Silver Creek Mouse Fishing

Mouse fishing goes like a fly shop full of hyperbole and big fish easy to catch. If you're willing to just show up and stay out on the water 'till well past 2 am and deal with the darkness and quiet and tangled lines and silt and muskrat holes and a morning wondering why you stayed up until sunrise without even a sense there was a carnivorous trout within range of your awkward cast, then all of a sudden you're beyond the talk and there you are alone on a river, in the middle of the night hucking a soaking-wet and heavy fly across a great run, or so you think, and you strip it back in, using, if you're lucky, the tip of your rod, to skate the fly across a deep run where you think or hope a large brown lives; you may find some huge and carnivorous monster on the end of your line. Fish eat fish. Eat mice like mice ("Eat pig like pig," is some strange line I still remember from Joyce's Ulysses and it's utter nonsense.). Sometimes mice cross a stream or river, and with the intention to get to the other side or not, get eaten under darkness much like crepuscular ovipositing caddis get taken in your imagination while you're eating dinner with a fork and a knife.

Before true darkness sets in...

A brown trout, under headlamp supervision, is released well after midnight on Silver Creek.

Backpacking The Middle Fork of The Salmon River

I just returned from a seven day backpacking trip along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness with my family. The four of us walked from Boundary Creek to Indian Creek. Many of those miles were spent slowly maneuvering over fallen trees from past wildfires along the trail. While our hike was a bit more rugged and slow going than we anticipated, we had the time to carry on at a slower pace and not hurry to our eventual pick-up at Indian Creek by a back country pilot.

My two sons, Will (12) and Charlie (10), each carried considerably heavy backpacks for a week. Along the way we witnessed a massive caddis migration on the upper stretches of the Middle Fork followed by a great salmonfly emergence. One night, we watched thousands of adult salmonflies fly high above the river en masse. I was able to watch hundreds of salmonfly nymphs crawl out of the river onto rocks and shrubs and morph into adults. Unfortunately, after one great day of fishing, and after a few strong thunderstorms, the river went up and turned to mud.

A muddy river also made it far more difficult to filter drinking / cooking water. Fortunately there are many small feeder streams to the Middle Fork and we were able to use them to filter our water.

We had a great final rest day at Indian Creek and then flew out from there to Stanley.

A contemplative moment. Indian Creek. Middle Fork of The Salmon River, Idaho.

Idaho Back Country Pilot. Cessna 206. Indian Creek to Stanley.

Frank Church. Burn area from the 2000 Pistol Creek Fire.

Salmonfly

Collecting rainwater from the tarp.

Sunset

Fire Island camp.

Fire Island. On this tiny island there is a small hot spring that pumps out a small stream of steaming hot water.

Salmonfly. Pteronarcys californica

An emerging salmonfly. On this particular night, I watched hundreds of salmonfly nymphs crawl out of the river and onto rocks and shrubs to morph into adults. The image above was taken after 11 PM.

Caddis Migration.

With the Middle Fork of The Salmon blown out and muddy from strong thunderstorms, we hiked to small creeks with clear water to filter our drinking water. Charlie, pictured, walks back upstream to Dolly Lake with the goods.

Silver Creek Brown Drakes III

Brown Drakes on Silver Creek have been full on for about the last 5 nights. We hopefully have another two or three nights left. It blew very hard on the Creek yesterday and last night was met with a big lightning show around 10 pm...

Silver Creek

Silver Creek Brown Drakes II

There was a great Brown Drake Spinner Fall on Silver Creek last night and hopefully we have another really good night tonight.

Brown Drake Spinners. Silver Creek, Idaho.

Father & daughter and son in the background.

Brown Drake Spinners litter the water.

Two nights ago the Drakes didn't happen but fun was still had.

Silver Creek In The Rain

It absolutely poured in the Picabo, Idaho area today and it lasted for nearly 3 hours. The heavy rain and the longevity of it pushed most fisherman off of the Creek. I sat it out in the car and on the water and around 4:15 there was a blanket Baetis emergence where I was. Silver Creek needs the water and the Creek is to-the-bank full in many spots. The Brown Drake hatch may even delay a few more days. I saw a bunch of Brown drake duns on Friday night at the Picabo Bridge. It was a trickle of a hatch, but there were bugs. It was a bit hard watching the few bugs on the water get eaten and not being able to fish. The season didn't open until this Saturday.

Rain drops obliterate the calm Silver Creek flow.

Silver Creek near Picabo, Idaho.

Silver Creek Opener

Yesterday was opening day on Silver Creek and it was a beautiful late spring day met with heavy rain at times and even tornado warnings. Despite the tornado warning, the wind wasn't too bad but the rain and hail was very heavy at times.

This monster storm cell slipped in from the east which is a bit unusual, but looking toward the west in the image above the sky doesn't look too daunting.  Rest assured though, the rain and hail did come down and about ten minutes after this pic was taken the skies unleashed.

Silver Creek Opening Day

Tomorrow is opening day on many of our local Sun Valley area waters including Silver Creek. It rained very hard this morning in Picabo and it is slated to rain again tomorrow. Think of the rain as crowd control...

John Huber letting a cast run to the far side. Silver Creek, Idaho.

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