Thanks for the show - Mother Nature is amazing, isn’t she? But nice for her to get a hand now and then.
And to think they swim well over 600 miles upstream, with an elevation gain of over 3,000’, past a whole bunch of dams, anglers and other predators, on an empty stomach - and still do it.
Of course they then do die.
it has really slowed down the past couple weeks compared to last year. The current flows are just under 600 CFS ( downstream at Lowell ) compared to roughly 1300 CFS this date last year. The graph from last year …
… with the blue line the daily streamflow and the line of triangles the long term median.
This year is very close to the long term median. And I am beginning to think that is the difference. With the much lower flows compared to last year, which was a “good water year” except it was a great water year, a lot of the fishies have headed further downstream earlier. Not catching nearly as many fish as this time last year, and not nearly as many of the larger fishies.
But the scenery is still great, and as the flows drop there are always new places to fish, and the old places are different by the day.
This little side channel on one of the main tributaries to the Lochsa has provided some really fun small stream fishing.
This stretch has been fishable for a while now, but I finally got around to fishing it yesterday.
When I first fished this spot a few weeks ago, the big rock was almost completely underwater.
And one of my regular stops continues to fish pretty decently, but way off from last year. The instream boulders were under several feet of water when I was fishing this place right around the peak of run off in late May.
I did manage to catch at least one 10-14" cutt in each of the places shown, and a good number of the smaller cutts and steelhead young’uns.
To make up for the slow fishing, there have been all kinds of other neat things going on - well, one of them not so neat. But this little guy is a reminder of all those other things.
For example - a couple days ago an 18" long snake swam from center river almost into my wading position; yesterday, besides the frog, there was an eagle winging it upstream just across the river, and further upstream was a mother duck and some ducklings; the same huge fish made it’s third appearance, the one with the tail that is a good 6-8" deep, a very large chinook salmon; the wild chinook spawning shown in the pix above, and the hatchery fish shown in that post; and a couple Forest Service helicopters running up the river looking for a place to load up their trailing buckets with water to fight the numerous small forest fires ignited by a quite spectacular lightening storm the night before.
And the young man from Pueblo CO and his companion from Bend OR who were riding from his place to her place along Highway 12. It is a major route for cross country bicyclists, and good numbers of them are pumping their way up to Lolo Pass or coasting down from there daily. Always interesting to talk to those folks when the opportunity arises. And it has got to be one of the favorite routes in the country for motorcyclists - the sign just west of Lolo Pass warns of curves for the next 99 miles. It is not uncommon for a parade of fifteen or more motorcycles to go roaring by, although most groups are somewhat smaller.
John
Done …
… for sure …
John
… so I just took a half hour or so to check one of my regular stops late this afternoon.
Big fires to the north and east caused a very smoky sky, but things looked better after getting a good number of miles past it, and pretty much upwind of the largest fire in the area …
On the other hand, there was another large fire in the downstream direction, blowing up another large smoke mass …
On the first seven casts, I saw seven fish. A couple refusals, a couple hits, a couple long distance releases, one of which was a pretty good size fish, and one in hand, all on the FEB golden stone.
Decided to try a small caddis dry that I tied this afternoon and had a look, a hit, and one in hand.
Lots of action in a very short time in what is usually a very productive spot. Small and smaller fish, for the most part, but very encouraging that when the weather cools down the action may well pick back up across the system.
Also had the opportunity to talk to the local IDF&G enforcement officer. Picked up a tip for an alternative route to a backcountry stream that I have been wanting to fish for some time now. He mentioned that he had just fished from this access in the past few days - when he had to go retrieve a collar he had put on an older female wolf last fall that indicated she was probably dead. Six miles of cross country bushwacking to get to the body. The cause of death was a crushing bite to the wolf’s skull - by a mountain lion.
Hmmmmmm …
John
Looks like you’ve been found:
http://chiwulff.com/2012/08/16/one-more-from-the-lochsa/
Regards,
Scott
Not me, Scott. Not a place that I recognize, and not a piece of water I would be fishing. Makes for a nice picture, but not the kind of water where I find the fishies on the Lochsa, at least not with dry flies.
And it’s unbelievable that anyone would be wearing waders over there yesterday. Bright blue skies, except for some smoke. Temps in the high 80s and no wind. Comfortable water temps. Absolutely beautiful conditions for wet wading. The guy in that pic must be a real weenie.
John
Not me, Scott.
It’s almost unbelievable that anyone would be wearing waders over there yesterday. Bright blue skies, except for some smoke. Temps in the high 80s and no wind. Comfortable water temps. Absolutely beautiful conditions for wet wading. The guy in that pic must be a real weenie.
John
[INDENT]Not me, Scott.
It’s unbelievable that anyone would be wearing waders over there yesterday. Bright blue skies, except for some smoke. Temps in the high 80s and no wind. Comfortable water temps. Absolutely beautiful conditions for wet wading. The guy in that pic must be a real weenie.
John
[/INDENT]
… for a change.
Since the mainstem has been fickle at best and very slow at worst, I decided to explore a rather remote tributary creek that I haven’t fished before. The water was on the low side, but it was cold, and deep enough in the holes and pockets to offer some hope. Besides, golden stone shucks decorated a good portion of the rocks instream and at streamside.
