, it occurred to me that while I tend to think of chinook salmon as a very dark colored fish, some do have somewhat lighter color, and that maybe those big fish were salmon, not steelhead.

So yesterday I stopped at the White Sands hatchery and talked to one of the Idaho Fish and Game biologists, and took a look at the big male chinooks in the holding tank. The biologist told me that it is very unlikely that there are any steelhead still this high in the system - they would have headed on back downstream by now. And looking at the fishies in the tank ( the pix didn’t turn out well enough to post ), there were a couple that could easily be mistaken at distance with only a glance as a big trout.

The last place I fished yesterday, I had another treat. Another very big fish. And this one was very dark. And fast. And I got to see him twice. Once racing from just below my position to the other side of the small pool I was fishing. And again when he raced back to just below where I was standing. This pool was well upstream of the hatchery - so it was a wild chinook.

John

P.S. The IDF&G biologist is optimistic that they will have a lot more salmon coming home to spawn in the next few weeks. It has been slow the past week or so, but he said that a good rainstorm or two will bring them swimming.

119

So, I guess the SH spawn in the spring like the rainbow? And then head back to the ocean? And then do it again the next year? The Kokanee around here spawn in the fall so maybe the Salmon are all fall spawners? Do they send the native fish on their way and keep the hatchery fish?

120

The chinook are mid-summer spawners. For example, from this morning …

… a wild female on a redd ( just below the partially submerged rock with the light spot on top - the dark stripe with white on her nose ) …

… and late this afternoon, a wild male on the same redd ( several feet to the left of the submerged rock )…

In between, I stopped at the White Sands hatchery.

Four hatchery females …

… and the biggest one giving up her eggs ( not voluntarily ) …

And a hatchery male doing his part, kind of …

… to add to the “redd” also known as a bucket …

Not far above the hatchery, there is a weir ( fish trap ) to keep the hatchery fish out of the wild chinook spawning areas further upstream. The fishies in the first two pix were several miles above the weir. I saw the big male just swimming around getting ready while I was taking pix of the female. Pretty cool to come back later in the day and see him on the redd.

John