Below are a few iphone images of New Zealand's South Island. The spring creeks we have found are pretty remarkable.
The first thing I heard when I walked out of the Auckland airport was cicadas. Lots of them. Their sound has been buzzing up and down the South Island's west coast.
A dreamy spring creek on the west coast.
Lake Hawea
A Brown caught on a spring creek not far from Garston. Photo: Craig Price
Southern Alps from the air.
Styx River
Rainbow. Early Spring. Idaho.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon afs 80-200 ƒ2.8
Our temps have dropped and the snowmaking has started on Baldy (Sun Valley, Idaho) and there are still a few baetis and midges around and if you are lucky you may even find a fish or two feeding on top. Below is an image of a baetis trying to get off the water just after drying its wings. For a sense of scale, you could easily put 4 or 5 of these mayflies on your pinkie.
We have been in the midst of a lot of weather since the beginning of September and immediately after our fires. The Big Wood River jumped from about 187 cfs to 522 cfs and still has essentially zero visibility downstream of Warm Springs Cr. Even Trail Cr., which was not effected by fire, was blown out today. Here are a few images taken over the last few days.
Seeing Callibaetis on the Lower Big Lost River can happen. There is enough still water on the periphery and weedy slow banks in spots where they can be seen doing their frenetic up and down dance.
I spent the evening last night on Silver Creek and the better part of today down there as well. The conditions have substantially improved here with the Beaver Creek Fire now at 47% containment. Smoky skies have been lifting in many areas by the early afternoon and our local streams are void of fishermen. The next few days may be some of the least crowded fishing at Silver Creek you will ever see in August.
Below is an image taken of and from Stocker Road which is the west side entrance to the Silver Creek Preserve. The cloud in the background is actually smoke from the Beaver Creek Complex Fire. A substantial size crew--an ICP (Incident Command Post) has set up camp between Hailey and Ketchum off of Buttercup Rd. This fire is believed to be caused by lightning and has grown to approx 35,000 acres and at the time of writing this is 16% contained. Here is the link to the USFS Large Fire Incident site: Here
Below is an image of Silver Creek from The Nature Conservancy section and the Beaver Creek Complex Fire.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon ƒ1.8 50mm
I pulled off of Silver Creek a couple of nights ago around 10 pm and there were a ton of Tricos and Callibaetis in the grass and when I stopped near the Creek they were attracted to my car headlights. The two images below were taken well after dark of callibaetis on or near my headlights.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro ƒ2.8 105 mm
Rainbow Trout. Big Lost River, Idaho.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro ƒ2.8 105mm
Rainbow Trout. Big Lost River Watershed. Idaho.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro ƒ2.8 105mm
Here's an image from today of a Rainbow Trout somewhere on the Big Lost River drainage.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro ƒ2.8 105mm
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro ƒ2.8 105
Here's an image shot today on Silver Creek. Not a ton of bugs but a few Tricos, lots of Baetis and some PMD's. The beauty of slow fishing on Silver Creek just means fewer people...
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon ƒ2.8 14-24
Where's Waldo? I came across this tiny stream recently that was loaded with spawning Westslope Cutthroat. Pretty cool seeing fish in such a small piece of water.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon 24 pc-e
We have had 5 consecutive Brown Drake nights and tonight should be another great night as there are a ton of bugs in the grass. This hatch kick starts our summer season here and it has been a great one so far. Look for at least two more nights of the frenzy and then a couple of days of sporadic bugs...
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 ƒ2.8
I have been tying a bunch of flies for an upcoming roosterfish trip to the East Cape in Baja. I really do not want to spend my time down there tying so I am trying to get it all but the unknown surprise or two finished in advance. I have been using an epoxy called, clear cure goo. It's the best stuff I have ever used and all it takes to harden is a UV light. I have noticed some pretty cool visual results every time I have hit a fly with the light. Whites turn to blue and anything like chartreuse is rendered ultra neon. So..., I just took my vice with a white over chartreuse clouser in it outside in the dark. I hit the fly with my UV light and took a few images with a 105 macro lens. Below is the result.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 105 ƒ2.8 Micro lens
Last November I was quite obsessed with getting images of rising fish at Silver Creek. The baetis thing lasted well into the month and there were plenty of beautiful days and many of which were perfect for baetis. Instead of carrying a rod I packed my camera. I am sure a few fisherman wondered what in the world I was doing. Below is an image that slipped through the cracks.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 80-200 ƒ2.8 afs lens
We are in a bit of a thunderstorm cycle at the moment despite the fact it has not rained much. Trees are budding and flowers like bluebells and phlox are popping out at lower elevations. Thunderheads carry on and the wind blows on many days. The image below was taken on Sunday evening of the Silver Creek Preserve. What you cannot tell is how hard the wind was blowing...
Nikon D3s & Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens
Here's an image of mine in the current The FlyFish Journal. It was taken of the Nature Conservancy section in early November of 2012. It's of the S-Turns. If you enlarge the image you can see two fishermen below the mouth of Loving Creek and on river right. They give the shot some scale.
