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Sunday July 15, 2001 Up in the early morning, we pack our gear and say good-bye to the Super 8 motel which has been a good base but which is still 20+ miles from the fishing waters. We gas up at Pilot’s across the street from the motel and head into town searching for good coffee and breakfast. AM had earlier performed a scouting expedition to locate a Moxie Java on American Legion Blvd; really good French roast (a little light but better than the other choices) – they have a River Runner blend which is also good but a little light for my palate. We elect not to re-inflict AJ’s on ourselves again (coupons not withstanding) and try a little roadside inn called the Desert Inn. A real throw-back to the 50’s with linoleum counter tops, low ceilings, wood walls, etc. Felt like they should have a jukebox….The fool was pretty good although JR’s chicken fried steak only rated 1 ˝ beaks – definitely better than AJ’s but not upscale. Over breakfast we discuss such momentous items as "how to sink Trophy boats while salmon fishing", how to pull salmon from an overhead wave into the boat, and 3D fishing with scuba gear! On the way out of town, we passed the Rattlesnake Station and Steakhouse – now they could have an interesting menu of chicken fried snake! Heading out of town on Highway 20 to the Sun Valley area, we cruise on towards the next adventures. We arrive at Silver Creek about 1:00 pm and swing into the area. This is our first visit for any of us so it is all new. We stop by the Kilpatrick Bridge where there are several folks in float tubes and a couple by the bridge. While they are flogging the water, we look down to see some very large and relaxed trout slowly moving about the bridge doing what fish do. They do not respond easily to the proffered casts – looks like very technical fishing! We decide to head to town to get info and flies since we really unsure of the best way to tackle such a technical fishery. We head north to Ketchum and the Silver Creek Outfitters (http://www.silver-creek.com). We received lots of good advice, a healthy cross-section of flies, really cool maps of the Silver Creek, and generally enjoyed the shop. We lunched at the Pizza and Pasta House (I had the butter & mizythra cheese on sphaghetti) – very nice. We returned to Bellevue to our cabins – they are rustic and pretty nice. No A/C but it wasn’t needed at this time. We headed out for the Big Wood River following advice to turn by the hospital onto Broadway Run; pulled over by turn in the road and found excellent access trails along the river. We flogged the water pretty good but it is low and we failed to turn the big one. Lots of little ones but could not interest the bigger fellows. We worked the waters until about 10:30 pm (it is very dark by then but we have headlamps to allow re-rigging in the dark!). Running back toward Bellevue, we stop at the Red Elephant Saloon Food & Spirits at 107 Main Street in Hailey. Good basic bar chow only but that is what we needed at this time of night. Back to the cabins by about midnight.
Sunday July 16, 2001 Up early the next morning by 0645, AM finds spectacularly good Zimbabwe coffee at the Java on Main, 310 Main Street in Hailey; also super pastries for the early morning wakeup. Lots of locals stopping by on the way to work. By the time we have coffee and pastries and everyone is up and about, we are already close to 0900 but decide to head to Silver Creek – better than late than never. Arriving at Silver Creek, we head up to the entrance cabin, register, and donate our $5. We elect to streamfish rather than float tube for our first adventure. Heading down the road, we rise up a small hill overlooking the stream below (very braided, very brushy on side banks, and very appealing!) By the time we rig up and trudge down toward the river and split up to cover different sections of the water, it is almost 10 am – past the trico’s but the PMD’s are starting. Now some of us are in chest waders and some in hip boots. JR led the way for our group in his hip boots so I knew where the deep water was by the volume of expletives. Fortunately I was in chest waders and could silently approach the stream. I fished a #20 light tan/gray colored mayfly on 14 foot leader with a 6X tippet. Hooked 5 smaller fish but could not get the monsters to rise for me. The fish are very shy and lining or shadowing them will put them down very quickly. I did the experiment and they did respond as noted above. After about 15 minutes, they will also move back and be ready for fishing. The water was unbelievably clear with an extraordinary amount of classical bug life and hatches. It was like a working text book on insect hatches. We were very impressed. The colors and textures of the underwater plants was like large sections of thick pile carpets with coarse weaves. You felt as if this stream section was like it had been before the settlers arrived; or perhaps in the same pristine conditions as before man himself arrived. This place had a holy feel about it in terms of something precious to enjoy but preserve.
