July 3, 2007 - South Fork Boise

Last Tuesday, Eric Henderson and I floated the South Fork of the Boise in my 16 ft. wood driftboat. The river was flowing at 1840 cfs and we slid in around 1:30pm after I did my single-speed shuttle from Indian Rock. When we put in, there were quite a few boats on the river and it seemed fairly busy. However, as the day wore on very little traffic was evident which meant we had a chance to fish all the good holes along the way.

Good hatches of size #18 PMDs kept us busy on the upper stretches of the river. Above the village, Eric tagged and lost three nice rainbows who were rising slowly to duns in the film. I lost one also in this stretch but landed another in the same place Leon Hoffman caught his monster fish last year.














Later in the day, I spotted a very nice fish working in an eddy line and pulled over so Eric could have another go at it. I went downstream and fished another promising run but didn't catch anything. Eric came down about 15 minutes later with the fish on we had spotted earlier. It was a fatty!














Around 6PM, the caddis hatch started happening full-strength with clouds of bugs migrating upstream. It wasn't until we got to the Pig Pond that we finally found fish working to these flies. Long casts with small flies against fast currents made it very tough to reach these fish. Fortunately, I was able to tag a nice rainbow on a #18 caddis dry fly, but was frustrated by other fish working in more difficult spots. Eric also tagged a fish in this area, but it got off after about 10 seconds.















All in all, we had a great day with good conversation, lots of beef jerky, and a few very nice fish to bend our rods.

Bass in Hagerman Valley - June 16th

Went camping with Pa and the boy on Fri/Sat.
It was the official Father/Son camp out for my Dad's ward.
Camped at Niagra Springs State Park south of Wendell.
Then we drove over to a private bass pond about 10 miles away in the Hagerman Valley.
We had 10 people standing on a 30 foot dock bringing in a bass every cast.
All largemouth. Some pretty good sized. (12-14 inches)
Will post pictures in the next day or so.
The kids were loving it because the fish were so dumb.
The bass were hitting any lure that was retreived slowly just off the bottom.
I think I could have caught one by tying my car keys to the end of my line.
I got my pontoon boat for FD. A 10 foot Sportsman's model with 7' oars and an anchor mount
So, it was a good weekend. Now, I just have to go fishing and christen the thing.
Rock on.
Eric

Provo River - April 13 - 14

Provo River

Water is perfect this year.
Lower Provo on Friday was rough.

I went 4 for 8 on nymphs. Nice Blue Wing hatch in the afternoon. My flies were laughed upon by the browns. My Dad and Brian did not do well. They are not nymph ninjas like I.

Middle Provo on Saturday went much better. Despite the sun, there was an epic BWO hatch all afternoon. BWOs came off for over 3 hours in good numbers.

Last two hours had fish rising in solid numbers for duns on the surface.

I struggled to find a dry that would work. I tried a BWO cripple and caught one.

Then I just put on the old, reliable, size 18, full-hackle dun. It took some coaxing, but I landed three fish on that guy. All told, I went 6 for 9 on Saturday.

No monsters were landed but all fish were 12-15 inches with a lot of zip in them. What is that whole 'only rainbows jump' deal? These guys were all over the place.

Brian and Dad also did pretty well on Saturday (10 and 8 fish, respectively)

-Entertaining anecdote of the trip -

Eric is fishing the hatch and frustrated with his cripple pattern.

Brian says 'Can I try it up there by you?'

'Sure' replies Eric.

Brian steps up to within 8 feet of Eric and catches a fish on his 2nd cast.

'You jerk' states Eric. 'You are not supposed to catch fish up here'.

Brian laughs as Eric continues to utter oaths against his existence.

Provo rocks and the cabin in Heber is sa-weet.

e

Bluegill at Halverson Lakes

My Pa and I took the kids down to Halverson Lakes by the Snake River for Bluegill and Bass fishing on Friday afternoon (6th). We had a lot of fun and ended up with 6 bluegill and 3 bass. Biggest bluegill was 9 inches. Biggest bass (largemouth) was 11 inches.

The kids were using the good ole' bobber and worm. Dad and I were using leech patterns and slow retrieves. The black leech seemed to be a better lure than other colors.

It is a nice place to take kids in the spring. There is about a mile hike to get into the two lakes. So that was a little long. My three year old was pretty tired when we walked back out in the evening. The loop trail was sandy but pretty even and wide. I would take the 'high road' when walking in again. The trail loop to the south is probably a little longer. At the lake, there were rocks along the shore for kids to scramble around on and lizards and snails to chase. There are a lot of leeches, so I wouldn't let the kids wade in the water very much.

