Cutty Redemption

Ok, so after trashing Cuts all day Monday and Tuesday, I stand corrected and hereby apologize to the Snake River Cutthroat for being so down on them. I headed down the canyon today and brought the 7wt. to get out to a riffle that I couldn't reach last time with the 3wt. As before, fish were bouncing all over slamming midges. Two absurdly long casts (and one very frustrating tree snag) into the far riffle and I watch the indicator jump sideways and disappear. I set the hook and discover that pigs can fly. This girl jumped three times before coming in. Figuring the fish was securely hooked, I grabbed the camera and went for the underwater shot. It's a lot easier to do this when you don't have a bouncing rod in the other hand, as I found out. I was only able to get one halfway distinguishable shot of her before I gave up and figured I better land the fish before she got off. She measured just shy of twenty two and was lean and mean. I don't normally measure but figured this one was worth it. A few minutes after releasing her the wind and snow picked up and it got noticeably colder. I figured I wasn't going to top that and packed it in. So accept this as my apology, cutties everywhere, and kindly keep eating my flies.

Upper Green Overnight

In the past two days Josh Graffam, Andrew D. and myself headed into the upper Green to check out open water caused by a hot spring flowing into the river. We skiid in and set up camp under bluebird skies and hit the river around noon. Between the three of us we caught a lot of browns and bows in the 10-16" range using mostly nymphs. Josh got one cutty on Monday. Princes and San Juans seemed to be the ticket. Andrew got the largest of the trip with a nice bow late Monday as it was getting dark. This morning we set out with temps in the high 30's. Josh and Andew both headed downstream of camp and pulled some decent fish each. I headed upstream to fish the inlet of the spring and fished anything that looked good on the way up, pulling a fish or two out of each hole, but not the monster I was looking for. I was able to pull eight small fish from the inlet area before the wind picked up and made casting a bit of a chore. None of us pulled any pigs but we had a great time nonetheless. It was really nice to get away from the Snake and hook into some fish that actually try to get away. I'll take a 10 inch bow or brown over a 16" Snake River Cut any day.

Hunt for the Big Iron

Getting geared up for next week. It looks like Andrew D, Josh Graffam and myself are going to be heading into the upper Green on Monday. Andrew and I have been talking about doing this in the winter for a couple years now and with some recently heard rumors, it sounds like we need to get there. I've been working on some patterns for an endangered baitfish species that lives in the area and is supposedly high on the trout hitlist. Hopefully we'll find something worthwhile (double digit browns are the goal) but however it goes, I have a feeling it's going to be good. Who knows, Josh might finally get his monster...

Snake River Canyon Feb. 17

I still can't figure out why everbody goes all the way to the South Fork in the winter. Andrew D. and I headed down the Snake canyon today for a shot at some areas that practically never get fished. After a long snowshoe in and no small amount of fumbling through deadfall on snowshoes, we started working some runs with nymph rigs. By midday, after catching nothing despite bein able to spot fish, we had worked up to some bouldery pocket water that Andrew had spotted on the hike in. After about a minute of checking it out fish started porpoising all across the river. With a pretty steady snow coming down, we opted for midge nymps and proceeded to beat up on the large pod of cuts and whities. I was throwing a #18 zebra midge with a gray bodied emerger and andrew was throwing a blood midge nymph unweighted. We pulled a few dozen cuts to 18" as well as a pile of whitefish that started to be a nuisance after a while. Having to pick them up nearly every cast made for some very wet gloves that went really well with the steady wind and snow blowing on us. We headed in once the cuts seemed to slow down their feeding around 2:30 but were still seeing sporadic rises as we started the hike out. Andrew finally got his redemption after being skunked the past few times out on the Snake.

Historical Weirdness

Weird to say the least.  There is an incredibly slim chance that there is a remnant population of landlocked atlantic salmon floating around the upper Snake river.  Absurd?  Maybe.  My research indicates that there were stocking attempts in Yellowstone and Duck lakes in 1890.  Based on some recently heard stories and a recent personal experience on the Snake, I'm not convinced the stocking efforts completely failed.  In fact, the current theory is that a small population of these fish survived and have been mistakenly identified as Loch Leven strain brown trout over the years when they are occasionally caught.  The only way to be sure at this point is to catch another one.....

Blackfoot Carp Tournament

Got the official word a few days ago, the Blackfoot Reservoir Carp Classic will be May 15-16 this year.  The info isn't up on the web just yet, but check out www.fin-chasers.com/carp.htm for previous years' info.  Brooks Montgomery seems to be planning some sort of extravagant (I know, that word doesn't really fit in the same paragraph as "carp") shindig this year that he's hinted at calling Carp-a-palooza.  Whatever happens, it's sure to be a good time.

The Fishin Dog

Introducing the Fishin Dog, Jessie the wonder mutt.