Our other team members were having similar experiences and successes (or lack thereof) each in his own section. When you are fishing, the stream etiquette makes everyone want to be quiet and in their own world. AB has the opportunity to discuss this with a local deer. We decide to quietly withdraw back to the trucks about 1:30 – thank goodness for the portable radios, which allowed us to work widely separate areas but still remain coordinated in our activities. Heading back to the truck across a field still in farming use, we note that the farm hands moving the irrigation pipes all wore hip boots. Not clear if due to water or to snakes! Some key impressions of Silver Creek: MS: Lots of fish; unbelievable amount of bug life; cold, clear water; unique, lush water plants (not weeds); spooky fish; spinners and emerger patterns; thick mayfly hatch AB: Technical fishery; if you can catch fish here, you can catch them anywhere GK: Beautiful stream of water; beautiful conditions; lot of fish AM: Relatively dramatic setting; lush vegetation; serious, quiet fisherman JR: prime example of good ecosystem
After internal consultations, we elect to head over the Big Lost River by McKay, Idaho and visit the Bent Rod flyshop ( http://www.thebentrod.com email: thebentrod@atcnet.net) where we chat with Greg the shop owner. Two good flies for the area at this time are the MacKay Special (crane fly pattern – horsehair – a waking pattern which may also work for steelhead), and a Yellow Sally for golden stoneflies (also stimulators). Greg gives us a couple of places to go fish for the late afternoon although the river is not in prime shape. The river comes out of the Magic Reservoir a couple miles upstream and the water is running somewhat silty and off-color due to the extreme down draw of the water. We grab a bite of Mexican chow (from the Rodrigues, a local Mexican heritage family) at the Bear Bottom Inn (Tel: 208-588-2483) which also has rooms in a small attached motel. The Mexican food is quite good and lives up to its billing.
Heading out of town to the west, we follow Greg’s instructions to an old gravel pit except there is not gravel, only a red, silty sand. Looks OK when dry but if it were to rain, it might be a quagmire. We saw a couple of guys flyfishing the river which is probably a 100 feet elevation below us. We elect to explore further downstream by following old trails – not clear how many are people originated and how many are animal originated. Crossing over and under barbed wire fences, we cross desert terrain with cacti and other arid vegetation. Seems like we might be in a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti western! Turns out that some of the vegetation when grabbed for a hand-hold have a significant number of small spikes which willingly come in your hand (AM). Small but persistently painful they become a real irritant whenever one tries to use the affected hand. Finding an concrete weir and irrigation channel diversion structure, AB leads us over the structure. We do not walk on the questionable boards but tippy toe across on the top surface of the narrow concrete wall; we are about 10 feet above the water, a pool on one side which feeds to a rapid rushing channel of irrigation water on the other side! As we cross the concrete wall, we note 5 large (18"?) fish which upon seeing us, quietly drop down into the depths just past the weir. Several of us fish this water (without success) while others move on downstream as the river turns corners and creates holding waters near woody debris in the water. The skies have been turning very dark in the distance and the wind picks up as dark, ominous clouds drift our general direction from the mountains to the north. We share the river-side with grazing cattle although we leave each other alone. The concept of keeping cattle from pounding down the banks and crossing the river does not appear to have reached MacKay. Several of us elect to move back to the vehicles since the fishing is not hot and the clouds are moving our way. Thinking back to the fine, dusty soil in which we had parked, I have this image of a sudden rain downpour turning the bowl into a slippery muddy slush for which neither Chrysler nor my wife intended for the mini-van (even though it is all wheel drive). After a suitable interlude the rest of our team rejoins us at the vehicles although the threatening clouds seem to have slowed and now seem not to be rushing toward us. Now usually we are fairly quiet bunch given only to occasional "fish on!" yell, but today we take a slightly different turn as MS introduces JR to the joys of small pistol shooting. After several sets of shots by each at a "target" (a frying pan was found in the trash at the site and place onto a large piece of dirt from my distant perspective), JR hits 3 of 5 shots while MS makes a generous act by missing his one shot, both claim victory and joy – MS hands out NRA applications. Yes, we now have a war wagon.
We elect to move upstream to the area below Magic Reservoir which is being drained to furnish downstream irrigation waters. As we reach the base of the earthen dam, we see a stream of jetting water being drawn from the lowest waters in the reservoir, because it is so low, it carries a high silt load and the river appears to have the color of the Hoh River in the summer- an opaque milky texture. We make a few, half-hearted casts (the fish would have to implant themselves on the hooks!) and as the wind continues to rise with cloudy overcast skies we elect to return to our base in Bellevue, Idaho.
As we returned on the highways outside of MacKay, we note that the downstream waters continue to decrease in river size until finally the Big Lost River becomes just a dry rock bed. They take all of the water out of the river!! Amazing, apparently the belief is that either there are only rock cutthroat which survive the dewatering or that the fish go dormant and magically re-emerge when the water is restored! We are amazed; yet water is quite plentiful in the irrigation channels. We also developed some new concepts for flies including: a) a Barbie doll with llama fur – the Dolly Llama b) pig tail hair and lion mane making a Pork TenderLion, c) the Robert Downey Jr. memorial fly – the High Fly. All offered in bad taste. Interesting this area had the largest earthquake (by Richter intensity) in the 25 years in continental US in 1983 at Mt. Borah (about 25 miles away). The earthquake measured 6.9 on the Richter scale and did significant damage to the area. You can see some of the articles from that time at: http://eqinfo.seis.utah.edu/NEHRP_HTM/1983bo3.htm#erisiciy Returning to the Bellevue/Hailey base area, we hit the Big Wood again from 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm using stimulators, yellow sallys, pink alberts, and Chernobyl hopper with a prince nymph (most of my hits were on the latter). Max sized fish was about 12" plus with lots of little ones. The action was not too bad upstream where AB and GK started; the use of the headlamps was essential given the darkness. After pulling out of the river, we picked up MS from the cabins and headed back to the Red Elephant for some late-night grub at the end to a wild and crazy day. |
