54th Day Fly Fishing – October 23rd, 2024 – Teton River Float
Wrong!
My friend John has introduced me to so many fishing spots near Teton Valley Idaho. This latest was a new float for me – Packsaddle to Harrops Bridge on the Teton. I knew of it and also knew it was a long float. In fact, because the days were getting shorter, we had to adjust our start time because this was a seven hour float. We floated 10am – 5pm. It is long and fairly technical from a rowing perspective. Previously, my favorite has always been the put-in closest to my house in Victor, South Bates to Bates. Its a fabulous float in July and August due to very reliable caddis and PMD hatches every day in those months. Rainey to Packsaddle is a stretch I have fished a few times as well.
In any case, it is my new favorite for one reason – big fish! But also, very wary and particular fish. Also, the put in at the Packsaddle ramp requires that you immediately have to go under a very low bridge, the Cache Bridge, where the roadway crosses the river. We had to duck and this was during a fall float when the river was around 250cfs. I imagine that during the summer months, there is not enough clearance to get a drift boat under.
First Fish
The crazy thing about the start of this float was we had just gone under the bridge and anchored river right so I could rig a streamer. As we were doing this, John was jigging his streamer under a bush on the right side of the boat and hooked up! Big Fish! At first, I had to row us away from the bush. Next, as John played this fish, I readied the net and before long we had it aboard. Check the photo below, just a magnificent rainbow! We were fist bumping and high five-ing! A great day already and we were just getting started!
The plan was to alternate positions and it was my turn to fish. I fished for about an hour and really struggled to get an eat, so I traded places with John. The bite had really slowed. John was changing flies a lot and finally connected with the fish below, a beautiful brown! It was my turn up again and I was changing flies a lot as well.
Rises
At one point of the float we encountered a hatch and rising fish. It was a baetis hatch of sorts. Little white-ish flies in the 20-22 size range. I had a fairly good match in my box and tied one on the tippet of my 3wt Scott G2. There were wind gust not only putting the fish down, but making casting difficult. I got one eat but did not get a hook-set before we decided to pull anchor and move on.
Later, I got a couple of eats on my streamer, but no hook-ups. This time it was a ginger colored streamer that got the eats, when before, it was a black leech pattern.
Wildlife
The Teton is always chock fully of wildlife. This day was no exception! In to a big bald eagle and lots of different water fowl, we also had the pleasure of seeing this great horned owl below. He was totally unmoved as we watched him.
Learnings
John educated me a bit on streamer fishing and even though I’m an old dog, I can learn new tricks! First off, when John knows his streamer has passed by fish and been refused, he makes a change. Not every fish is going to eat, but you have to change color and/or size if you have gotten multiple refusals. Another error I made was to think that floating line would be perfectly OK on a small river like theTeton. Wrong! We went over some really deep holes where I was wishing that my line sank faster. Sink tip on this stretch of the river is the way to go!
Anyway, I wished we had hooked into more fish, but those two John caught definitely made our day. We don’t know why the bite shut off when it did, but hey, that’s fishing!
