26th – 31st Days of Fly Fishing – June 18th – 23rd
Sorry to be woefully slow in writing this post. Warning, sInce three weeks have passed, this will light on details, but I wanted to at least document the trip. All the way around, it was incredible! Here is quick summary
Day 1 – Teton River float – the highlight was Matt’s giant rainbow detailed here. An FOL (Fish of a LIfetime) deserves it’s own post!
Day 2 – South Fork Canyon float – Salmon Flies, Golden Stones and Yellow Sally’s. It was an amazing day!
Day 3 – Salt River Float – A three hour float turned into six. Dry fly eats on PMDs and Caddis, plus a little fun Euro nymphing for whitefish
Day 4 – Henry’s Fork Float – A beatiful day highlighted by a couple of nice browns! Otherwise, fairly slow. The secret spot did not deliver.
Day 5 – Grey’s RIver wade with guest host and pal Chris. High flows made it challenging, but we all caught fish!
Day 6 – Teton Float – We couln’t recreate the first day, but we had fun and caught fish
Day 1 – Teton River Float (see “FOL On the Teton”)
Day 2 – South Fork – Canyon Float
The Canyon section of the South Fork of the Snake River is a really long float. We floated Conant to Wolf which is 20 miles to be exact. It’s a long day and it can beat you up! Thanks to Mel and his rowing skills for giving me a break on the lower section by rowing the last six miles. The bonus for me was getting to fish!
It all started at about 9am at the Conant ramp. Crazy, but the lot was already full! It’s my estimate, but I’m guessing somewhere around 70 trailers! Hatches were the reason for this. There were salmon flies flying about at the ramp and later in the float golden stones took center stage. Yellow Sallys rounded things out.
We had heard from LaMoyne Hyde, yes of Hyde drift boat fame, that the week prior the hatches were off the charts and he had a 30 fish day all on top. Of course we were hoping for the same with all the bugs in the air. LaMoyne was fishing the golden stone dry and got most of his fish on the last several miles of the float.
As we began our float, we saw lots of bugs airborne, but not so many on the water. Occasionally, a salmon fly would float by wiggling like mad and sometimes they would float a long ways before being devoured. For this reason, Matt was tossing a streamer and Mel switched back and forth. Matt was getting eats right away, but miseed quite a few, which is really the way the streamer goes. White and yellow were the best colors on this trip. I believe the yellow mini-dungeon was the top performer.
We made a stop at a riffle five or six miles down. Other boats had posted up and were wading. I maneuvered around the back side and below and to the side of another group, making sure I wasn’t infringing on their water. Funny, but we had fish rising right in front of us. As usual, Mel had the magic dry fly, but he was also willing to share. We took turns casting from the boat and each of us landed to or more cutthroats. Then unexpectedly, the group to the side of us packed up and left. I slide the boat over a bit and we got out. The spot they left still had a number of fish feeding, some were rising, some were eating below. What was crazy to us, a bunch of them were only in about 6 inches of water. Once again Mel had the magic fly and both Mel and Matt cought several between them. Most were in the 12-14″ range but Matt broke one off that was considerable longer. As things slowed, we moved on.
Matt went back to streamer fishing and was still catching a few here and there. Mel had a few as well. At about mile 18 or 20, Mel took over the sticks. I moved to the back and decided to fish a golden stone dry fly. We were seeing many more goldens in the air and a few random rises. As Mel worked the shoreline, Matt and I picked up a few here and there.
There was one eddy that Mel took us into that was rather wild! It was more like a whirlpool as it spun us around. At some point, Matt hooked up which really complcated things. It was a nice fish and I got on the net to help out. He eventually landed it, but I don’t think we had a picture.
A little later, Matt got the rainbow below. Nice fish!
Anyway, we had a few more eats as we approached the take-out at Wolf. At this point, we were all a bit whipped, but we retrieved the boat and got everything situated. We still had a drive ahead to get back to Swan Valley, and when arrived we stopped at the Snake River Side Channel for dinner. It had changed hands a while back but the food was good and chowed down!
It was almost dark when we arrived back at the cabin and the three of us were beat!
Day 3 – Salt River Float
Wylie, MIke, Bryce, Tom and a few others were up at fish camp and we were looking forward to seeing them. Wylie and Bryce graciously offered to shuttle us and they really made it easy. This time the float was a few miles longer as we went past fish camp and took out at the diversion.
Immediately after putting in, we went under the bridge and there were fishin rising to PMDs. So we all tied on PMD dries and began catching cutthroats. As the action cooled, we began our float downstream and found more fish rising, sometimes posting up so that we could take more shots. On my favorite run on this section, we got out of the boat and waded it. I was able to get one nice cutthroat on the PMD and was puzzled that there weren’t more. As we worked the Salt downstream, we were able to bring more fish to the net. Matt switched to a streamer and got a few that way.
After passing Wylie’s place, I had a plan. Just a ways downstream from there is a run that holds a ton of whitefish and they love to take nymphs, a frenchie or a perdigon work equally well. I decided it would be fun to rig my Euro rod with a gasolina perdigon and take turns catching whitefih. Well, once I found the school, it was a blast. Both Mel and Matt were blown away. It is so much more satisfying “feeling the eat with the tight line set-up and setting the hook. Neither of them had fished a 2 weight before and even the smaller whities, feel like whales. I think we caught 3 or 4 a piece before we decided to move on.
