May 8th – 12th – 24th – 27th day fly fishing
Barrie is an old friend. We met at the Backcountry Fly Fishing in Orlando Florida. About 15 years ago I was a transplant from Louisville, Colorado to Orlando, Florida. My new job and residence there was actually Winter Park, Florida. Winter Park was actually a very cool place with lots of trees and a very desirable downtown. More like a hamlet, like Carmel California. Extremely quaint! There are a lot of great restaurants in Winter Park with comfortable outdoor seating, but more about that in another post. Back to Barrie. We started fishing together because we were two members who did not have power boats, typically flats boats. We did have kayaks and we enjoyed wading outings too. After I returned to Colorado, about four years later, I stayed in touch with Barrie and I invited him out to fish the Rockies. We had a great time fishing a number of rivers, north, south and west. A few years ago, perhaps a year after we bought the cabin, Barrie came to Idaho and we floated the South Fork, the Teton and the Henry’s Fork. We also waded the Ranch.
Earlier this year, Barrie and I connected and discussed getting together for another safari in early May. You see Barrie turned 80 in May and this was a celebration and another venture out to the Rockies to fish. Barrie also asked if he could bring his friend Ray. Ray is a retired Navy Rear Admiral and a fabulous human being. How could I refuse? No, really, I was delighted to have Ray aboard. We had a great time together. The weather didn’t cooperate, and neither did the fish, but it didn’t matter so much
Day 1 – Sunday, May 8th, 24th day fly fishing
I picked Barrie and Ray up a hotel near the airport and we headed north out of Salt Lake City to Paradise Utah and White’s Ranch. Along the way we picked up groceries for the cabin and a deli sandwich for lunch and headed for White’s. We fished some nymphs and caught a few, then tried a number of approaches on the pond and sturck out. There are days when the pond can be really tough. Sometimes I will spend the better part of a day trying to figure it out. But this day was not that day. Then, it began to get very windy! We switched to streamers because that was about all we could cast. We actually began to do fairly well with the streamers, but the cold wind became to much so we bailed early, which was fine as we still had a 3 hour drive to the cabin. We got there in time to cook dinner, have a beer and a glass of red wine and relax a bit.
Day 2 – No Fishing
We had plans to fish but we woke up in Victor to rain and snow. We decided to take the day off and head over the pass and tour Jackson, WY. We went to JD Outfitters, Jack Dennis’ former shop. Then we had an excellent Mexican food lunch followed by the mandatory trip to Mangelsen’s gallery. We had to pay tribute to the incomparable 399. She and her cubs are magnificent and Mangelsen captures their essence like no one else.
Day 3 – 25th Day Fly Fishing – Henry’s Fork, Warm River section
You may recall from my last blog post that I did this same float only six days prior, the inaugural float of my new Hyde Montana Skiff. The hatch was excellent that day and I thought the caddis were probably still coming off on the warm river section. After launching and rigging we started nymphing with no luck and as we slowly moved down river, I was laser focused on finding heads. There were bugs out but no hatch per se. To their credit the guys cast a lot. Toward the end of the float, we were all getting worn out and we didn’t fish much the last 2 miles. I don’t recall catching a fish that day.
