The South Fork of the Snake 8/1 - 8/10

Well the name of the game on the South Fork of the Snake the last week has been to fish the upper, the upper, and then the upper some more. Needless to say the upper river from Palisades Dam down to Conant has been really good for the last 10 days. It is pretty funny because the upper is probably my least favorite section on the entire river. But as we all know you gotta do whatever it takes to catch some fish. Most days we have been boating between 30-40 trout. This week we started to see some big fish moving around. Throughout the week I had clients catch a 21'' brown, 20'' brown, 20'' cuttbow, and lots of fish between 18''-19''. It is nice to have those big boys moving because I went through a 20'' fish draught for over a week in the end of July. The hot bugs the last week have been a small Chubby Chernobyl, Eldens Ant, Pink PMD, Pink PMD Cripple, and the Lightning Bug.

The other sections of the river have had there moments in the last 10 days but there has not been any consistency. One day you can go down in the lower sections and have a great day and then the next be scratching your head at where all of the fish went. Since there has been a little inconsistency I have really tried to stay up where the fishing is the best. I will go for consisentency every time over a gamble.

I only have one week left before I get out of Idaho for the summer. I want to thank all of you out in Idaho for another great season. Hopefully I will see you guys next year. For those of you interested in doing some fishing this fall on the Lower Sac, Yuba, and Feather start figuring out your schedules because my days are filling up. Give me a call if you are interested in doing some fishing.

Fish Hard!

South Fork of the Snake 7/10 - 7/26

The South Fork of the Snake is continuing to fish well through the later part of July. Over the last several weeks the better fishing has been up in the upper parts of the river. Most of the good big bug fishing has been from Palisades Dam down to Cottonwood. On bright sunny days the fish are starting to wise up to some of the big bugs. With the high sun the fish are a little shy and not quite as willing to take a taste. If you can get lucky and get some cloudy weather the dry fly fishing has been insane. I had a couple of 60 fish days this week under dark light conditions. It is pretty crazy how the darker light gets those fish active. The hot bugs lately have been a small chubby chernobyl, eldens ant, lighting bug, pink pmds, and pheasant tails.

The riffle fishing between noon and 5PM has been really good. The canyon is the place to go if you are looking for some red hot PMD fishing. The name of the game is to throw some adult PMD with an emerger behind it. It seems like on the South Fork 8 out of 10 fish eat the emerger before the adult. Throwing the adult helps you to locate your emerger. Even though the riffles have been loaded with fish most of them are between 12''- 18''. But when you are hitting between 5 - 10 fish per riffle then who is complaining. Make sure you don't pass up the foam holes because you can pound fish during the PMD hatch on lighting bugs. Last week there was one foam hole on the upper drift that produced 20 fat healthy trout. It was plain silly. We actually left because the clients were getting bored of not being challenged.

This is turning out to be another great summer. The outlook for the next couple of weeks is that the second hatch of goldens should be just around the corner. The second hatch of goldens are immature and cant fly so make sure to put a little wiggle on that bug. There have already been a handful of bugs seen down between Byington and Lorenzo. The madness will start all over again when those goldens decide to come off in full force. Other news is that I heard 3 hoppers in the canyon this week. So if we get a couple really warm weeks then that should also help to light things up.

For those of you who are looking to do some fishing in California this fall it is time to start booking as my calendar is filling up. It is gonna be tough going back to staring at indicators on the Lower Sac. But then again who can complain when you are wacking some fish. I'm getting amped up for some early steelhead action. Make sure all of you get some dry fly action in during the next couple of months.

Tight Lines!

South Fork of the Snake 6/28-7/8

The bugs are here. The last week the dry fly fishing has been insane on the lower sections of the South Fork. We are putting up some huge numbers with size 6 & 8 dry flies between Cottonwood and Lorenzo. I had a solo client the middle of last week that boated over 40 fish all on dries. Since the water has stayed cold for so long there is a multitude of bugs coming off. Everyday we are seeing Salmon flies, PMDs, and Green Drakes. What is cool is that you can pound the banks with big Salmon fly patterns and then slide up into the riffles and throw mayflies to sipping fish. There are lots of fish in this river and it seems like you cant go wrong right now. The mornings are still a little slow but as that water warms up both the bugs and the fish get really active. The only part that is a little confusing is that we aren't finding lots of big fish coming up on the Salmon Flies. It seems like we are getting a lot of fish between 12''- 16''. Most of the big fish that we have been seeing have been in the 18'' range. But for this river that is nothing to brag about. The bugs that have proved most successful are Eldens Ant, Chubby Chernobyl, Green Drake emergers, and PMD emergers.