Shortly thereafter, a big storm moved in and we had to anchor under a bridge, seeking shelter from the rain and more importantly, the lightning. After about a 30 minute wait, things lightened up and and we got underway again. At this point, we were all a little tired, and not really sure if were out of the wooods, storm-wise. So I rowed us at a good pace and as it turns out, we didn’t catch much on this final section of the float.
It was great day, but I forgot to get my camera out, so no pics to share. The upper part of the float was the same as last fall with Reid and Mel so if you would like to see pics, you will find them here.
Day 4 – Henry’s Fork Float
It’s interesting. I’m always pushing the Henry’s Fork float but i have to admit, some days are incredible and others are just so-so. Today’s float fell somewhere in the middle. Mel and Matt each caught a nice fish on streamers, but we really struggled to find good dry fly action. Today, even my secret spots fell short and further, I wasn’t able to get any love on soft hackles at my favorite wading spots.
It was a beautiful day, except of course for the winds and we all know that winds can put a damper on dry fly action, but you can see Mel above holding a beautiful brown that he caught on a streamer, so it was not a total bust either.
Day 5 – Greys River Wade
A week before this trip I was watching the flows on the Greys wondering if fishing it was a going to be a good idea. Flows were up around 1000cfs and I was skeptical that we could have a good day. That’s where my buddy Chris comes in. He lives near the base of the river and had fished it at higher flows. We chatted about it and he felt is was going to be fishable below 1000cfs and the morning we headed out, it was running 740cfs, so we felt that it was going to be a good day. Chris decided join us on this day and we were looking forward to having him along.
We met up at his place, met his dogs and said hi to his beautiful and charming wife and then headed upriver. Chris had a spot in mind where we started out. Chris, Mel and Matt headed upstream and I headed down. My plan was to fish the golden stone dry. Matt was fiahing a caddis dry and Mel similar. Chris went with the “Provo Bounce Rig” or Drop Shot rig for anyone not from Utah. It takes a while to rig, but there is no question as to it’s effectiveness, especially in high and fast water.
My spot had me in a fast run, it looked fishy, but after working it a fair amount and covering lots of water, I wasn’t able to get an eat. So, I headed downstream further until the run slowed. It was in the slower part of the run that I found success. I landed a couple of nice cutts.
After, I decided to head back upstream and reconnect with the guys. Matt was looking at some soft water on the edge of a run. He had spotted a fish feeding there and he crouched down to avoid detection. After a couple of casts with his caddis he got the fish to eat and it was “fish on!”. This cutt was probably the nicest of the day in the 15-16′ range. It was so satisfying for him to stalk a fish like that. I was reaching for my phone in order to get a pic, and then realized that I didn’t have it. I had left it back in the car. Bummer!
Mel caught a couple of fish and Chris was killing it with his bounce rig. Then we decided to move.
The next spot was one that I fished with Chris last year. It had a few good runs, some were a bit too fast due to the high water but there were plenty of fishable places too(see pic below). This time, I decided to go upstream and Chris, Mel and Matt fished below. I went up to a spot I had fished before. At this point the wind had picked up and it was making casting a bit more difficult. I was in a narrow canyon and the water was fairly fast, but also deep, perhaps 4 feet. I decided to double up my chances and I put a gasolina perdigon dropper on, below my golden stone dry.
The narrow canyon I started to fish turned out to be a funnel for the wind and since it was blowing downwind, it made casting upwind a real chore. I was getting hang-ups and tangles and frankly a bit frustrated. Even though no fish were rising and the water was deep, there were fish looking up. It was so much fun watching them come up to eat my dry fly. Even watching refusals was exciting! The fish below was one of the nice cutthroats that I caught in that spot.
What was also great, was getting eats down below as well and I caught a couple on the perdigon. Anyway, I worked it a while longer and then decided to reconnect with my friends, so i headed back downstream.
Matt caught a couple and I think Mel did as well, but the spot Chris chose was not too conducive to wading at these flows. I had to fish from shore at the canyon spot above. The water was too deep and too fast to wade. Chris did really well though. He managed several more fish on hi bounce rig.
As the day wore on, we decided to pack up and head back down river. When we arrived at Chris’ place, we had a nice surprise as Chris invited us to stay for dinner. Chris had another buddy who had just arrived so they were planning dinner anyway. We chowed down on brats, watermellon and potato salad. It was a great way to end our day!
Day – 6 Teton River Float
Today was our last day in Victor and we decided once again to float the Teton. It’s only 10 minutes from the cabin to the put-in which makes it so convenient. Also, we knew we needed to clean the boat and get it back in a the garage, so a long day was out of the question. I was making a special pasta dish and neede time to cook as well.
So we decided on a short float where dry flies could rule the day. Again PMDs were hatching and we had rising fish during most of the float.
Anyway, lots of eager cutts came to hand on this day and it was a nice way conclude our fishing time together
Wrap-up
Another fabulous trip! Matt caught his FOL (Fish of a Lifetime) on the first day! We also enjoyed an incredible amount of variety. Massive numbers were not the goal, but we did catch fish every day and more importantly we created some excellent memories. Isn’t that what its all about?
