61st – 67th Day of fly fishing, September 27th – October 3rd
The Amigos have been fishing Victor since 2018. Reid and I met in Florida around 2008 at the Backcountry Fly Fishing Club in Orlando and we fished together several times before I moved back to Boulder, Colorado a couple of years later. Thankfully, we stayed in touch and he was even nice enough to host me a few times back in Florida when I visited on business trips. After buying the Victor cabin it was only fair to invite Reid back and it was then that he introduced me to Mel. Anyway, the three of us have been going strong ever since and getting together in Victor has become an annual event.
Seven days of fly fishing! As I was planning this trip I had a couple of new ideas and a few old favorites in mind and I knew that as the trip unfolded, we were likely to have a couple of repeats. First up, we had an opportunity to meet with Wylie, Mike, Tom and Troy at Wylie’s fish camp. Brett and Mike’s son Keaton and his girlfriend were there too!
Day 1 – Salt River float at Wylie’s FIsh Camp
This year has been somewhat of an awakening for me. I’ve always enjoyed a few fishing buddies, but then again I enjoy fishing solo too. But this year, I have really made an effort to reach out and expand to new relationships and deepen relationships with the people I know. Wylie and his crew is a great example of that. We had a great outing at Wylie’s Fish Camp back in mid August. Last year when we had met I felt like an outsider, not really knowing anyone besides Mike and Troy. This year, I got to know Wylie, Brett, Tom, Paul and Byrce and others and I felt like I fit in.
Both Reid and Mel had met Troy and Mike before in West Yellowstone and a trip we took the following day to the north end of the park.. So it was OK with Mike that we all hooked up again at the fish camp. The plan was to float the stretch above the camp, with a focus on dry/droppers. Mike floated on his raft with Tom and Reid and Mel floated with me.
Mel, with a cutthroat in the first pic, Reid casting into a run in the second pic. As you can see in the two following pics, absolutely stunning fall colors!
The Salt float was short, only a couple of miles, but loads of fun and we all caught fish. Mel missed a couple of nice ones on streamers, but we got the rest on a dry/dropper rig, and all of those ate the dropper.
Day 2 – Snake River float below Jackson
This was my third time floating this stretch. Still a challenge for me to figure out where the fish were and really different each time I floated it, due to changing flows. This day we were @ 3,300cfs and the lower flows meant fish were holding in different locations than back in August.
Both Reid and Mel decided to fish streamers while we were underway and Reid hooked up a nice cutthroat only about 5 minutes into the float. The day was partly cloudy and we did get into a little rain toward the end of the float. However, we had a fair amount of light most of the day and the lighter colors for the streamers, like white and yellow were the go-to.
As you can see in the pic above, lots of sunlight and glare on the water, but overall, just a beautiful day!
The plan was to get out and wade a fair amount where there were runs and riffles. This plan did not yield a lot of fish however, particularly for me. I was running a nymph rig in the runs with no success. It did produce a couple of fish, Mel with a nice cutthroat below:
During the second half of the float, the focus was chucking streamers at the banks. Both Mel and Reid had eats but couldn’t connect. So, in summary, it was a fairly slow day, with only a few fish to hand, but a good day still. Check out the beautiful fall colors below:
Day 3 – South Fork float
This day was supposed to be dark and cloudy and possibly rainy. It did not disappoint. The perfect weather for throwing streamers! Mel started to get eats right away. It was the sex dungeon yellow that was working for him. But he wasn’t getting hook-ups… yet. Reid was using my rod, the 7wt Scott Meridian, and was struggling with his casts. My line has a long sink tip and Reid was fighting with the pick up. In the mean time, Mel hooked into a really nice cutthroat:
As you can see from the pick above, this cutt has beautiful coloring.
We continued to pound the bank and as before, Mel hooked into a really nice fish, this time a big rainbow. The fish was as big around as it was long. It was a TANK! Had to be 5 lbs!
As we got into the riffle section, we landed the boat and worked some of the runs to no avail. I was fishing my midnight fire leech on my 5wt G2 and did get one nice eat in one of the runs, but I did not get a hook set.
Day 4 – Henry’s Fork float
We always float the Henry’s Fork out of Ashton. Why? Because some of our best days are on the Henry’s Fork. But, to be fair fair, some of our slowest days as well. It’s either ON or it’s OFF. Today, because of the clouds, we were really hoping for a hatch! This time of year mid-late afternoon would be primetime for a hatch. In the meantime, Mel and Reid worked the streamers and got a few eats, but no fish to hand. Eventually, there was a hatch of sorts. I saw some heads on river right and anchored the boat above them. The hatch was small baetis in a size 20 or 22. The guys gave me first shot at the fish, so I rigged my Scott G2 4wt.
My preference, when possible is to wade, which is why I parked the boat close to shore, to make it easier to get out. Most of the rises appeared to be subsurface and I opted for the WD 40 that Mel had tied in a 22. As soon as the CDC gets wet, the WD40 rides just below the surface in the film. On my third cast, casting across and slightly down, in a location near where I last saw a fish rise, I got the eat. Crazy, but I never saw the eat. My line stopped and I instinctively set and he was on. It wasn’t a big fish but he fought like a champ.
