July
Early July found me hitting no tellum creek a couple of times. Rumor has it that some big creeks move up into the creek in late June. this year as the creek was blown out, big and brown. I didn't find many cutts but did land a 7 lb. sucker fish on a nymph, in a deep hole right above the reservoir. I took my 3.5 year old on a couple of these outings. Here are some pics from early July to no tellum creek.
As the creek was blown out and not much happening by way of fishing, I took some scenery shots of the wild flowers.
Shortly after I took a trip up to Pine Creek, It was much lower and clearer than no tellum creek and will most likely be the creek I hit in late spring. I didn't take any pictures of the trip but highlights include having two nice cutts (15 inch range which is big for this creek) hit my flies at the same time..... and whiffing them both. The fishing was fast and furious on dry flies.
Once summer hits SE Idaho full swing, I like to spend as much time on the SF as possible. Nothing beats big fish smacking salmon flies. Fish willing to move 10 feet from their lie. Then as the hatches die off and the hoppers come on I spend time in the creeks.
Chad and I took a trip into the lower canyon stretch shortly after the 4th of July. The BOR ran the river strangely this year. They let hardly any water out during April and May and in late June realizing that they were not going to have enough room for the upstream run off blew the river out at over 20K for weeks. The salmon fly hatch was very late this year, and not very thick. Despite the lack of adult salmon flies the fish still were on them..... the fishing was still hot in the riffles and Robert's O2 stonefly caught tons of fish!
About a week and 1/2 later as the hatches on the upper river heated up Jon, his son and I took a trip down the upper river above fall creek. We met up with Chad later in the day. The fishing was again hot and I encountered another one of my famous photo blunders. The dead battery. Highlight of the trip was catching a 19 inch cutthroat on the 6' 3wt setup I had purchased for my son's use. The fight was a hoot. The fly of the day was again the O2 salmon fly. Something about that pattern moves fish. I was well over 20 fish with the majority on the O2 and a few on pmds. I just love the way cutthroat attack a salmon fly.
I took a couple of week hiatus for family vacations and what not (the which can be seen on my family blog) and then in mid July grandpa wanted to take the grandkids fishing. So we loaded up a passel of kids and headed to Pebble Creek. L and I quickly got into fish (hucking worms on the end of his spiderman rod, though we did pack his 3 wt), but nobody else seemed to have the nack/patience/ability for catching them. It wasn't that hard...... but I digress. So grandpa took the kids to a fish pond in Lava. ;(
I spent the next couple of weeks doing honey do's and so that wraps up July. I should have spent more time on the SF as everything that I heard was positive..... oh well.
August:
August didn't see me on the river as much as I would have liked. Family responsibilities saw me working around the house with my spare time instead of fishing.
About mid month I started to get a little stir crazy. So when Saturday rolled around I strapped J into the chest pack, took L firmly in tow and we fished a little hole full of twinks at twin bridges. As time to leave rolled around I noticed a cow moose and calf had wondered down between ourselves and our car. With a baby in the chest pack and a 3.5 year old in hand I wasn't quite sure what I would have done if the cow moose had decided to get ornery with us.......... luckily they mozied on up the river after a bit.
I don't know what it is but I have had more moose encounters this year including one on the SF where the only thing between me and a young bull was about 20 feet of brush and the drift boat. I don't know how I thought the drift boat was going to protect me, but I was adamant about keeping it between myself and the moose. I had thought the sounds in the brush I had been hearing were most likely a moose..... This was a trip shortly after the outing with the kids. I hit another dead battery day. I have to get better about checking my photography equipment.
The SF fished well that day, big pmd hatch late in the afternoon rewarded Chad and I with some good fish, including a 22 inch cutt for me on a dry fly. Chad has a picture. If I get the shot from him I will post it. Right at dusk one of the thickest pmd hatches I have ever seen exploded from the water and the fish were boiling in the riffles.
At the end of the month, I finally finished swapping the clutch out on my Rodeo so I stuffed the family into the wagon and we headed for granite creek. We arrived in the afternoon and spent the next few hours, after setting up the tent, relaxing in the big hot spring fed pool.
Sunday morning L, J and I got up while mom slept and we snapped some shots of the scenery then went for a hike. When J went back down for his mid-morning nap L and I fished the creek by the camp ground. All I can say is that creek is frigid! I soon lost feeling in my feet.
As one of my goals as a father is to pass my love of all things outdoors on to my children I think L and J have the bug. L has fished with me quite a bit since the time he was about 4 months old. Accompanying me in the chest pack. J hasn't been out as much with me, but I'll fix that. L has loves to fish, though he doesn't understand why I let so many fish go. He often describes fish as "yummy".
2 comments:
It's good to hear you haven't completely dropped off the blog-posting world.
That photo at the end is priceless!
I'll have to hit up Robert for a few of those flies at the Hoppertunity today.
Love the the pics. I like the "whole trip" style
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