An Amazing Day fishing on the Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot River was HOT today!! Idaho fly fishing for cutthroat trout could never be better than today. After landing more than 50 fish, I amazingly was worn out (and so was my knee after a few unceremonious falls into the river). The majority of the fish were in the 8-10" range. I did land 3 over 20", 2 in the 16-18" range, and after both long and short battles, lost 3 other fish that were over 20". One was probably a 24" that rivaled the biggest cutthroat I have ever caught on the Blackfoot River. It was an amazing, excellent, superb, wild, etc. day to be fly fishing.

Here are some photos from the trip. Note my excellent photography skills hastened by the need to release the trout :)

HOT FLIES FOR THE DAY:

Size 16 Bead Head Prince Nymoh
Size 8-10 Gray Colored Foam Hopper (with green strike indicator)

Cutthroats caught in No Name Lake

Here a couple pictures with me and some cutthroats caught in No Name Lake.

16" Cutthroat caught on a size 16 parachute adams

14" Cutthroat caught on a size 16 parachute adams

No Name and Yellow Lake Pictures

No Name Lake - taken from the ridge to the north

Yellow Lake - from the shore looking North

Yellow Lake

This last weekend I spent hiking and fishing at a couple of lakes near Leadore, Idaho. We camped at what I call "No Name Lake" (because the map does not reference a name), a small lake nestled below some of the impressive Lemhi range mountains. No Name is full of native cutthroat trout which range from the 4" to 16". I have seen a few bigger fish taken out of this lake but based on the number of campers/backpackers, No Name is no longer a secret. Fishing pressure and keeping the larger fish has taken a toll on the bigger fish. However, I did land two beautiful 16" inch cutthroats as well as a couple of 14" cutthroats.

I was fishing with my spinning rod, a clear plastic bubble, and flies. At first I tried wet flies and caught a few on bead headed woolly worms (green was the best) but overall it was pretty slow. I ended up catching three small cutts.

Friday morning we hiked over the mountain to Yellow Lake. Fishing was relatively slow at Yellow Lake. I caught three 12" rainbows. One on a size 12 black gnat and two on a size 4 bead headed woolly worm (green).

Friday afternoon changed things for me. I noticed the fish jumping and just happened to have a size 16/18  black bodied mayfly land on my arm. So of course I switched over to a the closed thing I had...a size 18 parachute adams. I drained my bubble to 3/4 so it would float and threw it out for a test run. First cast resulted in a nice 12" cutthroat. After about 6 fish I finally caught a hefty 16" cutthroat. The water was so clear that I was able to watch him take the fly about 20 yards out. I ended up catching over 10 trout with this set up.

I went back out later that night and after a very slow start finally found the right fly...a size 16 yellow bodied elk hair caddis that was similar in color and size to some golden stoneflies that I noticed flying around. I ended up catching 7 fish on the caddis, one was another 16" cutthroat that I watched sneak up from the bottom and take it off the surface.

The fishing wasn't the hottest but after 30+ fish I definitely call it a success. No Name and Yellow Lake are amazing high mountain fisheries and should be visited by any lover of trout fishing.