Callibaetis Spinner

callibaetis spinnerCallibaetis Spinner.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 plus extension tubes

Fly Fishing Photography & Sun Valley Fishing Report

feeding rainbow troutSilver Creek Riser


callibaetis spinnerSilver Creek Callibaetis Spinner

 

silver creek hopperHopper.  Silver Creek

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lenses: Nikon afs 80-200 f2.8  & Nikon Micro 105 f2.8

 

The Fishing:  The Big Wood is currently running at 379 cfs with the historical mean at 285 cfs.  The fishing on the Wood has been so-so with sporadic caddis and small stones.  The thunderstorm activity is supposed to wane starting Wednesday and we'll see how the warmer weather changes the fishing.  As it is, I would be on the water around 9:30.  Every day has been a little different but it has been slowing down around 4 PM.  The evening fishing is far better when we have hot daytime temps...  Silver Creek has been pretty consistent in the morning starting around 8 or so.  Think tricos, baetis and still a few small # 18 pmd's followed with callibaetis.  With the cooler weather we have been enjoying the hatch time has lasted until or after 12.  Damsel flies, hoppers, beetles and ants have also been good stuff in the afternoon.  Like the Wood, the evening fishing is far better when we have hot daytime highs.  The Big Lost is running at 489 cfs with the historic mean at 484 cfs.  Still a few golden stones and pmd's and yellow sallies with craneflies and caddis added to the mix.  Every section is fishing a little different so be prepared to observe a little and adjust.  Remember, "you can observe a lot just by watching." YB

Hailey, Idaho Lightning

hailey idaho lightning

 

hailey idaho lightning

 

hailey idaho lightning

Lightning & Main Street Hailey, Idaho

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 14-24 f2.8

We are obviously in the thunderstorm cycle.  We are slated to have at least one more day of this and the Big Wood River could very well be chocolate milk again tomorrow morning.  The Upper Lost has also seen a bump in water flow and the Lower Lost has dropped below 500 cfs to about 482 cfs.  The skies, however, have been magnificent and hopefully this current thunderstorm cycle continues a bit longer...

Copper Basin

Copper Basin & Thunderhead

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Grass & Water

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Style, Road & Mountains

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Sage & Lupine

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Caddis

caddisCaddis

Camera: Nikon D200

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8

Here is a piece I recently wrote on tricos for the Sun Valley Magazine blog:  

There is really nothing physically large about a tiny trico. In fact, you could fit about a dozen of the adult mayflies on the tip of your pinky. And yet, their lore in the fly fishing world looms large. Tricos may well be one of the most talked about hatches in the West.

The diminutive size of the small bug, coupled with the sheer volume of their dancing airborne swarms, makes for an absolutely magnificent display. Added to the wonder of the prolific, face-tickling hatch is its general predictability: like many of the best firework shows, it is as brief as it is glorious, appearing for maybe two or three hours on summer mornings at Idaho’s Silver Creek. And, in case you come to expect the glittering, clockwork-like trico spinner fall, the wind will decide to blow every trico all the way to some abandoned and dry motel swimming pool in the Midwest.

But it’s the brevity of the thing that brings us back—the heavy concentration of an extreme number of mayflies that will only last three hours at best. Those in-the-know make the most of it: the alarm is set to get us to the creek by 7:45 am. By noon fishermen are headed north for cooler weather or lunch, and the clouds of tricos have settled and died. Rain clouds may follow in the afternoon, as a baetis hatch takes the place of the trico show and a few terrestrial fishermen armed with beetles, ants and hoppers lick their chops in the aftermath.

For the finned predators who are the real winners on these days, it can be a frenetic thing. Once the tricos start hitting the water as spent (dead) mayflies, they are extremely easy targets for the trout below. The fallen hatch—resembling miniscule crashed airplanes—cover the water in such extraordinary numbers that the adept feeders below will often move through the water like humpback whales feeding on krill, attempting to sip as many spent tricos as possible in one graceful motion. The feeding can be so good trout will pod up in the best feeding lanes and take as many of these tiny fallen creatures as time will allow. Imagine dozens and dozens of beautiful trout feeding on the surface like it’s their last meal.

It’s this last meal concept—and the thought of tying on a #22 female trico spinner to the end of a 14-foot leader in cold, gin clear, spring-fed water—that gets many of us through a particularly long winter.