What is awesome about this whole big bug hatch is that the Salmon Fly Hatch is not the best hatch on the river. When you really want to be here is when the Golden Stones start to come off. The Golden hatch is hands down the best hatch on the South Fork. For those of you heading out this way get excited because it is about a week away! Put some cloudy weather with a Golden Hatch and you just might have the most epic dry fly day of your LIFE.

Here are a couple of crazy stories for those of you who like to hear about some of my client stories from on the water. The first is something I have never experienced since I have started fly fishing. I had a client have two seperate fish blow up on her double dry fly rig. We were setting up on this riffle and when she laid her bugs down by this log two seperate fish flew out of the air trying to kill those things. The funny part is that she missed both of them. That is one of the coolest dry fly shots that I have ever seen.

The other story I have since my last post is a couple who are in their early 70's did over 80 guided trips last year on different watersheds throughout the world. When I guided them the first part of July they had already done over 40 guided days in 2008. Now that is a family that has their priorities straight. Can you imagine spending that much time on the water with someone you love and a guide. I think I have found my dream life. So this means about every 5 days of the year they are getting guided. Wow! Where do I sign up for this program?

Until Next Time.

Tight Lines!

South Fork 6/17-6/27

Well I thought that the big bugs would be out by now. We are all still waiting. At this point it looks like all of the bugs might just have one big party and come out together. It might get a little confusing on what to cast if you have Salmonflies, Goldens, Green Drakes, and PMD's all coming off at the same time. But I guess this is a good problem to have. I did see two Salmonflies a couple of days ago but have yet to see another one. The good thing is that the fish are starting to look up for their next meal. Some of the other guides at the Lodge have been getting limited success on dries throughout the day. However the ticket is still to put an indicator on and do some nymphing. The fish in the lower river are really looking for big rubberlegs and worms. We havent seen a lot of big fish lately just a whole mess of browns in the 15''- 17'' range. I guess you could say it has been the attack of the preteen brown.

One cool thing that happened to me this week was I had a solo client catch a fish using an indicator, streamer, and a dry. I have never had a client pull a trifecta like that. We started off the day throwing a 4 inch streamer and proceeded to catch 5nice browns. Then in the middle of the day we switched to an indicator and caught about 10 more browns. Then we ended the day with 5 dry eats on an Eldens Ant. It is pretty cool to have a client skilled enough to throw all three methods of river trout fishing.

The other moment I will probably never forget is when I took my father-in-law and wife out in the canyon. This was my father-in-law's first time ever fly fishing. He was a serious prodigy and only got in one tangle the entire day. He ended up outfishing his daughter with 9 nice fish to the net. Hey I even got to catch one on a dry. This is the first fish I have caughten on a dry in a long time. It was nice to throw something that didn't have a piece of split shot on it. Overall it was a great experience. The best part was when the father-in-law got on the oars and started rowing for the two of us. You gotta love putting the in-laws to work.

Fish Hard!

The South Fork 6/14 - 6/16

Still waiting on the Salmon Flies!

My first three days of guiding are done out here in Swan Valley, Idaho. The water temperatures are still very cold from snow melt. The temperatures in the upper river are about 49 degrees and the lower river is measuring in around 52 degrees. The water needs to get around 55 degrees before we start seeing those big bugs fluttering around. I have tomorrow off and then I am back on for another eight in a row. This is going to be a great summer of guiding.

The last three days we have been stuck stairing at the indicator. But this time nymphing paid off pretty huge. I had the pleasure of rowing Dave and Kim from Seattle, Washington. On the second day Kim hooked a big fish that just stayed on the bottom of the river for a good 5 minutes. She fought this fish for about 300 yards down two different runs. Kim ended up landing a 24'' Brown! This is the largest fish that she had ever caught and the second largest I have ever had a client land. All three of us were fired up. This was a pretty cool moment.

Most of the fish that we have been catching have been coming on rubberlegs, golden stones, san juans, and copper bobs. I think I have about another week of of nymphing with clients. I am just itching to start throwing some dries. I guess it will be here sooner or later.

Tight Lines!

Early Idaho Report 6/4-6/10

Well for those of you planning a trip to eastern Idaho and western Wyoming you might want to postpone your trip a few weeks. They have gotten tons of snow this way and the majority of the rivers look like chocolate milk. You can find some decent water clarity if you fish some of the tailwaters, but all of the freestones are unfishable. According to some of the locals this is the most snow they have seen in over twenty years. The weather forecast is projecting more snow this evening and through tomorrow. With all of the rain and snow it is going to be a late summer for fishing. People should expect great fishing in the rockies all the way through September. There shouldn't be any river closures this year due to low warm water.

