Time: 10:00AM – 1:30PM

Location: Beginning .25 mile up the trail just after crossing a small tributary stream and then going over a hill and continuing for a mile upstream.

Fish Landed: 24

Bear Creek, ID 07/28/2014 Photo Album

On Sunday on Rainey Creek after I determined that a stimulator was more effective than a Chernobyl ant and beadhead hares ear combination for cutthroat trout on a small stream in Idaho in late July, I enjoyed a fun hour and a half of fishing, but I was also feeling somewhat unfulfilled. I needed a second chance to apply my new found knowledge, and Monday would provide that opportunity.

Another small stream that Gary Duncan at the Rendezvous Fly Shop recommended was Bear Creek which apparently entered Palisades Lake from the southwest side. Both Gary and Tom, the owner of Hansen Guest Ranch, seemed to suggest that Bear Creek was a strong small stream option that received far less pressure than Rainey Creek and Palisades Creek. In fact Gary made this comment, “After you fish up Bear Creek from the mouth for a mile or two (pause)…er, you’ll have enough fish by then to be satisfied.” This certainly aroused my curiosity regarding the fish density on Bear Creek.

Bear Creek on Monday Morning

After the 8AM breakfast at the Hansen Ranch, I departed and headed to Bear Creek. I had some difficulty finding the bridge below Palisades Dam, and then I was concerned as the dirt road led away from the dam rather than toward it. However, there was no alternative on the south side of the river so I stayed the course and after three or four miles made a left turn and drove in the direction that I expected. I covered a 10 mile twisty gravel road that eventually led me to the Bear Creek Trailhead parking lot. There were a few campers along the road before the parking lot, but no other vehicles occupied the large lot at the trailhead. This was a beautiful sight to this fisherman from Colorado who was starved for some cutthroat action in wide open spaces.

Once I gathered my necessary fishing equipment for a day on the stream, I decided to hike away from the parking lot for a short distance. Fishermen are generally lazy, and the most pressured water is that which is easily accessible. I hiked .25 miles to a point where I went over a small hill and upon my descent discovered that the stream was running parallel to the path for a distance of twenty yards. I carefully scrambled down a short steep bank, and I was now positioned in Bear Creek to begin my fishing adventure.

The Stimulator Produced All My Fish

The weather was once again gorgeous with a clear blue sky overhead and temperatures in the upper 60’s to low 70’s as I began. The stream was a bit larger than Rainey Creek, but the main difference was the lack of tight bushes and shrubs. There was ample room for long backcasts, and in fact this would remain the case for the remainder of my time fishing. I tied a size 12 gray stimulator to the leader on my Orvis Access four weight and began to prospect the water. Initially the stream was fairly wide and shallow, and as proof that I learned my lesson on Sunday, I skipped over this water until I encountered a section with slow velocity and more depth.

A Very Nice Cutthroat Near the Start of My Day

It didn’t take long before a fine wild cutthroat slammed the stimulator, and I landed a chunky twelve inch fish. This pattern would repeat itself over the course of the 3.5 hours of fishing as I skipped shallow and fast moving water and focused on the deeper pools and slow moving water along the bank with structure. I stayed with a stimulator the entire time, and it produced as I expected it would. In short the fishing was just as I imagined it would be on a small remote cutthroat stream in Idaho. The sky remained bright blue. The sun provided warmth. The water was cold and clear; and the wild cutthroats were ready and willing to take a well placed large visible high floating dry fly. It was pretty much nirvana.

An Even Nicer Fish Landed in the Late Morning

Perfect Cutthroat Water

By the end of my time on the water I had landed 24 cutthroat trout. Quite a few were in the 6-9 inch range, but even these fish were pretty jewels and fun to catch. Also included in the fish count was a 16 inch beast, two fish around 14 inches, and a couple 12-13 inch gems. I covered over a mile of water, and then I easily cut across a meadow and intersected the trail and hiked 25 minutes until I was back at the car in the trailhead parking lot.

The Big Guy Slurped the Stimulator Along the Current Seam Above the Beaver House

The highlight of the day occurred at 12:30PM as I approached a beautiful clear deep pool that bordered a beaver house. As is my practice, I searched the tail of the pool with some long casts while staying back a good distance, and this yielded two smaller fish. I then moved closer to the deepest segment of the pool and began flicking shorter casts to the upper section where a narrow current seam flowed within a foot of the tangled mass of sticks that was apparently a beaver house. I placed a cast a foot off the seam and slightly above the shelter, and the fly paused in a tantalizing position for a moment when a huge mouth engulfed it. Clearly this fish was more substantial than the others, and it quickly proved this observation to be accurate by covering the entire pool several times in its effort to escape. Fortunately I held my ground and maintained tension and eventually slid my net beneath a shimmering 16 inch cutthroat. This was the beast that I referred to earlier.