Day 4 – 26th Day Fly Fishing – South Fork of the Snake
Someday, I needed to face my demons and return to the South Fork of the Snake. It was just 11 months ago that I had my boat accident upstream of the Palisades Creek put it, AKA Husky’s. Anyway, today I wanted to ease into it and put in at Husky’s. I knew I was going to miss the big rapid just past the bridge, if I had gone to the put in at the Dam. Husky’s is a great put-in. Easy to launch and a big calm area to sit and rig. My choice was a nymph rig and Barrie agreed, so I rigged a very heavy black stonefly nymph on the bottom. Big tuungsten bead and lead-free wrapped hook shank It was an excellent salmon fly nymph imitation. The salmon fly hatch was still two months away, but the big black bugs should be moving. In retrospect, I really think a golden stone nymph. That hatch is about a month earlier than the salmon fly hatch and. they hatch in greater numbers over a longer period of time. The suspended fly was on an outrigger about 10″ above the stonefly. I really like using a tippet ring, tying two pieces of tippet of different lengths to it. I went with a caddis pupa for the suspended fly and alternated a baetis CDC soft hackle nymph. Neither got takes unfortunately
Typically I run river left when I launch up at the dam. This day, launching at Husky’s I decided to run mostly river right. I put Barrie in the trench which is bout 6-8′ off the bank. Ray decided to throw a streamer. His distance wasn’t good enough so we changed him over to a nymph rig as well. When we are dragging nymphs in the trench, I need to position the boat 15′-20′ off the bank. Barrie did a nice job of keeping his flies in the zone. We made sure he was bumping bottom and Ray after he made the change, worked to do the same thing. It was disturbing to me that we just couldn’t buy an eat. We did enjoy the float however largely because the weather cooperated.
Day 5 – 27th Day Fly Fishing – Henry’s Fork – Ora bridge to Vernon bridge
This was our last day and there were high winds and perhaps a little rain in the forecast. Not ideal, particularly since we struggled with the weather a lot so far. I also feel strongly that the weather has caused the fishing to be a little wonky and slow. Today was no exception. Today’s plan was to nymph until we saw heads. We hit it hard up by the boat launch with no results, then eased our way down. The Ora to Vernon float is short and we chose the short float for weather reasons. Therefore, you have to work the top mile very purposefully. SInce I wade this section year round I have a pretty good idea where the fish are and how to work them. As we got into the first riffle, we posted up a bit to the right of the fish. A boat left of us and above was getting a few on nymphs, actually in faster water than I was expecting. We counted to work it with no success.
Next we posted up in a long run where the heads will pop during a hatch. Other boats had the same idea and there were 4 guide boats around us. We waited awhile and ate our lunch, but then the rain and high winds came. Winds had reached 30-40mph and we decided to leave our post. Down below a hundred yards was a slow section near a cliff and we found a bit of shelter there. No sooner had we arrived when the BWO hatch got underway. Boy! About now I was hoping we had stayed in that spot upstream, but we had a little action where we were. A few fish were rising and Barrie changed his rig. We determined that most of the action was still taking place underneath, with fish eating emergers sub-surface. Barrie got a nice eat and hooked a nice rainbow and landed it! Yay! at least we weren’t skunked! He had another eat or two but missed the hook sets. Ray stuck with his nymph rig and struggled.
Now the hatch was over and we moved to the next few sections and Barrie was back to nymphing. Before long we were fishing th esection just above the bridge on river right. Then I heard Ray yell from the back of the boat “fish on” and we all got excited. The current was slow enough to anchor up and as I set the anchor and looked behind me, I could see that this was a BIG fish that Ray had on. Ray battled this fish for quite awhile and as he was getting the fish closer, I asked Ray to lift his rod and get the fish’s head out of the water. It sure make netting a big fish easier. Ray was struggling with this and as I looked closer, I noticed that he had the fish hooked in the dorsal. You won’t get the head up with the hook that far back. It also explains why this fish was getting the upper hand in the fight. We all thought this fosh was fighting like a brown, but one time when the fish was close enough, Barrie and I both saw the red on the gill and the coloring and knew it was a rainbow or cuttbow perhaps. The hook in the dorsal eventually worked itself loose and the fish was still on! The bottom hook was in the fish’s lip! Now the fish was below the boat the job of lifting the head got tougher. As Ray continued to apply pressure I was leaning as far forward as possible, taking swipes at the fish with the long handled net. Then, all of a sudden he was off. The second hook let go. The battle lasted well over 5 minutes and it was the highlight of our slow day. Since he had the fish inside the leader, we gave him the catch. It was his personal best rainbow and he was delighted! We estimated it right at 19″ give or take an inch. It was no torpedo, this fish was built like a football with big shoulders!
With that we wrapped up our day and our trip. It was off to SLC the next day. Even though the weather was crappy and the fishing was slow, we still had an excellent time and it was great to be together.