With all off the freestone rivers being unfishable I have got one day in fishing the Blackfoot and then another fishing the South Fork of the Snake. The Blackfoot in Idaho is a little gem that not to many people know about. The Blackfoot is a tributary to the Snake River. The river doesn't boast a huge population of fish but the cutts and rainbows in there grow to large unhealthy proportions. For some reason they are short and fatt. The two times that I have fished the river it has resulted in some chubby specimans that are strong and full of fight. Well last week the fishing was pretty tuff with only about two feet of clarity. A fellow guide friend and I spent the whole day throwing streamers and we only managed to hook 7 fish. But 4 of the fish hooked were all 18''-20''. The great side about it was that I was able to get some fishing in before my busy season starts here this next weekend.


Monday I went and checked out the South Fork of the Snake. It was good to get back on this river after guiding it all last summer. For those of you who have not been here it is a must see for any fly fisherman. The bugs on the South Fork traditionally come off near the end of June so for the next couple of weeks we will be stairing at indicators in the riffles and throwing streamers on the banks. The fishing was good the other day with about 30 fish landed between two of us in about 5 hours of fishing. We decided to float from Palisades Dam down to the Lodge at Palisades Creek. The streamer bite looks like it is just getting started and the fishing with eggs and San Juans was pretty silly. The big fish of the day was a 21'' cutty that had the biggest shoulders I have ever seen on a cutthroat. It was probably a 5lb fish. At first I thought that I hooked a decent brown because it just stayed on the bottom and bull dogged me for about 5 minutes. To be honest I was thoroughly impressed that it didnt do its normal cutthroat roll and give up routine.

Just for some additional information. I have heard that the Henrys Fork is fishing. It should be any day now before those Salmon Flies come off on Henrys. That means we are about 2-3 weeks from having them come off on the South Fork. Get exicted because those big bugs will drive the most seasoned fly anglers crazy. I guess you could say that it is a hatch of a lifetime.

I hope this helps for those of you coming out this way in the next couple of weeks. I will be guiding out here through August and then I will be coming back to California for all of the famous egg bites. I guess you could call that California's hatch of a lifetime.

Fish Hard!

Lower Sac and Yuba Report 5/2-5/11

Check out this Yuba River FATTY!

Well it has been a while since my last post. Things up here in Chico have been crazy hectic trying to balance the responsibilities of being a guide and part time graduate student. Only a couple more weeks before the school will be out of the picture until next fall. That will be a nice break. The last week and a half I have been bouncing back and forth between the Lower Sac and the Yuba. It is pretty wild how different these two rivers are and you really have to change your style when fishing each one.

The Lower Sac has been fishing average with most days seeing 30+ rainbows being boated. I have really turned my focus onto the lower river from Balls Ferry down to the Bend Bridge. This time of year the lower river really starts to fish well. The key to the game has been mainly stones with the hot patterns being rubberlegs, golden stones, iron sallies, and twenty inchers. On average the fish in the lower river are smaller than those up by Bonnyview. However, if you are on the water enough, there are still a small chance at hooking some big late steelhead. So dont be surprised when your indicator goes under and you set up on a 24-26'' fish.

The Lower Yuba has been fishing decently as the summer caddis are starting to crawl around. This last week has seen some great caddis hatches with a handful of PMD's in the mix. The key has been to fish the river really early or late. It seems that the cooler times of the day are when the fish are feeding heavily. The morning bite is solid until about 1PM. Then from 1PM - 5PM things get a little tight and you really have to start working for them. My advice is keep changing bugs until you find something that they are willing to eat. I know on Friday my clients hooked 20 fish on 8 differnt flies throughout the day. I could get the fish to eat one bug for about and hour and then an hour later they wouldn't touch it. Just teach yourself to be methodical and you should find them. We all know that the fish are in there and it is just a matter of making them eat. You gotta love and hate the Yuba.

This week I need to commend two younger kids that I took out. Matt, who is 15 and lives in Conneticut, is hands down the best 15 year old fly fisherman I have ever seen. I sware this kid is serious prodigy level. One thing I can tell you is that he is more skilled at nymphing than probably 80% of my clientel. When he gets to be in his young twenties the fish better watch out because Matt is going to have some serious game. The other kid I took out was Kent, a 13 year old, from Sacramento. Kent had never nymphed fished in his life and he had the skill down within thirty minutes. I fished Kent and his dad on the Lower Sac on Sunday and Kent only had one tangle the entire day. If Kent would spend a little more time to enjoy fly fishing he would be a complete natural. From my perspective it is awesome to see all of these young men coming out with their fathers to enjoy a day of fly fishing. These young men are the next generation of fly fishermen and in their own time they are going to teach us a thing or two.

To keep all of you informed I will be leaving once again the first part of June to go guide in Idaho for the summer. I am looking forward to another summer of throwing dries on the South Fork of the Snake. It is going to be a nice change of pace after watching indicators day after day. I will try to throw up some reports on the blog to let you all know how it is going.

Fish Hard!