A nice brown trout came to hand and unfortunately, he was the only fish of the day. Reid and Mel did get eats and Mel missed another big fish! But hey, that’s fishing!
Day 5 – Teton River row arounds
Back at the cabin in Victor, we had a furry friend come to visit, peering in the dining room window as we were having breakfast. We decided on a late start and an easy day for me, so this was a fun surprise as we sipped our coffee.
In order to make it an easy day, we decided to launch and basically do row arounds and put the boat back on the trailer where we launched. The Teton is a very slow river and this approach is actually easy to pull off.
As we launched, we could quickly see that fish were rising. A guy was wading upstream but he was coming off the river so I rowed us upstream to start. The flies that were hatching were a small blue wing olive aka BWO.
We were able to match the hatch pretty well. All of the rising fish were really small and we all caught a few. But the thrill of the day was a big bull moose who was chasing a after a cow. We quickly figured out that it was mating season!
Anyway, not much to talk about in the way of fishing, but a fun day none the less!
Day 6 – Teton River float
We discussed the potential for this float earlier in the week and felt that even though the flows were low, this section of the river could be good for streamers and quite possibly, there could even be a hatch. Well, the hatch really never happened. It was partly cloudy and fairly warm by mid-afternoon.
Before heading out, we decided to hit WorldCast Anglers in Victor. They had a big sale on with $1 flies and half off streamers. One of the shop guys I like to speak with has been fishing the Teton a lot and been doing very well. Even though it is fall he spoke of hatches and also doing well with nymphs. He indicated that the person in front of the boat should keep their rig out in front. One of the ways to compensate for low flows and clear water is to be 10 feet or so in front, so you can reach the fish well ahead of the boat and before they scatter as a result. His comments just reaffirmed our decision to give the Teton another shot on this day, and it all worked out beautifully!
Today, Reid went for a nymph rig and Mel stuck with the streamers, although he downsized them. Reid’s rig consisted of two failry heavy nymphs. The one that did all the damage was a fly I urged Mel to tie, the Higa’s SOS. Mel tied it in an 18 on a curved hook. The body is black thread ribbed with silver wire. This part of the fly is identical to a zebra midge. I was seeing lots of midges on the water and I knew they were hatching regularly, just not during our float. The top part of the fly resembles a baetis. It has silver bead, a thickly dubbed thorax, legs and a red wing case. I had just recently tied it myself and it fished well earlier this fall. The second fly was a pure baetis pattern.
As we started the float, Reid was in front with his nymph rig and as was suggested, he kept it well in front of the boat. As a result, Reid began catching fish! Mel stuck with streamers in the back and wasn’t having the same success.
Mel was eventually catching them as well, but not until he switched from streamers to his nymph rig, was he hooking up regularly. This did not surprise me. The big fish that eat streamers are also the easiest to spook. Mel was in the back of the boat, which meant he was casting at fish that were already spooked. When Mel switched, he was catching the smaller fish like the ones Reid was catching. It’s also a good thing that Mel tied a buch of SOS’s, as there were lot’s of sub-surface snags, tree branches and such that ate the flies!
At the end of the day, Reid had caught almost 20 and Mel was at around 10 fish. Not only were the numbers impressive, but so were the species. We had a large number of brookies and rainbows, a solid number of cutthroats and even a few browns. A grand slam on the Teton! The fall brook trout colors were just stunning! Check out Reid’s fish below:
We also had a six moose day! The most moose ever! Three females and three males(sorry, no pics). Finally, Mel got a gorgeous shot of a bald eagle that was perched above us.
And of course we never get tired of those fabulous Teton views!
Day 7 – South Fork Float
It was the lure of big fish on streamers that brought us back to the South Fork. We were looking at another cloudy/partly cloudy day and hope that conditions for another streamer bite were present. We did have a fair amount of clouds and some threatening rain but the bulk of the day was partly cloudy.
Reid went with his reel on my rod which only had a 10 foot sink tip which was much more manageable. He also had a sparkly new streamer from World Cast Anglers that was a mini dungeon in white and gray. Mel was also pitching streamers and his go-to was the mini dungeon in yellow.
Today it was Reid’s turn to land the big fish, a chunky rainbow!
Also worthy of mention, Mel did have a monster brown hit his streamer – we are talkin’ 24″ + class fish. He saw the fish come up from behind a rock and crush his fly, but he wasn’t able to strip set the and make the connection. Mel said it was the biggest brown he had ever seen! Well, we will have to come back and get that fish on another day.
I didn’t fish much on this day, but I had a nice eat at this spot when we parked the boat. I just was not able to get a follow-up:
On our final day, we actually managed to get off the water early, which was great! We had to clean the boat and get it back in the garage and get the fishing gear stowed and packed. For tomorrow was the travel home day for Reid and Mel.
And that’s a wrap! All good fishing trips must come to an end….
The next morniing we all got up early grabbed a quick breakfast, cleaned up the cabin and packed the gear in the truck. There was a four hour drive back to SLC and the guys wanted to be at the airport early and have some dinner before boarding their flight, which was a red eye.
It was an excellent trip! Always fun to get the Three Amigos together!
