Magic

There is a indescribable beauty in the MF Salmon River at Dagger Falls. Above the falls the river splits into its headwater creeks; Marsh Creek and Bear Creek, which remain among the best spawning habitat for Salmon and Steelhead any where in the world. And the fish that make the 900 or so mile 6500 foot climb from the ocean to these headwaters are among the "most fit" any where.

Salmon Film Teaser from Epicocity Project on Vimeo.

The mortality rate introduced by the dams on the Columbia is atrocious. But despite the dams, the returns for the last couple of years have been good. It is hard to know how much longer these runs can endure. I am taking my 4 year old boy up to Salmon in late October so that he can build some memories of this river and these fish while there are still fish.......................

steelhead ties

Pulled the trigger and bought the tickets. My 4 year old and I are headed to the Salmon River on a 3 day lightning chrome run so I have been at the vice. Copying patterns we got from Rocky Maley and Marty Howard at the IF fly expo. Man those guys can tie!




I figure though it is going to cost a bit, it is worth my sanity to get a cold water and mountain fix.

Tex Hex

A little Pflugerville hexagenia action from my front yard.



Recently purchased a new DPS, still trying to learn macro. Too exposed and not enough detail. Now to figure out where he came from so I can toss big mayflies to hungry bass.

Gibson Jack Creek

I swear I wrote about this one already...... but am not finding it in my ramblings. This little creek is just a few minutes south of the Johnny Creek area, between Johnny Creek and Mink Creek. It is on public land up top and moves into private lands as it comes down the canyon. There are also a lot more houses up the canyon then when I was younger.

There is a nice parking lot and hiking/biking trail head where the road ends and some nice water in this immediate vicinity. The trail head fairly well is the forest service boundary. We used to paintball in the meadows and woods about 1/4 mile up from the traihead, and the area gets a bit of mountain bike use as it provides trails into the Mink Creek and City Creek drainages.

The creek is born of numerous springs in various locations in the headwaters of the north and south branches of the creek. With the added development up the canyon in the last few years I am unsure if the creek makes it to the Portnuef river or if it is disconnected during irrigation season, I suspect disconnected.

The creek has a wild native population of yellowstone cutthroats in surprising numbers but don't expect anything too huge.

Next Creek in the Pocatello Area

The next creek north of Goodenough Creek on the west side of Marsh Valley is Bell Marsh Creek. It is smaller than Goodenough Creek. Both Goodenough and Bell Marsh have resident populations of cutthroat and are some of the better small creeks in the area. IDF&G inventories put healthy populations of pure strain yellowstone cutthroat in both of these creek in decent numbers.

Access to Bell Marsh creek is more limited than Goodenough and requires some traversal of two track and possibly permission from land owners. The most direct route involves cutting across from Green Rd, the same road that can provide access to Goodenough creek.

Both creeks are disconnected from Marsh creek in the summer due to irrigation.

Some related reading from IDF&G.

Creek of the day: Pocatello Creek

From the east side of Pocatello it flows out of the mountains up around Moonlight Mine down into town. Many prime stretches run through ranchettes, farms and other private property. Years and years of grazing have left the banks impacted in this area and there are irrigation draw downs in the summer.

This creek has potential but I have never fished it. There ought to be some fish in there, but where the creek is on public land it is quite small and access to the lower stretches may be restricted. It is also detached from the river being diverted into a canal at Hiline Road.

Recent (last few years) IDF&G surveys for Yellowstone Cutthroat trout populations in the Portnuef sub basin do not show any cutthroat in the creek.

Cutthroat on TV

Courtesy of PBS and MSU. Discussing the comeback of native trout populations.

See:http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=8666