Big Wood River, Idaho

big wood riverRelease.  Big Wood River

Nikon D3S & Nikon 35 f2 lens

Here's the opening paragraph from, Hole In The Sky, a memoir by William Kittredge, a college professor of mine at The University of Montana:

"Maybe children wake to a love affair every other morning or so; if given any chance, they seem to like the sight and smell and feel of things so much.  Falling for the world could be a thing that happens to them all the time.  I hope so, I hope it is purely commonplace.  I'm trying to imagine that it is, that our childhood love of things is perfectly justifiable.  Think of light and how far it falls, to us.  To fall, we say, naming a fundamental way of going to the world--falling."

Silver Creek, Idaho

silver creek idahoEast Oxbow.  Silver Creek.  February 2012

Nikon D3s & Nikon 24 pce lens

There are only two more weeks to fish the section of Silver Creek downstream of Highway 20 before it closes for the season.  We have through the rest of February.  If you go, be armed with olive and black buggers and if you can go on a cloudy day even better.  Don't worry if the water is a bit off color as that will make the fish far less spooky and more likely to hold anywhere besides tight to the bank.

Depuy's Spring Creek

depuys spring creek An early-February morning on Depuy's Spring Creek in Montana's Paradise Valley.

 

depuys warming hutThe upstream most warming hut on Depuy's.

 

depuys warming hut

 

 

midge closeup A midge on the inside window of the warming hut.

 

flyfishermanClose enough.  A midge cluster and 6x tippet.

 

fly fisherman castingJeff Hull all grins.  Sometimes the photographer needs to employ potty talk to illicit the right expression...

 

depuys fly fishermanLooking upstream on Depuy's

 

montana black and white landscapeLandscape from Depuy's. Hill & Sky & Fence.

 

curvy pathPath

 

fly fishing montana

 

fly fishing montana

 

fly fishing montanaEnd of the day on the water.

 

Old Building on Depuy's.


historic building window montanaA fire after a February day on the water is pretty nice.

 

depuys warming hut

 

depuys warming hutThrough the warming hut window.

 

old window view montanaAll hyperbole at the end of a great day.

 

I just got back from a great trip over to Depuy's Spring Creek in the Paradise Valley, Montana and Yellowstone National Park.  Here's a slideshow of my recent February day on Depuy's.  We scored with the weather as it was well above freezing with almost no wind to speak of.  We even had a few baetis on the water around noon.  If you have never been over to Depuy's, it is certainly worth the trip.  In the winter the rod fee is only $40 and there is not very much pressure this time of year.  The winter rod fee remains in place all the way to mid-April.  One of the great aspects of Depuy's in the winter is the three warming huts on the property.  We used the upstream most hut and got the wood burning stove going at the end of the day.

Silver Creek In November

 

 

Silver Creek, Idaho.  Early November

The above images were taken this morning about twenty minutes or so after the sun came up.  While setting up to take the top image from just off the road, a small agricultural truck at high speed swerved at me to within a few feet and effectively "buzzed my tower."  The two in the mini white truck caught some air as they uncontrolably left the road and somehow managed to get back on the road and vaporize in a cloud of dust and out to a field adjacent to Silver Creek...

Nikon D3S & Nikon 35 f2 lens

I am often sent articles, images videos, etc..., which for many reasons illicit all kinds of different emotions. Some, like the Wall Street Journal article I have a link to HERE, serve as controversial, thought provoking pieces.  In the WSJ article, the question, on a small section of California's Silver King Creek, is whether or not to rotenone and effectively "kill off" an entire section of the creek which would include a voluminous quantity of macro invertebrates in order to start from scratch and reintroduce the indigenous Paiute Trout.  The question I believe needs to be asked, rather than how to improve the fishery, is how to improve the watershed?

On a similar note, should you come across images, video or an article that you think is worthy of sharing, send it on to me. 

Here's a LINK to an incredible video on Tarpon fishing. 

 

August!

So it's August and it's not fishing like August due in large part to our wet and cool Spring.  Water levels are great and temps are cooler than normal.  Just about everything we have in our local area seems to be fishing well except for perhaps our higher elevation water, like the Copper Basin, that has been seeing quite a bit of pressure and quite a bit a fish harvesting.  Without a doubt, taking of limits in the Copper Basin area has greatly impacted the fishing.  It would be great to have catch and release up there.  We'll see...  Here are a few from the last 3 or so days:

 

 

 

Lower Lost Cottonwoods:

 

Stonefly shucks on the Lower Lost:

Thunderheads

We are back in the thunderstorm cycle and there are a few brewing as I write this.  I guided the Wood today and found the fishing to be OK.  We caught fish and tried a bunch of different patterns.  Small #16 tan craneflies, PMD's, #16 tan caddis, #12 tan caddis and they all worked with some success.  Our water is in great shape and hopefully the normal mid-August doldrums don't really happen this year on the Wood.  We'll see.