Tied on a pointless FEB golden stone. Tagged about 20 fishies with it in the first half hour or so. Decided to put on a regular pointy thing so I could get some pix of typical residents. Had about 20 fishies hit that fly and not hook up, or manage a long distance release, or come on in for a photo op over the next hour and a half.
First, six typical holes and pockets. I did hit several more but we’ll stick with the ten pix max for a post.
Each of these spots and the four others fished typically gave up 3 to 6 fish each. Most of them gave up higher numbers rather than lower numbers.
Next, some typical fishies.
The “split” was somewhere around 40% similar to the smaller fish in the first pic, around 40% similar to the mid size fish in the second pic, and 20% as big or bigger than the last one shown. There were a couple that took long distance releases that went around 14-15".
So fishing the pocket change was a minor risk with a major reward. As remote as it is, it likely isn’t found and fished by many folks, so fishing like this should be available, given decent water flows and temps, whenever I decide it is worth the trouble.
John
Nice change of pace John. Love that pocket water. Thanks for the pics and nice fish by the way.
Beaver
Thanks, Beaver, and you are welcome.
Yes, it was quite a change of pace, and I really do enjoy that kind of fishing. I pretty much committed to a whole fishing year ( March through November, or maybe even December, weather permitting ) on the Lochsa system for this year. I mentioned to someone last year about fishing it for 100 days this year, and I’m on pace with about 60-65 days there since late March.
But the Lochsa system over the course of a year presents near constant change, and challenge. The first day I fished it, I could only access a couple places due to the snow. For some time now, I’ve been able access the full seventy plus miles of its run to the Clearwater.
The first day I fished it, the streamflow at Lowell was about 2,000 CFS. It hit a high during run off close to 22,000 CFS, and since it peaked the second time, it has dropped slowly and pretty steadily to its present 500 CFS. I need to put together a slideshow to illustrate what that looks like.
The downside has been not fishing some other streams and rivers in the area that do provide interesting, challenging, and rewarding fly angling experiences. But while I was exploring several famous trout rivers in SW Alberta last week, it dawned on me just how spoiled I am having the Lochsa in my backyard. And how grateful.
John
… for the slideshow. The first pic shows run off in the making in early February.
[
](http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj218/jfs_photo/Run off 2012/?action=view¤t=63333633.pbw)
The slideshow runs from 3-25-12 through 6-25-12. The run off peaked in late May. For the first couple weeks, it was basically nymph fishing. Then the fishies started hitting dries - to start with a skwala for a couple weeks, then overlapping that little stonefly with the salmonfly, which caught fishies for well over two months. Golden stones and Green Drakes made their appearance not long before the slideshow ends.
The show documents spots and their residents, with a few graphs thrown in to illustrate flows through run off. The blue line on the graphs marks the daily streamflow, and the line of triangles marks median streamflow for a given date over 84 years of history.
A lot of pix, and the slideshow may be repetitious for some - but the changes in the river flows and where the fishies would hang day to day made for a challenging, fresh experience day by day along the way.
John
P.S. Once you access the slideshow, you can scroll through the individual pix one at a time by using the “next” icon at the upper right of the pic frame. They do appear in the reverse order shown in the slideshow.
… and I don’t mean the fishing.
The fires in Northern Idaho have laid down a really heavy blanket of smoke in the Lochsa drainage. Mid day today with no clouds …
… upstream …
… downstream …
… and not quite so dramatic on one of the tributary streams …
Didn’t really expect to put up with that stuff for very long. But turning over rocks was fun. Found another cased October Caddis, for example.
And the fishing was good enough on a couple of the more remote tributary creeks that I kept at it for over four hours. About twenty fish in hand and another ten or so on and off. Fished Paul’s Sock It To 'em Hopper, the FEB Hopper, a Duck’s Green Drake, and a Renegade. They all caught fish, but the Renegade was the fly du jour, accounting for the most and the largest fishies.
This guy, showing off his take on a Renegade, is about middle of the range, size-wise, of fish in hand.
Just as I started back to the car, a very large, older looking black lab type dog trotted down the road just ahead of me. He took time to stop and bark in a rather unfriendly way. So I gave him a lot of space. But eventually, I gained a bit of ground on him and he turned to me and approached with hackles up, teeth bared, and with a very menacing growl. I had picked up a large piece of wood and when I waved it at him, he did back off.
So then this darned dog goes on down the road to where my car is parked. And lays down right in front of it. Tried using the remote beeper to annoy him, thinking he might take off. No such luck. Finally flagged down a vehicle and the driver agreed to approach my car with his rig to see what would happen. That worked. The doggy finally left his comfortable place right in front of my car and wandered off far enough that I could get to the car and get going without further incident.
Got to say that I feel bad for that old doggy. He was a long way from anywhere. And he had a bit of a limp. Kind of got the feeling that someone might have abandoned him out there. Hope not, but it is not a good situation for him one way or the other. 
John
… of the smoke today, and with a good breeze to help things out, ended up with clear skies and clean air.
