Great clouds around Picabo the last couple of days. We're still in the rain cycle and it's looking like it could be pretty wet over the weekend.
New Zealand Hosted Travel
Below are a few more images from a trip to New Zealand earlier this year. If anyone has any interest, I will be hosting a trip back to the South Island and River Haven Lodge for the New Zealand Summer of 2016/17. That's our winter 2016/17. Email: nickpricephotography@gmail.com for inquiries.
The ideal group size not including myself is 5 people. Here's a link to a slideshow from my trip this year: New Zealand 2015
Rolling Hills. South Island
Tasman Sea. South Island
Spring Green
Lots of well needed rain here. The flow on Silver creek has gone up to 151 cfs at the time of writing this with a mean of 121 cfs. Hopefully this trend continues...
Silver Creek & Picabo, Idaho. 3 image panorama.
Pivot Circles. Picabo, Idaho.
Orvis Summer Fly Fishing Catalog
Here are a couple of images appearing in the new Orvis Summer Fly Fishing Catalog. Both of these images also appear as the cover image in some of the issues. Both of the images were taken on Silver Creek.
Brown Drake Nymphs
I seiened a few silty areas near gravel on Silver Creek recently looking for Brown Drake nymphs. Here's what I found:
Brown Drake Nymphs. Ephemera Simulans. Silver Creek.
Cuba B-Sides II
Here are a some overlooked images from my trip to Cuba earlier this winter. Double-click on any image to enlarge:
Central Cuba Highway. Two lanes with more pot holes, walkers, bikers and horse-carriages than cars.
Woman. Jucaró, Cuba..
Two Men. Jucaró.
Portrait Of A Man. St. Louis Cardinals Fan. Central Cuba.
Jucaró, Cuba.
Bemba. Fly Fishing Guide. Jardines De La Reina, Cuba.
Woman. Havana, Cuba.
Man & Cigarette. Vieja Habana. Havana, Cuba.
Vieja Habana (Old Havana. A Neighborhood in Havana).
Havana
A Havana Taxi.
Capital Building. Havana.
Havana. Parque Central.
Woman Waving. Havana.
Havana Bus Stop.
Taxi Subframe. Havana.
Havana Street Corner.
Cuba B-Sides
It's been over 3 months since I returned from a trip to Cuba and I'm editing images that didn't grab my attention right away. I'm calling them B-Sides but in some cases I like them even more. Here are two B-Sides:
Vieja Habana, Cuba
Central Cuba
Green Drake Nymph & A Cherry Blossom
It's officially May and the cherry trees are blooming here and the Big Wood River has started to rise. I brought a seine net over to the Wood this evening to see how many bugs, nymphs really, I would find within a few feet from the bank. In short, I found many green drake nymphs...
Green Drake Nymph. Big Wood River, Idaho
Cherry Blossom. Hailey, Idaho
Silver Creek Brown Drakes
Below is a two page image in the new Spring issue of Fly Rod & Reel of John Huber fishing a prolific Brown Drake spinner fall on Idaho's Silver Creek. This was the heaviest spinner fall I saw last year.
Fly Rod & Reel Spring 2015. John Huber on Idaho's Silver Creek.
Silver Creek Rising Fish
Below is an image taken yesterday on Silver Creek. The Callibaetis have been pretty strong but this fish was honing in on midges and really, really small midges.
A Silver Creek Rainbow. Late April, 2015
Silver Creek
Silver Creek, Idaho
Portraits of Fly Fishing Guides
A personal project I have been working on and will continue to work on is portraits of Fly Fishing Guides. I strive to have the guard down in these portraits.
Taite Pearson. Silver Creek, Idaho.
Brent Matthews. Picabo, Idaho.
John Huber. Silver Creek, Idaho.
Anglers Journal Spring 2015
The Spring issue of Anglers Journal has an 8 page feature of mine on Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. I did the photography and the writing. To subscribe to Anglers Journal click HERE.
Nick Anderson jumps a baby tarpon in the mangroves. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Black & White Bales
Mackay, Idaho received about 3" of new snow yesterday.
