Salmon River Steelhead II

It looks like the high temps in Stanley for the next four days will be right around freezing with snow and snow showers. The low temps in Stanley are slated to be from 10˚ to -2˚. The low temps should keep the river low and clear for the time being. The current flow of the Salmon River as taken below the Yankee Fork is 509 cfs. The mean flow for today is 432 cfs.​

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Guide Brent Matthews with a bent rod. March 20th, 2013.​

Guide Brent Matthews letting one rip with a fish in his sights. Salmon River, Idaho

South Fork of The Boise River

I shot over to the South Fork of The Boise yesterday and it dawned on me I hadn't fished it for at least two years. It's always a pleasure fishing a river/stream I don't know every single bend, pocket, riffle, etc. Didn't see many fish on the surface. In fact only saw fish rising in one spot. There were a good number of midges though and the nymphing was decent. The image below is of Keith getting in a little streamer time before the sun hit the water.

A winter morning on a side channel of the South Fork of The Boise River.​

Streamers, Storm & Silver Creek

We are in the middle of a relatively warm and super wet storm here.  Above 7,000 feet we are expected to get around four feet of snow.  Below about 5,700 feet it's been all rain so far and down around Picabo today there was heavy rain for a short period and broken stormy skies for the remainder.  Below are images shot today on Silver Creek.  It's streamer time down there.  Cloudy days are usually better.  Today was just OK but the wild skies and weather made up for it. We spent about two hours on the water.

Dan Higgins setting up for the next to-the-bank-cast.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Nikon D3s and Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens

Final Day On The Silver Creek Preserve

Today was the final day of the fishing season upstream of the highway 20 bridge on Silver Creek.  That includes the Nature Conservancy section and the Double R reaches. Fishing does stay open downstream of the highway 20 bridge through February.  The streamer fishing on this section can be stellar on warmer cloudy days...

Stalker Creek Rainbow

A late season rainbow released yesterday on the Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho.  A few Baetis here and there and lots of spooky hard to approach fish. Nikon D3s and Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens

Silver Creek Fall Baetis

A November Baetis. Nikon D3s and Nikon 105 Micro lens plus extension tubes.  Converted from RAW using NIK's Silver Effex Pro 2.

Lower Big Wood River, Idaho

Lower Big Wood River Canyon & Lone Fisherman

Nikon D3S & Nikon 35 f2 lens

 

Leaves are still barely hanging on to the aspens & cottonwoods and on windy afternoons along the Big Wood River dead but brilliant leaves are carried away on a flow that's roughly 35% higher than average.  Nobody is on our local water and this is really a wonderful time of year to get a little solitude...

 

Simplicity

Nikon D3S & Nikon Micro 105 lens

Lower Big Wood River, Idaho

Lower Big Wood River.  Idaho

Nikon D3S & Nikon 35 f2 lens

Thanks go out to the Wood River Land Trust for coming up with, hopefully, a permanent and successful solution to the minimal flows on the Big Wood River below Magic reservoir.  In the past, by late October the water flow below Magic Reservoir was not enough to sustain the trout population and with the current plan on trying to maintain 15 cfs of released water (there is also a minimal amount of seepage flow as well) the approx. 3 mile section below Magic could really become an incredible fishery.  This also serves as a great example of a "win win" when it comes to Idaho's anachronistic water laws.

Silver Creek Preserve Pano

 

This is a 4 frame pano taken of an oxbow on the Nature Conservancy a few days ago.  It's a 27 megapixel file (approx. 120 megabytes) and needs to be viewed large.  We have had a few more inches of snow since then but this might give you an idea of what it looks like down there at the moment.  Keep in mind fishing stays open on Silver Creek BELOW the Highway 20 bridge through the rest of February and sees little to no pressure.  Streamers and midges.  I am heading over to Mackay tomorrow to guide the Big Lost River...

This pano was taken at 24mm with the Nikon 14-24 2.8 and put together using Adobe's CS5 Photomerge tool.