July 24th and 25th, 2026. 36th and 37th day of fly fishing
Scott is a florida guide who also had a guide service in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Scott and his wife Sarah now live in Everglades City where Mel lives. Mel and Scott have been fishing friends for sometime. When Scott and Sarah were making plans to visit Idaho on a fishing safari, Mel suggested that Scott get in touch with me. Of course I was all about it, any friend of Mel is a friend of mine. So we made a plan.
Scott and Sarah were driving their truck and trailer from the Ketchum area, having fished SIlver Creek out of Picabo for a couple of days. The original plan was to have them stay in an RV park nearby, but I suggested that I could supply them with a fairly level parking spot, power and water in my driveway at the cabin.
Things were a little tight, but everything worked out fine. They arrived Thursday afternoon and after we got situated, we decided to head down to Music on Main in Victor, enjoy some Thai Food and the two bands that performed. It was a nice, warm evening in Victor Park. A great way to get acquainted and enjoy a chill evening.
South Fork Float
We had planned two days together. Scott had mentioned that we wanted to fish the Teton, so that was already baked in. Other options included the South Fork or the Henry’s Fork possibly. I had checked out the Henry’s Fork Wednesday to see if that were an option, but the waters by noon were already way too warm. The South Fork, because it is a tailwater was going to have the coldest water around. All the guides would be bringing their clients there, so I decided Friday was a better choice than Saturday. On Saturday you also have the locals and the raft hatch.
So we opted for a slightly later start for two reasons. First, the guides would all be there at 9am. Second, If there was a chance of a hatch it would likely take place in the afternoon/evening. So we headed for the Husky’s ramp around 9:30am with a plan to be on the water by 11am. The plan was to fish streamers in the upper section and hopefully switch to dry flies in the riffles if there was a hatch.
Of course when we arrived, the ramp was crowded, but we managed to get in and get away without incident.
Both Scott and Sarah are excellent casters. It comes from fishing saltwater, particularly snook fishing where you are laying your your fly up under the mangroves. The top section on this day was particularly challenging. As you can see from the picture above, the skies were clear, the sun was intense and were halfway into the day when we started. Experienced anglers know that streamers are best fished early and late and overcast skies are preferred. On this day, Scott landed a chunky brown that ate his fly and I don’t believe Sarah had an eat.
As we moved down into the riffle section, I knew the challenge was going to be finding a spot that wasn’t already occupied. The first spot is always taken, so we moved on. My secret spot was not taken so we anchored up there. We were looking for heads, but none were found. I made several casts with a soft hackle rig, but did not get any love. Scott and Sarah worked their way downstream but weren’t able to find fish.
Next up, working our way downstream. We chatted with a couple of anglers who said they were just now getting PMD eats, indicating the start of a hatch. Finally, we found our spot! We had a riffle and a seam all to ourselves!
We began to see heads as soon as we landed. Scott and I knew we would need to find the magic PMD pattern. We were seeing duns on the water, but we were also seeing eats that looked like emergers. The size was in the 16/18 range. I began with a fly that Mel had tied with a trailing shuck and a CDC wing. Scott went for the comparadun. He and Sarah staked out the upper part of the run and I fished below.
Sarah has an amazing cast. I noticed this right away as we fished the upper section with streamers. She has both distance and accuracy. But watching her form casting a dry fly was particularly rewarding. She has a soft touch and lands the fly gently.
Sarah caught several fish, including her first Snake River Cutthroat! We both caught several cutts and I landed a brown and a couple of whitefish. About ninety minutes in, the rises had subsided and the action slowed. Also, some weather was moving in, so we got in the boat and donned our rain gear.
The wind picked up and it got really intense, and rowing was a challenge. As we rowed past the waterfalls, a big squall hit and things got a bit crazy. The big winds knocked down a tree that fell into the water, and was keeping pace with my drift boat for a half a mile. Anyway, it all blew past just as we reached the take-out. Thanks to the PMD action, it was a really fun day!
Teton River Float
Saturday was the Teton Float. I chose a longer float mostly because I knew it would be less crowded, but also this float has become our favorite. We decided on an earlier start because I knew the river was going to warm up. So we arrived at the put-in at 9am and were on our way around 9:30. A couple of artists were painting the Tetons for a local competition. The lighting this morning was really interesting as were the cloud formations.
As soon as we were under the bridge, we had rising trout. Although, rather than PMDs, it was tricos. Scott rigged up a rod and made a few casts. It was tough to match this hatch, but he eventually had an eat and landed a 3 incher! After several minutes, it came to us that all of these fish were small and that we might have better luck with larger fish downstream.
My suggestion was that we switch to streamers and specifically buggers or leeches until we saw more heads. As before, Sarah was upfront making beautiful casts and as we moved down river she and Scott were able to hook up. The streamers worked. Several times we parked the boat on a curve and we all got out and fished. Since they were both on streamers, I opted for something different, a dry/dropper rig. I tied a perdigon to the hook bend of a golden stone dry fly. At some point I had to adjust the depth on the dropper and ended up with about 5 feet. I knew it would work better in some deeper holes and runs, but would be too long in the shallows. After making that adjustment, I too was hooking up.
Sarah was hoping that we would see a moose on this trip and sure enough, we had a female cross the river right in front of us.
It wasn’t a huge day. Each time we stopped we seemed to get fewer fish and by 1pm the water had warmed significantly. At around 2pm, I measured the water temp again and it had risen to over 68 degrees. Catching had mostly come to halt anyway, so at this point we decided to stop fishing and just push through. We were still a few miles from the takeout, but we were enjoying the float just the same. At the take-out I measured the temp and it was 72 degrees.
That evening we decided to stay home and have dinner at the cabin, which consisted of burgers and a salad. The next day, Sarah and Scott would be packing up early and hitting the road, looking to drive to an RV spot in SE Utah, enroute to Moab, and eventually home to Pagosa Springs.
It was an excellent two days fishing together and I really enjoyed Scott and Sarah’s company. They are welcome back anytime!