My Trophy Catch on Monday, a Sixteen Inch Cutthroat

It was a fantastic day on Bear Creek, Idaho, and one I will remember for quite awhile. I’ve caught more fish in a day, and I’ve caught larger fish, but the setting and the presence of wild native fish are what set this day apart. Superb!

Cutthroat, Stimulator and Orange Slash

Time: 9:30AM – 12:30PM

Location: Trailhead to Rainey Creek Trail then upstream approximately a mile

Fish Landed: 7

Rainey Creek 07/27/2014 Photo Album

Rainey Creek is a small tributary of the South Fork of the Snake River within five miles of the Hansen Guest Ranch where Jane and I were staying in Swan Valley, Idaho. After I purchased my license on Saturday afternoon, we took a brief drive to check out the small stream before I ventured to the South Fork of the Snake River. I drove a long distance to fish the Snake, but now I was considering investing some of my valuable fishing time to explore a small tributary that probably contained small fish. Up until this point on our trip I’d fished three days for 2.5 to 3.5 hours per day and landed one fish on each outing. The fish that I landed were all in excess of 15 inches, and I appreciated this, but I tend to favor catching quantities of smaller fish versus one or two large fish.

The South Fork of the Snake was a huge body of water, and I was unfamiliar with where to fish and how to approach it and could not envision myself spending another four hours blindly prospecting a relatively small swath of water in hopes of landing a fish or two. A strong hatch that brought fish to the surface would be helpful, but the forecast for clear skies and warm temperatures made me reluctant to bank on that happenstance.

I made my decision and chose Rainey Creek as my destination to fish on Sunday morning. After a tasty breakfast at the ranch, we loaded Jane’s bike on the Santa Fe and drove to the Rainey Creek Trailhead that we scouted out on Saturday. Jane planned to hike up the trail a bit, and then turn around and return to the car and jump on her bike and continue on the national forest road back to the Hansen Guest Ranch. I meanwhile prepared to fish, and when I was ready I found a path that led me through some thick wild shrubs to the edge of the stream.

Rainey Creek Near My Starting Point on Sunday

Rainey Creek averaged around 8-10 feet in width and the water temperature was extremely cold. As predicted the air temperature rose quickly, and it did not take long before it moved from warm to hot. I was certain that a Chernobyl ant with a beadhead hares ear dropper would yield numerous wild cutthroat trout. These two dependable flies delivered many hours of enjoyment to me in Colorado, so why wouldn’t they produce in a small stream setting in Idaho? The foam Chernobyl is ideal for tight quarters as it does not require false casting for drying.

Early on in my quest for cutthroats a small fish rose and refused the Chenobyl ant. At least there were fish present, and they were looking toward the surface for food. After another fifteen minutes I approached a deep hole in front of an uprooted tree stump, and as my flies drifted toward the tangle of roots, I spotted a flash. I immediately set the hook and felt the weight of a more substantial fish, but the euphoria was momentary as the quarry quickly escaped. I continued on further from the trailhead and after 45 minutes I landed my first cutthroat, a nine inch wild and colorful fish. Where was the easy fishing that I dreamed of?

A Shot of the Slash

An hour into my morning I arrived at a broken beaver dam with a long sixty foot stretch of slow clear water and with numerous sticks that grabbed at my wading boots and formed a mat on the stream bed. This portion of the stream was extremely frustrating. Despite exercising significant caution and stealth, trout shot away in every direction on each of my casts. Sometimes it pays to stop and evaluate how one is approaching a situation, and I decided that the splat of the large Chernobyl ant and the plunk of the beadhead nymph were causing too much surface disturbance, and thus causing the fish to scatter. At the outset of my fishing venture, I made the mistake of assuming that a proven technique that produced well in Colorado could be applied to Idaho.

I clipped off the two fly combination and knotted a single size 12 gray stimulator to my leader. With this fly on my line, I could check my cast high and allow it to flutter down to the water delicately. The stimulator was not as buoyant as the foam Chernobyl thus requiring more frequent drying, but the ability to present it softly to spooky wild cutthroats in gin clear water more than offset this negative. I resumed fishing and worked my way upstream and landed six additional cutthroats over the remaining 1.5 hours of fishing. I had a great time executing the type of fishing that I imagined when I selected small Rainey Creek over the South Fork of the Snake River. The fish averaged between 9 and 12 inches, but they were beautiful creatures with delicate speckles and a light olive color and a bright orange slash on the jaw.

Stimulator in the Corner of This Pretty Cutthroat’s Mouth

Although I regretted taking 1.5 hours to figure out that my Chernobyl and hares ear were not going to produce, I learned three valuable lessons on Sunday morning. First, it was obvious that cutthroats love deep holes around structure such as stumps, logs and large rocks. Secondly, they are quite wary and success dictates a stealthy approach and a delicate presentation. Third, as is usually the case, the further one gets from a campground, the better the fishing becomes. These lessons would serve me well on Monday.

