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+".