According to one of several 'regular' float tubers there, the water is clear in March and May and cloudy in April. Runoff pours over the cliff above the lake in a waterfall and murks the water a bit during April. It was going full bore Friday.

My eleven year old caught her first two fish completely on her own and had a lot of fun. I would imagine the temps can get pretty hot in the summer. This is a great place for kids in the spring and fall. Fun trip. Fish on.

Belated SFB trip

This is a belated post as I went to Tucson right after this trip to the South Fork of the Boise. I went with Mark Thueson and I got schooled! Mark showed me that I have a lot to learn still about this river. I did real well landing many whitefish but could not bring a rainbow to the net. Mark meanwhile was busy landing nothing but rainbows and some real beauties at that! The worst part is when he came up to were I was fishing and landing whitey after whitey and he instantly lands a beautiful rainbow. A few casts later and BAM, another fish on. He was kind enough to let me in on his secret. I will keep that in my hip pocket so I can look good when I go out with one of you mugs.

March 26th - Owyhee

Fished the Owyhee with my Pa last Monday.
Water levels are up to a decent level but the water is still fairly cold.
Went 2 for 4 on browns. All fish in the 15-17 inch range.
From about 1 -230 p.m. they were feeding on mayflies on top.
I was able to get them to take a size 16 emerging mhaogany dun pattern on top.
I think the flies coming off were BWOs and March Browns. Not sure if they were actually mahogany duns.
The fish would not hit a standard dun pattern. It had to be an emerging dun. I think a cripple pattern would have worked as well but I didn't have any.
They also hit a size 18 pheasant tail nymph.

Fishing is cool.
e

I went to the SFB today and did all right. Was supposed to go with ZellEY but he was not feeling to well. I did my usual at the hole, started nymphing caught 2 (10" and 12") and LDR 2. The fish were hitting all on the top so I switched to a blue wing emerger pattern and LDRd 2 more then it shut down. I through every thing in my box (all 4 different flies!!!!) but the fish would come up and just look at them and swim away.

I kept trying for over an hour and finally went back to the blue wing emerger and would'nt you know on the third cast I hung a huge one (OK it was only 8 inches) and it ran all over the place. As I got it closer to me I could see why, there was an extreamly large ttrout chasing it all over the place. I caught one more little guy before my fly finally gave up the ghost and unravelled on me.

I gave up then and called it a great day in the SFB!!!
Mix

SFB 3-11-2007

Another day on the South Fork. Today was an exceptional day on the river! we had many hookups and many fish landed. I had at least 10 hook-ups and landed three fish. I cannot figure out why I am losing so many fish. Most of the LDRs are the result of the fly being spit out. I do not know if I am setting the hook too hard or not hard enough. Anyway, it was still very fun.

Meet Mike Mixon and Joe ZellEY at the river. I rode my motorcycle to the river and took Blacks Creek road through Prairie. It is iffy at best to take this route in March but it turned out OK. It was a bit cold on the way up but that was my own fault as I let the afternoon temps sway my decision on what to wear in the morning. The drive home was much nicer with the awesome afternoon temps! Still, the money saved on gas was worth the drive.

We had a pretty good BWO hatch going on and I caught most of my fish on dry's and emergers. I also had a few takes on a caddies but did not hook up. I switched to a caddies after seeing a couple fly by. We also saw a few stoneflys. They looked to be very dark. My guess is that they are little brown stones.

Mike landed many fish today and also his first fish on a dry fly! To bad he had sacrifice his new fly rod in order for the fishing gods to shine down on him. Yup, day one with his brand new and first fly rod and SNAP! Fly caught a tree on the backcast and it exploded on the forward cast. Thank god he purchased it at Cabelas as they should not give him any crap when he takes it back today. Thank god also for back up rods! Good job Zelley.

Joe made many trips back and forth across the river trying to land one particular large fish. He never did get him to take, but did bring several other nice rainbows to the net.

Windy winter day on the SFB

Today it was very windy on the SFB. Made the trip today with Ehren and John. I meet them through the westfly forum. We also meet Mike Mixon and Joe Zellie at the river. Overall it turned out to be pretty good day. I hooked up with 4 fish, LDRed 3 of them and landed the fourth. It was a nice 18" SFB rainbow. Zellie found a sweet little spot and landed several nice fish. Ehren hooked up and landed both whitefish and rainbows and John landed a real nice 20" rainbow. Mike had a LDR but no fish in hand. Other than the wind ripping through the canyon it was a great day! Any day that I land a fish and stay dry is a good day. The pictures below are of my rainbow and John with his fish.