Cutthroats Love This Sort of Deep Hole

At 12:30 I decided to quit as I promised Jane I would return by 1PM to join her in a fun non-fishing activity. Unfortunately my upstream movement in pursuit of wild trout had taken me quite a distance from the trail. There were no obvious exit paths, and I was unfamiliar with the area, so I decided to bushwhack through the dense shrubs and willows that thrived between the stream and the hiking trail. This proved to be tough going, and several times I feared that my progression was blocked by thick shrubs that forced we to retreat and move sideways until I found a marginal opening. During this process I broke down my four piece rod and clutched it tightly in my left hand to avoid breaking it on a branch or dropping it in the dense undergrowth. Eventually, however, I climbed into an opening and found a beaver pond with swampy grass surrounding it, and the trail was on the other side of the small pond.

In a  sweaty condition and covered with burrs I reached the path and quickly hiked the mile required to return to the trailhead parking lot where I stashed my gear and removed my waders and returned to the Hansen Guest Ranch. The morning on Rainey Creek was much more challenging than I expected, but I had fun nonetheless and learned valuable lessons that could be applied to future small stream fishing trips.

Time: 7:00PM – 9:30PM

Location: A side channel on the south side of the river below the dam. The first water encountered after climbing a hill on Snake River Drive and then going around a large switchback.

Fish Landed: 1 (plus a whitefish not included in the count)

South Fork of the Snake River 07/26/2014 Photo Album

Could the fishing on the South Fork of the Snake River be as difficult as my experience on the Green River? I was really looking forward to fishing new water, but the flows were at 16,600 cfs, and that is a massive amount of water. My fear was that success required a guided float trip, and I did not have a partner to share the cost of such an undertaking. I was resigned to wade fishing, but where could I find access to some productive water at these high early season flows?

Jane and I had breakfast at our campsite and then packed up our tent and canopy and all our camping provisions. We were now headed to the Hansen Guest Ranch in Swan Valley, ID and the modern conveniences of running water and a bed. The volunteers at the Red Canyon Visitor Center in Flaming Gorge suggested that we try a different route from Flaming Gorge to Swan Valley, and we decided to follow their recommendation. We drove north to Rock Springs, west on interstate 80 to Green River, and then we took a secondary highway to route 189 just south of La Barge, WY. As we headed north on 189 we stopped at a nice Mexican restaurant in Big Piney and then continued north until we joined route 191. In the past we always took 191 from Rock Springs through Pinedale so the new route was a pleasant change.

We had no trouble finding the Hansen Guest Ranch, and owner and host, Tom, showed us our room. I asked about fishing, and he quickly directed me to the Rendezvous Fly Shop owned by Gary Duncan along route 26 in Irwin approximately four miles east of the ranch. After Jane and I got situated in our new surroundings, we made the short drive to the fly shop, and there we met Gary’s wife. I purchased a three day fishing license and began asking her questions about fishing the SF of the Snake River. She was doing a nice job of answering and provided directions to a spot that I could wade fish when Gary appeared. Apparently he had been in the back yard cutting the grass.

I asked Gary about a braided area I’d read about, but he felt that it would be difficult to reach this area with the flows at their current level. The article I read actually did suggest wade fishing the SF of the Snake in September when the flows are significantly reduced and conducive to wading. Gary pointed me toward the same area as his wife and suggested that I should fish there Saturday night as a scouting expedition. He then offered a key piece of information when he volunteered that a PMD hatch occurred at dusk, and I could expect a lot of fish to rise between 9 and 10PM.

In appreciation of this information I purchased three pale morning dun parachute flies and two pale morning dun nymph patterns, then we said goodbye and returned to the guest ranch. I wanted to explore Rainey Creek a bit, so Jane and I took another ride to the Rainey Creek Trailhead so I could scout this small tributary to the South Fork of the Snake River. Gary suggested that Rainey Creek might be productive as it did not have a national forest campground which brings many people and therefore more fishing pressure. He did offer Bear Creek as an alternative small stream to try and gave me directions on how to find it.

When we returned to the bed and breakfast, I decided to find the Snake River location that Gary described and adhere to his advice of fishing in the dark. I drove northwest on route 26, and in approximately four miles the highway crossed the river where I made an immediate left turn on Snake River Drive. I followed this dirt road for four or five miles until I climbed a short steep hill and then navigated a huge narrow switchback that took me away from the river and then right back to it. As I was going down the steep side of the loop, I encountered a herd of cattle, and it took pulling the Santa Fe amazingly close to the lead bull to force him to get out of my path.

