57th – 59th Day Fly Fishing, September 18th -20th, 2025
This trip is part two of “Fishing with the Dude”. In August, I visited the Dude in Sun Valley, Idaho and we fished the Big Wood near his cabin and also 2 days on the Salmon, downstream of Stanley, Idaho. This time it was three days of excellent fishing including the South Fork in Swan Valley, the Snake in Wyoming downstream from Jackson and the Henry’s Fork, upstream of Ashton.
There were several firsts – the Dude landed his first brown trout, his first Cutthroat which was also his personal best trout and finally a huge sucker, which was big surprise!
Day 1 – South Fork of the Snake, Swan Valley Idaho
The South Fork always delivers. Getting ready to float at the Husky’s put in below The Dude promptly landed a couple of whitefish and then a couple of smaller rainbows. He also lost a big rainbow!
Day 2 – Snake River float, below Jackson, WY
This float was a first for the Dude. The trout for whatever reason were a bit hard to come by. Four whitefish came to hand first and finally, on a deep run, he scored a beautiful cutthroat(below). The gasolina perdigon was the top fly!
Day 3 – Henry’s Fork float, above Ashton, ID
We had another couple of firsts on this day. The Dude caught his first brown trout and later a couple of small rainbows, but toward the end of the float, he landed a massive sucker! What was weird was I was convinced it was a big brown until we got a good look at it. The battle seemed to take forever and this fish had fight to spare, but the Dude hung in there and we finally got it to the net.
Overall a very fun and productive trip. Looking forward to next year!