Bales
Big Lost River Rainbow Trout
A Big Lost River Rainbow takes a Baetis during a mid-day hatch
Dorsal Fin
Perks Bar. Mackay, Idaho
Below are images of Perks Bar taken a few nights ago after fishing the Big Lost River, Idaho.
New Zealand Part II
I just got back from a three week trip to New Zealand's South Island. I had never been before and was really blown away with the people, landscape, and especially the trout water. Immediately after stepping out of the Auckland airport I was greeted with the electrified cacophony of cicadas. Hundreds and hundreds of them.
My trip spanned from Garston (about a one hour drive south of Queenstown) all the way up to Nelson which is the on the northern coast of the South Island. I spent the first 10 days fishing and driving from small town to small town on the left hand side of the road with my dad. It was a great opportunity to spend a lot of time together. We met some great people along the way, some of whom are pictured below, and discovered meat pies. It's kinda hard to resist a meat pie for any meal...
The second part of my trip was hosting 5 anglers at River Haven Lodge in Murchison for 7 days. As I discovered, the rivers near Murchison were spectacular and diverse. While often challenging due to wind or the length of a cast or marching kilometer after kilometer on river rocks, the overall experience was the most phenomenal trout fishing I've ever had.
Scott Murray, the co-owner and head guide at River Haven, made calls daily to other local guides figuring amongst themselves where they'd like to go and where they had all been, essentially making it much easier to get on a piece of water that had not been fished in at least 3 days. This alone was worth its weight in gold.
Scott and the other two guides including renowned fly tyer Peter Carty, tied all of the flies we used over the course of the week. On the sunny days we relied on sight fishing and on the cloudier or rain days Scott taught me the fine art of blind casting which he eloquently argues is much more difficult than sight casting. His passion for not just fishing but blind fishing made it even more enjoyable. His sense of humor made the whole experience even better...
A few of the best one liners I heard all week came from guide Pete Carty at the breakfast table prior to heading out. "I shot a pig with my head in a cave and now I have a cicada in my ear." I actually thought he was kidding when he said this. When I asked about a fisherman Peter had fished with many years before, Peter's response was, "He cast like a dyslexic spider."
Kiwi guide Pete Carty hiking up a track on an extraordinarily rainy day.
Scott Murray getting the best angle he can.
Inangahua Valley
Guide Scott Murray let me have a few casts. He even took my camera from my shoulder and got a few images including this one of an 11.2 lb Brown.
Scott Murray and a great South Island Brown.
It was an incredible experience being guided by Scott Murray for an entire week. As a full time guide myself, I learned that in addition to many other things, hiring a great guide taught me more than I ever could have imagined.
Below is a slideshow:
Lake Hawea Panorama
New Zealand Part 1
Below are a few iphone images of New Zealand's South Island. The spring creeks we have found are pretty remarkable.
The first thing I heard when I walked out of the Auckland airport was cicadas. Lots of them. Their sound has been buzzing up and down the South Island's west coast.
A dreamy spring creek on the west coast.
Lake Hawea
A Brown caught on a spring creek not far from Garston. Photo: Craig Price
Southern Alps from the air.
Styx River
Jardines de la Reina, Cuba Bonefish Flat
I will be hosting a trip along with John Huber whom I work with to Jardines de la Reina, Cuba next February aboard the Avalon II. The Avalon II is a live aboard yacht that acts as a base camp in the middle of Jardines de la Reina, a marine archipelago of over 600 cays and in excess of 160 kilometers long located 60 miles off the south central coast. Other than Avalon guests, there are no other fisherman allowed to fish, including Cubans, in the entire marine protected area other than a couple of lobster fishermen. This is a special place for sure. Email: ndprice@cox.net for inquiries
Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. Bonefish Flat. Nick Anderson puts on the brakes as a bone takes his backing to the mangroves.
Winter On Silver Creek
We have had a lot of rain over the last week, it's sunny now, and that has caused the flows on both the Big Wood River and Silver Creek to go up. When it comes to fishing Silver Creek in February, the last winter month to fish the Creek, that's a good thing. We want the water high and off color for streamer fishing...
Silver Creek. February
Release
John Huber holds a winter Silver Creek Brown Trout
Phoebe Bean & a Silver Creek Rainbow
John Huber