Late August

My dad, my wife, and I spent Friday afternoon catching some cutthroats on a beautiful mountain stream. Overall it was a great day except the biggest fish we caught was 14". There were a lot of fish in the 8-10" range and a ton of minnows in the water. We haven't received any rain this summer so the water was a little below normal so the big fish likely went back to the reservoir. The Hopper/Dropper combo was the best way to go again with most fish taking the dropper.

Loss of Summer

Summer has come to a quick and resolute end with way too many days worked and way too many waters left unfished. My legal work has consumed most of my days and trying to repair a home has consumed the rest of the weekends. My priorities have all been clustered among the wrong things. I finally did get to go out for about an hour on Friday night on Cottowood Creek - a tributary of the Bear River in Southeast Idaho. I caught three (2 - 12" and 1 - 10") Bonneville cutts. Cottonwood Creek used to be gem of a stream but overfishing, questionable water transfers and continued disconnection with the Bear River have created a stream that suffers greatly from dewatering and the loss of the native run of Bear River cutts. A tragedy. It almost seems impossible just to get a fish screen on the diversion. A grew up (and my grandfather and father) fishing this little stream and the lack of fish is disheartening. But at least there were three. Take advantage of the last days of summer - I plan to and hopefully land a few 20+".

Upper Blackfoot

As you can probably tell the Blackfoot River is probably my favorite place to fish. On July 4 we fished in the morning and early afternoon and although it wasn't the wildest of days we caught a fair number of fish (~30) between my dad and me and probably half were 10"-16". ALmost all cutts but we did catch one pure rainbow and a few hybrids. I landed a 20" cutthroat - the Snake River cutts are beautiful - pic forthcoming. The Combo: hopper/dropper - the biggest cutt took the hopper off the surface - what a rush!! Fishing has been good in July. Good luck keeping the waters from haunting your dreams!

Blackfoot River

Opneing day on the Blackfoot River was ok. I caught quite a few fish but mostly 6-10" trout. I did catch one 14" cutthroat and missed a few bigger ones. My dad caught a few bigger cutthroats and a couple of nice rainbows. We might go back tomorrow. Best combo: ParaHopper/Dropper (beaded prince's nymph or hares ear)

Warm River

This last Saturday we went to the Warm River near Ashton, Idaho off the Bear Gulch parking area. The morning was a little stormy and cool but by mid afternoon it was a beautiful day. I caught 10-15 fish but only one 10" Brown. The rest were rainbows between 6" and 10" . I caught the majority on bead head prince nymphs and a few on a yellow stimulator (imitating the small golden stones that were on a few of the rocks). Overall it was a pretty slow day and a poor day for larger fish. The Warm River never has had the highest fish count compared to other rivers but it is a beautiful spring creek that drops through an impressive canyon. There are alot of deep holes that likley hold some nice trout if you could just get them to rise. Here's a picture of the Warm through one of the rapid stretches in the canyon.

Opening Weekend

The rivers and streams continue to roar with runoff and likely will continue to roar for a couple more weeks. It looks like the weather will be warm and sunny which will help quicken the runoff. We went fishing Saturday of opening weekend on Winder Reservoir with our family trying to hook into a little panfish action but the weather was cold, windy, rainy, and downright miserable so we didn't last more than one half hour. Hopefully the next few weekends will be better and the fly hatches will be thick. Good fishing.

Spring Runoff

That's right - spring is finally overcoming winter in SE Idaho this week. We have had flood warnings on one of the local rivers with alot of snow still to melt in the high country. The benefit of the high water and runoff is for the first time in years the streams and rivers will be flushed of all of the sediment and moss providing a clean stream bed for spawning trout. Fishing should be great this year!!!

Winters end?

After a few month hiatus I return in anticipation of a great fishing season in 2006. The snowpack here in Idaho is above normal which bodes well for trout fisheries. There will likely be significant runoff this year to flush the stream systems and produce excellent late summer fishing. Winter has felt like an eternity this year and spring will bring a welcome energy that has been missing for months.

Any thoughts on Public Land be sold by the federal government? Terrible idea - one of the great things about Idaho is our public land and the open and free access we have to millions of acres of wild land. Land along streams will be the first to go and fishing access will be diminished unless the public land sale is halted. Watch out if Dirk Kempthorne is appointed as Secretary of Interior. We also need to stop Butch Otter from becoming the Governor of this State or we will have no public land left. Comments welcome.