Link to the Sun Valley Magazine Web Site:  Click Here

Fly Fishing Photography

lime green stoneflyLime Green Stonefly & False Hellebore

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8

silver creek hopperHopper.  Late July, 2011.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8

rainbow trout black & whiteRainbow & Light

Camera: Nikon D200

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Sun Valley Fishing Report & Black & White Images

 

 

False Hellebore

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon 24 pc-e

 

The Fishing:  The Lower Lost dropped down below 600 cfs and is now just over 600 cfs.  The historic mean flow is 567 cfs.  Golden stones, yellow sally stones, pmd's, #12 caddis and a few crane flies.  It's good stuff if you can find wadeable water.  The Mackay Reservoir is still full and our mid-summer fishing on the Lower Lost should be great.  The Big Wood River is running at approx. 453 cfs with the historic mean at 354 cfs.  The best fishing is now a bit earlier and starts around 10 AM.  Big stimulators, caddis, small green drake patterns and even pink albert patterns are working.  Think droppers like #14 pheasant tails, #14 black anato mays, and #14 stone fly nymphys.  The trico madness has started on Silver Creek and has been getting going around 8:30 AM or even later on the cooler mornings.  PMD's and baetis have also been coming off and often simultaneously.  By 11:00 or so the hatches have been done but the hopper population is growing and if you are willing to stick around, especially on a windy afternoon, the terrestrial fishing is just getting going.  The best part of the day on Silver Creek is still the evening with caddis, pmd's and baetis.

Silver Creek Black & White

silver creek idahoFootbridge.  Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho.

silver creek idahoCaddis Migration.  Lower Silver Creek.  July, 2011

sageSage.  Near Silver Creek, Idaho

flav spinnerFlav Spinner.  Big Lost River Drainage, Idaho

Silver Creek, Idaho

Barbed Wire, Sunset & Tangle.  Silver Creek

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Water Line.  Silver Creek, Idaho.

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Horsetail Grass.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Lens: Nikon 35 f2

Camera: Nikon D3S

Silver Creek & Horsetail Grass

silver creek idahoJuly Silver Creek Sunset

prairie caddisSilver Creek Caddis

The evenings on Silver Creek have been really good.  The warm summer days usually mean happy caddis evenings and that's exactly what's happening most evenings now on the creek.  Fish upstream of the highway 20 bridge as the water temps downstream have been super high and while there are a few fish down, upstream and especially the Nature Conservancy section has been great.

horsetail grassHorsetail Grass 1

backlit grass & fenceHorsetail Grass 2

Butterfly

golden stonefly & reelGolden Stonefly & Reel

rainbow trout black & whiteBig Wood Rainbow

canada geese & moonMoon & Canada Geese

Black & White Aspen Images

Aspen Pano 1

3 image pano taken using the shift function of the Nikon 24 pc-e lens

Aspen Pano 2

Another 3 image pano using the shift function of 24 pc-e lens

Aspen Stand 1

Lens: Nikon afs 80-200 2.8

Aspen Stand 2

Lens: Nikon 24 pc-e

Sun Valley Fishing Report & Wild Rose Images

Wild Roses

Camera: Nikon D3S

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8

 

The Fishing:  Lots of positive changes as the Big Wood has dropped considerably and despite the swift water is fishing, at long last, really well.  The current flow is 855 cfs with the historic mean for this day at 600 cfs.  It's still high but we are getting there.  The clarity, incidentally, is good, even below the confluence of Trail Creek.  There are lots of bugs though; Green Drakes, Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and a few # 12 tan caddis.  Large Royal Stimulators and Green Drake patterns have been working well in any of the soft water for which there is more and more of daily.  The Green Drake thing won't last much longer...  The Lower Big Lost has dropped to 793 cfs with the historic mean for today at 625 cfs. Golden Stones and PMD's if you can find soft enough water...  Silver Creek is slowly starting to fish better in the AM.  Tricos are starting to appear throughout the Nature Conservancy section and they often happen in conjunction with baetis and pmd's.  The Green Drakes on the Creek seem to have finished.  I fished Silver Creek this morning and the bugs, at least where I was, were all but done by 10:30 AM.  Every day has been a little different and I would expect inconsistency for about another week before the tricos really start, hopefully, going like clockwork.  The evening fishing on Silver Creek has been the best time of day to be there.  Pmd's, baetis & #16 or smaller olive caddis.  Bring mosquito repellent!