The recipe for today was … five portions of water …
… and two flies ( as seen in jaws of a couple nearsighted, colorblind, dumb and starving fishies ) …
… to end up with somewhere around twenty five fishies in hand.
The thing that is curious and interesting is that I started off in the first stretch with the hopper and only caught a few fish. I changed out to a Renegade and fished it over the same water and had about ten fishies come up to eat it. So I just stayed with the Renegade for the rest of the day and caught fishies in the other four places shown.
The past couple years the trouts have stayed with the big flies, for the most part, right through the golden stone / hopper to October caddis transition. This year they are prefering the smaller offering - selecting against the big flies and for the small ones.
The other interesting thing is that I haven’t fished a Renegade on the Lochsa for three years. And the past couple outings it has been the fly du jour. Go figure.
John
Oh yeah - I really like this pic.
Very nice John, (as usual) Tom was here and mentioned the Hoppers are highly over-rated…if you follow stomach samples
anyway. The Renegade is also the Beatty’s favorite fly for the Yellowstone and other rivers too.
That’s beautiful water John (as well as beautiful cutthroats).
I’m gonna get out there one of these days!
I use the Renegade occasionally on some of our small mountain streams. A very good attractor!
Hi John, lovely water as usual! I have a question for you, the one thing I miss down here in NZ is seeing other creatures while fishing, other than birds and the odd wild goat, rabbit or weasel. In the UK on a day near the water you might see Fox, Mink, Otters, Badgers and lots of smaller critters like Field mice, frogs, newts and snakes, so what wildlife do you see while fishing the Lochsa?
All the best.
Mike
Mike -
Not all that much wildlife right down in the river corridor. On the way over, I usually see a good number of deer, occasionally some elk, and rarely a moose, along with the occasional golden and bald eagles, wild turkeys, ducks, geese, etc.
On the river itself, I’ve seen snakes and frogs, but not often, and a pair of river otters just once last fall. The most common sightings are a variety of ducks and geese, and eagles and osprey. Osprey nests are a dead give away to a good fishing spot - those guys don’t carry their meals back to the nest any further than absolutely necessary.
There are a good number of bears, wolves, and mountain lions in the mountains along the river corridor. But I’ve not even seen sign of those critters down by the water.
Keep in mind that the Lochsa comprises the northern boundary of the Selway - Bitterroot Wilderness. The Selway - Bitterroot is about 1,300,000 acres of roadless wilderness. It is contiguous with the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness to the south. The Frank Church is another 2,300,000 acres of roadless wilderness.
For some information on the Selway - Bitterroot, follow the link, and then the link within that article about the Frank Church.
http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&WID=540
John
… runs roughly parallel to the Lochsa and the Clearwater for close to 100 miles in a generally east to west direction from Powell, just downstream of the confluence of Crooked Fork Creek and Colt Killed Creek to Wieppe, on the eastern edge of civilization in that part of western Idaho.
Saddle Camp is one of the readily accessible points along the Lolo Trail.
The Trail follows an old Nez Perce route through the Bitterroot Mountains, and the route taken by Lewis and Clark during their explorations in 1805 and 1806. Lewis and Clark declared the Bitterroot to be the most difficult terrain they encountered in their travels.
Yesterday we hiked a couple miles west from Saddle Camp, mostly through a pretty dense forest. The first good clearing we found provided a view to the north …
… where there are some roads - dirt roads - to and along such places as Gravely Creek, Cayuse Creek, Kelly Creek, and the North Fork of the Clearwater. Some are well known for their cutthroat fishing, some not. It is approximately 55 miles of uninhabited and virtually uninhabitable mountain terrain from our viewpoint north to St. Regis MT.
A mile or so further along, we found a clearing that provided a look to the south …
… across the northern edge of the Selway - Bitterroot Wilderness. The only road between U.S. 12 just below us, and Idaho State Road 21 just northwest of Stanley Idaho, is the MacGruder Corridor, a rugged, primitive dirt road that separates the Selway - Bitterroot from the Frank Church. Stanley is about 160 miles south of the Lolo Trail.
That smoke in the pic is from one of several small wildfires in the area. There is a much larger fire up the Colt Killed Creek drainage, now at about 22,000 acres, that is causing a lot of the smoke pollution in the northern part of the Bitterroot Valley in MT. Further south, down on the Idaho - Montana border, the Mustang Complex wildfire had burned 206,000 acres since late July, and will most likely burn until there is some heavy snow in that part of the Bitterroot.
Stopped at one of my usual fishing spots after our hike and fished this little hole …
… and, as usual, caught a nice little cutthroat.
Had another one hit the fly, but not hook up, at that hole and caught another just downstream, where I had several more hits that didn’t hook up.
Along with the fishing, we did some exploring at the waters edge. Other than a few million little minnows, which maybe someday will make their way down to the Pacific, we spotted a couple crawfish and a good number of tadpoles. I’ve seen the tadpoles before in a couple places, but not crawfish. They were a real surprise.
The Lochsa is running very low these days - about 60% of the long term median - and the fishing is really slow. Thinking it might be time to concentrate on a few other creeks until the October caddis hatch comes off around the end of the month.
John