45th – 48th Day Fly Fishing – August 4th – 7th – SunValley, Idaho & Stanley, Idaho
Happily, I got my friend “the Dude” into fly fishing over 20 years ago. And although his primary residence is in the San Francisco Bay Area, he and his wife Annie also own a rustic cabin in the Sun Valley area. Nestled in the national forest on the approach to Galena pass, he’s got a great location for enjoying fly fishing. The Big Wood river is practically in his front yard and head over the pass to Stanley and you have the Salmon river. Also, one of our traditions has been fishing Silver Creek, which gets me an hour closer to home, whether its back to Victor, or home to Salt Lake City. The great thing for me, coming to visit the Dude in August is that it becomes increasing difficult to find cold water in the Teton Valley and surrounding areas. The exception is the South Fork, because it is a tail water with high summer flows, it stays cold, especially the first several miles. But because it is an exception, it becomes extremely crowded as well. So the Dude and I have been scheduling me to visit him in August and he will come and visit me, later in the month of September, when water temps are reasonable again.
The Big Wood
The first day is always a short day. I arrived in the early afternoon and we made plans and readied our gear for a couple of hours on the Big Wood. Flows were great, albeit a little lower than last year. However, the temp was a perfect 60 degrees, which is excellent given the mid-afternoon start. We put in at a place we had fished before. I was adamant about going with the dry/dropper rig. In this case, we each chose smallish foam hoppers and a gasolina perdigon in an 18. I got a couple of little fish on the dropper in the first hole. The Dude fished a deep cut in our next spot and landed a couple of nice rainbows. Before we knew it, it was time to head back as we were on the hook to BBQ a steak for dinner!
Above: Hard to tell from the photo, but the Dude picked up two fish on the dropper in that deep cut over by the bent over tree trunk
Salmon River
On day two we slept in and had a yummy huevos rancheros breakfast expertly prepared by the Dude. Before the crack of noon we were headed over Galenas pass to Stanley. After driving through town, we headed to our first spot, which is a nymphing spot, however, it was occupied. Not a big deal as we have been collecting a list of places we like, meaning we caught fish there, and we headed downstream. Before getting to our next spot, the Dude and I noticed some good water we hadn’t fished before and decided to check it out. There was a deep run that looked really fishy and a tail out above it. I rigged a similar rig as the day before, a hopper with a fairly long dropper. As the Dude was still rigging, I went down to check out that run. Right away, on the first couple of casts, I had two fish who ate the dropper. I knew the Dude would like that hole so I stopped fishing and waited for him to be ready. I put him on that hole and went upstream to the tail out.
Above: The Dude fishing the deep run in the distance downstream. Note, the tail out I’m fishing is to the right.
The water in the tail out was faster and wading out in the current was a little sketchy. Right off the bat, as I cast below a couple of large boulders, I was getting eats on the hopper. When I glanced over at the Dude, he was getting eats and landing fish mostly on the dropper. Over time, as I worked the water systematically, I was getting eats on the dropper as well. In fact, in addition to landing several rainbows, I also landed a couple of whitefish.
Above: The fast water below the boulders produced at least ten fish
Our next spot was also a great spot for nymphs. We worked it, but didn’t get any eats. In retrospect, it may have made sense to increase the distance of our droppers. In this run, it was fairly deep and we may not have made it into the feeding zone. I was surprised that we didn’t have any eats on top though.
The last stop of the day was our old standard, a popular camping location. We rarely run into other fishermen, except in this location. But frequently, they are not in the spots that we covet. That would not be the case today. There were a few spin casters parked in the spot I like to fish. The dude did not have the same problem in his spot, it was wide open! The Dude has a run that is perfect for swinging soft hackles. I fished a bit below him and caught a few on soft hackles and a couple on dries. It was crazy in that we actually had several guys in masks and flippers come right through where we were fishing! But in the long run it did not phase the Dude. As usual, he got quite a few rainbows on soft hackles.
We stayed overnight in Stanley so we could get a couple of more hours in. The restaurant by our hotel is actually pretty good. The plan the next day was to head down and look for new water downstream of Clayton. Along the way, we decided to check out the spot we fished the afternoon before at the campground, thinking the campers weren’t up fishing yet, or taking their snorkel gear down the middle of the river! This morning the Dude’s spot was open and so was mine!
Above: The Dude lands a rainbow at his favorite spot
My favorite spot was a place I found last year. It was early evening and I was nailing fish after fish on a royal stimulator and then over in the shallows I had a tremendous eat from a very large brown! The full story and a picture of the brown can be found HERE! In any case, it quickly became my favorite spot of all spots on the Salmon. Well guess what, I still had three of those royal stimulators and I planned to put them to work.
The main difference was the time difference between this year and last year was timing – 11am today vs. 6:30pm last year. There were similarities though. The flows were similar, and the date last year was only a week later. So hatches were the same and water temps seemed about the same as well. The 11am temp on this day was under 60 degrees. In any case, I tied on the size 12 royal stimulator with no dropper and began working my way downstream to my landmark, a very odd pine tree, naked except for one large pom pom about 40 feet up.
As I worked my way toward the landmark I did happen to pick up a few smallish rainbows. At the landmark, the water deepens and slows, perfect for feeding fish. At the landmark, it was a fish on every cast for about 20 minutes. I had to make several fly changes as they were waterlogged and fish slimed. I had already had 13 fish to hand when I decided to check on the Dude.
He was in his usual spot, no campers there to bother him. But it was weird, a bunch of teenagers went down below him a hundred yards and hung out. They weren’t a bother though being that far away. The Dude was catching his usual grundel of rainbows. He was losing a bunch too, likely due to the barbless hooks I used in the PMD soft hackles I tied for him. Bottom line, this spot was fishing so much better than the night before! Anyway, my plan was to bring the Dude upriver to my spot because I knew I hadn’t caught them all. As we approached the water together, I pointed out the landmark and had him move ahead of me into position. At my suggestion, he switched to a stimulator and bagan working the water. He had a fish on right away, then another and another came to the net. One of those fish was his biggest rainbow of the day.
It was after 1pm when we decided to move on. At this point, we decided not to venture further downstream as was our original plan. Rather, we headed back upstream to the spot we had great success at the day before. I caught another 6 fish to end the day at around 20, the Dude caught a fw more as well, so both of us had an incredible day! Annie was putting bison burgers on the grill so we decided to head back over the pass to the cabin.
Silver Creek
The final day of fishing was now upon us and Silver Creek was the destination. As we headed toward Picabo, we could help to notice how warm it was getting. Some of it was elevation change, as you drop in elevation, the air just gets hotter! In any case, we decided to make a stop at Picabo Angler. The people there are friendly and we were looking for advice regarding what flies to fish and also to learn about a new spot to put-in. The young man in the shop sold me a few flies, some ants and a beetle and then proceeded to tell us about a put in past the Nature Conservancy. It was a first time for us at that spot and we found the trails a bit confusing at first, but ultimately found some fishable spot. Actually, they would have been fishable had it not been for big winds and crazy gusts. I found some fish rising in one spot and was completely unable to make the cast. The Dude was having similar problems, including a massive wind tangle. It didn’t take long for us to get discouraged! We lasted less than 2 hours and decided to return to our respective homes. I was headed back to Utah this time and the drive was about 4 hours and I was happy to get home just prior to dark.
A Fun time Indeed!
