Bead Head Prince Nymph

BEAD HEAD PRINCE NYMPH

The bead head Prince nymph is an effective attractor or searching nymph. Especially effective as a dropper off a terrestrial fly. The para hopper/bead head Prince nymph is an especially effective combo in Southeast Idaho streams and rivers. The hopper dropper combo listed above is especially effective on the Blackfoot River.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Hook: Nymph Hook (Sizes 10-18) - any brand

Weight: Tungsten bead and lead wire

Thread: Brown

Tail: Tan goose biots (rubber hackle is a neat alternative)

Ribbing: fine gold oval tinsel and fine monofilament

Body: Peacock

Wing: White goose biots

Throat: Brown Pullet (optional)

Collar: Fox Squirrel Dubbing (Optional)

Parahopper - Fly pattern for the summer months

Para Hopper

Hook: 3x long, sizes 10, 12, 14, 16
Parachute post: white poly yarn (alternate = white calf tail)
Body: Tan antron/hare’s ear blend (grey also works well)
Wing: Turkey Tail fibers
Legs: Pheasant Tail fibers, knotted
Parachute Hackle: Grizzly



This pattern is a cutthroat magnet in the summer months. Body color variations include tan, brown, gray (my favorite), and yellow. Afternoon fishing is outstanding with this pattern. Use a bead headed prince nymph/hares ear for extra action. You may even hook two at a time!

Upper Blackfoot River - July 2, 2009

The upper Blackfoot is still high and off color. With the recent thunderstorms, expect the river to start clearing this week and into next week. There were no fly hatches of note, except a few dragon flies were beginning to hatch. There were a few caddis flies but with the water off color and unusually high there was no dry fly activity. We caught 12-15 fish. All the fish we caught were cutthroats, and mine were all > 12", with one 16" and one 20". My father landed a 20". All the bigger fish were caught on bead headed brown woolly worms; Size 4-6.

In a few weeks the hoppers will be hot and with a lot of water in the Upper Blackfoot, the big fish may hold in the river. Good luck.

Stump Creek - June 26-27, 2009

Stump Creek was high and off color still. The fishing was very slow. I caught three cutthroats on a bead headed woolly worm (black and red) but other than that it was slow. The water started to clear on Saturday. If the weather clears, Stump Creek will be fishable in a week. Good Luck

July 4 BLACKFOOT RIVER

IDAHO FISHING REPORT: Upper Blackfoot River. I spent the 4th fishing the lower narrows of the upper Blackfoot River. Although a little slow it was still a fun day. I did catch one 17" cutthroat but the rest were in the 8-12" range. No rainbows. The fishing conditions weren't the best as the water was a little murky from some apparent thunderstorms earlier in the week. In about two weeks the hoppers should be out in full force. IDAHO FLY PATTERNS of the week:
Parahopper, Size 10; and Bead Headed Prince Nymph, size 14-16.

Good luck on your Idaho fishing expeditions!

JULY 4 Expectations

It looks like the July 4 weekend will be a great week for fishing Idaho's streams and rivers. Runoff should be gone and the hoppers will be out. Good luck!! Technorati Profile

IDAHO FISHING REPORT - WARM RIVER

IDAHO FISHING REPORT...UPDATE: This last Friday (June 20) I went fishing on the WARM RIVER near ASHTON, IDAHO. The water was a little high and slightly off color and the fishing were holding right next to the banks. I caught 30+ rainbows and browns and one whitefish, however, the majority were in the 4-8" range, with only a handful of 12"ers. This biggest fish I caught was a 12" plump brown. The section I fished was the from the old ski hill parking light downstream. A beautiful section of the river that we had all to ourselves. IDAHO FLY PATTERNS of the day: Stimulator (size 10-12) and Beadhead Prince Nymph (size 14-16).

IDAHO FISHING REPORT

UPDATE: IDAHO FISHING REPORT. This last weekend, I went over to STUMP CREEK to go fishing. Water was everywhere and muddy. STUMP CREEK, TINCUP, SALT RIVER, and likely BEAR CREEK, BIG ELK, and PALISADES CREEK will all be running very high and muddy. CARIBOU MOUNTAIN still had a significant snowpack, as did the PALISADES mountains. It probably snowed an additional 1-5" in the higher country on Friday and Saturday. Wait until about June 20 to hit these eastern Idaho streams (maybe even later if we keep getting cool, wet weather.

2008 Season

Opening weekend passed by with storms and high water on just about every stream in SE Idaho. This week I am traveling to Stump Creek (my annual trip) to test the waters. With gas prices so high, I am hoping for a little luck when it comes to clear, fishable water. I am looking forward to a great summer and expect the high snow pack to contribute to excellent fishing conditions. I even added a solunar table (courtesy of www.solunarforecast.com) to plan your trip. See Bottom of Page for Table. My html skills are weak at best and hopefully I'll get the table worked out over the next few days. Good fishing!

2007 Season

Heat and arid conditions dominated southeast idaho this last summer and fishing conditions were not the best. Early fishing on Stump Creek resulted in quite a few 6-12 inchers and a few bigger browns. Regretfully I spent only a few days on the river but they were days well spent. Hoepfully winter will bring significant moisture to Idaho.

Winter Blues

Spring gave us an early treat with temps in the 50's through the middle of February but then winter returned dropping 2-3 inches of snow in Pocatello with up to 2 feet in the mountains. Although spring would have been nice we are need of some serious snow fall so fishing will be excellent later this year. I am looking forward to spending as many days on the rivers as possible after way to few days spent fishing in 2006.

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.

Blackfoot River Cutt

Here is a photo of one of the beautiful Yellowstone Cutts caught on the Blackfoot River this fall.