Another day on the SFB

I went up to the SFB again this weekend and entered the Whitefish tourney set up by Boise Valley Fly Fisherman. I went to an area where I had caught several whities in the past and sure enough there were plenty of fish there. My damn waders were leaking again so I had to continually get out of the water to warm up. I did hookup and land 2 whities and had many more takes in between running to shore for warmth. I left the largest of the whities on the shore as I waded across the river to fish some holes on that other side. Again I was freezing my ass off so I steeped up on a rock and fished from there for a while with just my feet in the water. Next thing I know two dogs come walking down the river bank right towards my fish. I yelled at them but they either did not pay attention or did not hear me. As I was hastily getting down off the rock I made a misfortunate calculation of the distance from the rock to the river bottom and took a header right into the river. This did not help with the freezing my ass of part of the day! Anyway, the falling in and the resulting flailing in the river did get the dogs attention and they went running back up the river. I checked in with a 16 1/8 whitey but it was only good enough for 4th place. Yes, there were more than 4 people in the tourney! 30 people had signed up that morning and many had been skunked. I went out yesterday and got my self a new pair of waders. I have had enough with trying to patch those other waders. I may try again in the warmer weather though. I just can't get enough of suffering in the name of relaxation.

Fantastic day on the South Fork of the Boise

I took Mike Mixon to the SFB this weekend for his first time fly fishing. I set him up with my 8-weight steelhead rod but with a small leader and tippet. I tied on a size 18 BHPT nymph and gave him a quick lesson on how to roll cast. He ended up landing two nice rainbows! To say he was excited would be an understatement. To say that I was excited would also be an understatement. I spent the day trying to figure out what they were taking on the surface. I finally figured it out about 45 minutes before we had to leave. I had several takes but did not land anything. Overall it was a very good day.

ddddday fffffffour.....

Froze our hiney's off today just for another ofer! Somebody has taken all of the fish from the Boise! We will just have to keep on trying I guess. Somebody has to sacrifice for the good of many. I can handle that task. Eric is still practicing casting with his new outfit and he is not ready to reel anything in yet anyway.

Day 3...really

Another 0-fer on the Boise. EW and I moved down river to try and improve our luck. Nada! It has to be the weather, yeah thats it.

Fly Fishing Film Tour

I went to the Fly fishing Film tour last night and it was awesome! I have included the link so that you will be able to view the snippets of the films.

http://www.flyfishingfilmtour.com/

Day 3..., Not so fast!

I tried going to Arrowrock Res with the puppy to try some fishing today. Of course it did not occur to me that it would be frozen over! I do not think I had ever been up there when it was frozen. I ended up walking the dog for a few hours then came home. One real neat thing that is happening up there is the sound that the ice is making. It sounds like moaning as the ice is moving against itself. Every once in awhile you would hear a large snap as the ice would break. The ice had to be pretty thick as I say a man and his daughter play hockey on the ice. They were staying real close to shore though. Below the dam the Ice build up was pretty cool as well. I was also surprised by how many people were up there just tooling around.

This one time I caught a marlin

Kona Coast - April 1996 - 8:30 a.m.

415 pound blue marlin - 11 feet long

Caught in 45 minutes on an artificial lure

Boat - Abracadabra

Captain - Butch Losasso

Now you can see it.

Day 2 - 48 to go!

EW and I hit the water again today. Fantastic weather but the fish where not there again. I went with the fly rod today. Started with Glo bug then went with a March Brown streamer. No luck on either of these so I switched to a Hare's ear and had equally no luck. I think it is time to move locations. There are no fish directly behind Quarry B! Time to start wearing the rubber pants and get serious.

Cascade Ice Fishing

Josh warren sent me these pictures of some friends of his Ice fishing on Lake Cascade. I need to get up there on of these weekends.

Day 1, 49 to go!

EW and I fished the Boise River behind Quarry this afternoon. Weather was very nice! No fish though. I did manage to break my first rod of the year. Who Hoo! Recommendation to anyone who will listen, do not buy Repala rods. I have owned three and I have broken three. I have never broken any other rod in my life.

This one time I caught a marlin

Kona Coast - April 1996 - 8:30 a.m.
415 pound blue marlin - 11 feet long
Caught in 45 minutes on an artificial lure
Boat - Abracadabra
Captain - Butch Losasso
Pictures to follow...

Who is going to participate?

I am encouraging everyone to add a quick blurb about themselves and a picture of them fishing for posterity sake. If you do not want to that is OK. I will start with my picture. This is last year in Hell's Canyon. My first Steelhead!

My new Blog

I am starting this post to keep track of my fishing days this year. My goal is to spend 50 days fishing. I will track everyday that I am on the water and the results of my efforts. Hopefully there will be some success stories and I will provide pictures.