These Fellows Blocked My Path on the Way to Fish the Snake River

Where the road came back to the river, there was a nice side channel, and I decided to stop and fish at this spot. The size of the side channel roughly approximated the Frying Pan River in Colorado, so this was not the normal small side trough. A pickup truck was parked a few feet up the road, so before committing to the area, I jumped out of the car and surveyed the stream for another fisherman. I elected to use my Loomis five weight as I was weary of casting the Scott six weight, and the section I was about to fish looked perfectly sized for the smaller rod.

As I began to walk downstream toward the confluence with the main Snake, I bumped into the owner of the pick up truck. He was a nice young man, and he had been fishing since 2PM and had landed five fish. He stated that it was a bit slow, but he seemed relatively pleased with his success. He was using mainly a dry/dropper with a chubby chernobyl as his top fly and a small fly that looked like a PMD nymph imitation as his subsurface offering. The young fisherman reassured me that I would find several places to cross the side channel, and this was probably the best information he gave me, as I was quite fearful of wading in unknown water at high flows in fading daylight. While we were talking, a huge halo of mosquitoes circled his head, so as he walked away, I pulled out my small spray bottle of Off and doused my neck, face and hands.

I was now ready to familiarize myself with the mighty South Fork of the Snake River, so I continued along the bank to the point where the side channel merged with the main body of the river. I tied on a size 12 gray stimulator since that worked on the Green River, and I spotted a few large caddis flitting about in the air around me. I prospected back up the braid with the large attractor with no signs of fish, and when I reached a point just below the large bend pool, I decided to edge my way across the tail to the bottom of a small island. I tossed some casts into the attractive deep pool and then worked the other side of the island and fished the inside of the channel.

When I reached the point across from where the pick up truck had been parked, I crossed again and moved upstream a bit toward the point where the side channel branched away from the river. All of these moves yielded no fish nor did I see any signs of fish as the water was absolutely dead. I was convinced that Gary was having a nice laugh as soon as Jane and I stepped out the door of his shop. I retraced my steps and found a muddy path back to the road and returned to the large bend pool. I paused to observe for five minutes or so, and much to my surprise, I noticed a few sporadic rises in the middle of the pool by 8:45PM. In addition a light creamy colored mayfly fluttered up slowly from the surface. Perhaps Gary was telling the truth after all.

The Pool That I Fished on Saturday Night

These observations fueled my energy levels, and I positioned myself on the high bank next to the pool just above a large deadfall and began to loft a few casts to the location of the two rises. I could not get a good drift from this position because of my elevated position and the angle of the current, so I decided to cross again to the small island. Before I stepped in the water I was careful to make a mental note of my entry point as I would likely be returning in the dark. I slowly waded across the shallow current and then worked my way up to the small island on the northeast side of the attractive pool.

By now the frequency of the rises had increased so I added the purchased parachute pale morning dun as a second fly and kept the stimulator in place. I made some nice drifts over the locations of the rises with no results, so I began to worry that the fish were taking spinners, and I did not have a good spinner imitation on my leader. The time of day is what raised the spinner concern, but I reassured myself that I’d seen a dun floating up from the stream. I also seined the river briefly with my net, and this yielded a smaller blue wing olive dun.

Perhaps the parachute imitation was too large? I decided to snip off the stimulator and make the parachute my top fly and then add a size 16 gray comparadun as my point. It was clear to me that the fish were not tuned into caddis, so it made more sense to offer two PMD imitations. Finally by 9PM the hatch was in full swing and four or five fish began to smack the surface. I cast my two flies upstream to some still water four feet to the left of the current, and I was gratified to see a fish rise and sip in my parachute. Unfortunately when I quickly brought it to my net, I discovered a 12 inch whitefish. I was anxiously anticipating a Snake River cutthroat, so i was disappointed to encounter a whitefish as my first catch.

But fish continued to rise so I resumed casting in the rapidly fading daylight. As I drifted my flies through the center of the pool, a splashy rise along the current seam near the head of the pool caught my eye. I pivoted and shot a long 35 foot cast to the vicinity of the rise and saw a quick swirl and set the hook. This fish immediately rocketed toward the sticks and logs in the deadfall across from me, but I managed to pressure the projectile away without breaking it off. Clearly this fish was behaving like a trout and not a whitefish.

The Snake River Pool Yielded This Handsome Cutthroat Saturday Night

When I moved the fish closer to my net, it made one more short burst that took line, but I regained control again and netted a gorgeous 16 inch Snake River cutthroat. What a thrill! By the time I released my prize catch it was 9:30 and getting quite dark, and the frequency of rising fish had slowed considerably so I called it quits and returned to the guest ranch. Saturday night was a solid introduction to fishing the South Fork of the Snake River.