 

Here's a slideshow that is absolutely worth checking out.  It's of the recent winner of the Follow The Light Foundation grant.  The 4 other finalists also have suberb shots.  http://vimeo.com/13187971

 

 

Here's a shot of a flying ant taken at Silver Creek:

 

Dreamy and fast.  Airborn rainbow:

 

Here's the same image converted to black and white and underexposed in post processing.  You can make up your own mind as to which image pulls you in more:

More Rising Rainbows

So here are a few more rising rainbow shots.  I am looking forward to trying to perfect this shot in the Fall with sharper light.  But for now, here they are...

Here's the first paragraph from William Kittredge's, Hole In The Sky.  He was a writing professor of mine at The University of Montana.  "Maybe children wake to a love affair every other morning or so; if given any chance, they seem to like the sight and smell and feel of things so much.  Falling for the world could be a thing that happens to them all the time.  I hope so, I hope it is purely commonplace.  I'm trying to imagine that it is, that our childhood love of things is perfectly justifiable.  Think of light and how far it falls, to us.  To fall, we say, naming a fundamental way of going to the world--falling."

 

 

 

 

Rising Rainbow

Here's a shot of a rainbow about to delicately sip a spent female trico at Silver Creek.  I was able to watch this particular fish feed for a half an hour or so.  Pretty cool to watch it pick out the bugs it wanted and sometimes come up and examine a pmd spinner and then refuse it.  From what I could see this fish was primarily eating trico spinners and occassionally adult baetis.

 

Here's a line I heard today (it was spontaneous):  "We had a band going but we never got a gig.  Christmas with 10 friends over doesn't count." --Andrew Dorn

 

Thunderstorms

We are back in the thunderstorm cycle.  The cool weather feels great and who can say no to a little extra water in the middle of the summer?  We had a great one where I happened to be today.  The light was magical and the thunderhead was brooding and ominous and kicked out enough electricity to make us decide to stop fishing for about twenty minutes and watch the show.  The smells too are magical when it rains this time of year.  A cross of wild roses and sage and sweetgrass.  Moose tracks were filled with water.  Daring or naive swallows bolted through the dangerous sky.

 

 

 

Even without lightning this sky says enough:

 

For those who are wishing I would post a few more in color:

Green Drakes Are Still Popping...

So I guided the Big Wood today and saw some green drakes and a pink albert here and a golden stone there.  At least where I was, the fish acted as though they had seen MANY green drake patterns.  Good fun though and a perfect 80 degrees and no clouds.  Here's a shot of a 'bow that took an undersized green drake:

 

Adipose fin on a moving cutbow:

 

Some flower shots.  The higher elevation flowers at the moment are spectacular.  The echinacea pic is from my garden.

 

 

 

Now That The Water is Dropping For Real...

Our rivers have cleared up and are finally starting to fish.  We are in the middle of green drake madness on the Wood.  Yeah, it's still super swift and less so in other spots but it's fishing well with the brunt of the action showing up around 1 or 2 PM.  Think fast water and rising fish.  Golden stones too.  Here's a pic of new golden stone shucks:

 

 

I am now officially on the river pretty much every day.  I'll have to look at my calendar but I have guided for about 17 consecutive days with many more to come.  I am finding it a bit more challenging to take the shots I am looking for while guiding.  Here are a few I have snuck in the last couple of days:

 

A slower pace in the Lost River drainage...

 

The flowers up high have been and still are spectacular.  Bitterroot is pictured above. 

 

 

Water Levels and Mate' On The River

At 2PM or so, even on the river, some caffeine is nice.  I just fished with two gentlemen for three days, one of whom is from Argentina and carries the often social tradition of drinking mate.  There is an accent mark after the "e" in mate but I cannot figure out how to show it.  Anyway, the fine art of distributing the yerba properly in the gourd, pouring the hot water in such a way some yerba is left dry until later on and the overall process and social aspect made for some fun caffenated afternoons.  Here's a shot of the gourd and bombilla (straw).

 

 

On a fishing note, the Big Wood was even higher today at a nice crisp 1,620 cfs this AM (the median for today is 1,020) and the advanced hydrologic prediction shows a VERY gradual decline in streamflow over the next ten days.  Green Drakes are starting to show up on the Wood and if you have the guts and wading will-power to fish it, it could prove worthwhile.  The Big Lost is also flowing on the high side at about 1,120 cfs.  Silver Creek has been pretty inconsistent.  A few tricos are starting to show up in the AM along with baetis, pmd's, some callibaetis and thank goodness for the few but noticeable green drakes.

Big Wood side channel:

 

Just what in the world is this?

...A thunderhead above Silver Creek I captured today.

Silver Creek & Silver Creek and The First Two Weeks of June

Here's a frame that to me sums up our early June:

 

And then starting a little later than normal, the brown drakes, which to me is the official start to Summer.  Here's a single vibrant spinner amid the less colorful duns.

 

Earlier in the week I took my kids down to Silver Creek to witness brown drakes for the first time.  There were as many drakes in the grass as I have ever seen.

While my two boys cautiously walked through waves of bugs in the grass two fisherman from Boise showed up.  They were hoping to catch the brown drake thing and, well, they happened to come on the biggest spinner fall night of the year.  The fish were not always feeding frenetically as they just might get full on the overly abundant giant mayfly.  Here's one of the two very affable fisherman who managed to be at the right place at the right time: