Silver Creek & Silver Creek and The First Two Weeks of June

Here's a frame that to me sums up our early June:

 

And then starting a little later than normal, the brown drakes, which to me is the official start to Summer.  Here's a single vibrant spinner amid the less colorful duns.

 

Earlier in the week I took my kids down to Silver Creek to witness brown drakes for the first time.  There were as many drakes in the grass as I have ever seen.

While my two boys cautiously walked through waves of bugs in the grass two fisherman from Boise showed up.  They were hoping to catch the brown drake thing and, well, they happened to come on the biggest spinner fall night of the year.  The fish were not always feeding frenetically as they just might get full on the overly abundant giant mayfly.  Here's one of the two very affable fisherman who managed to be at the right place at the right time:

 

 

Spinner Madness

After last night's prolific emergence it was certainly easier to predict that there would be an incredible number of bugs in the grass today.  And there were.  Big time.  The fish may have acted a little full last night and today on top of that just about every other living creature that relies on eating bugs for a living acted as though the meal of a lifetime had come.  Gluttony.  Satiated.  Spider webs were full and heavy.  Red Wing Blackbirds flew less and called less and mainly ignored the smorgasbord in the tall spring-green grass.  This ephemeral phenomenon is unlike anything else.  I'll be posting here at least for the next five or so days brown drake shots.  I have only sorted through a dozen or so of over 600 frames I have taken in the last two days.

 

Here's one from last night as the stream of fifty to sixty nearby cars files out.  I left the creek just before 1 AM and as the clouds started to conceal the no moon, bright star, night.

 

I captured this next frame after all the cars had left for home or campsites.

 

Zac Mayhew trying to get that cripple 6 and 1/3 inches from the far bank.

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish moon and Jupiter and headlamp help.  Note the tiny headlamp lights in the background.

 

Brown drakes anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brown Drakes!

Finally a great night of bugs.  A medium to light spinner fall where I was and a LARGE emergence.  There was a blanket of brown drake shucks on the water well after midnight.  Could have been over eighty to ninety cars from the Picabo bridge all the way upstream through the willows to the highway 20 bridge.  The downside?  May have been too many bugs and the fish acted as though they may have been overfed before the largest part of the emergence happened.  I'll post some pics tomorrow.  For now, here's a wild iris shot I made tonight using a 105 2.8 macro.

 

11:30 PM at Silver Creek

While it's past midnight as I write this, here's one from tonight around 11 or so PM as folks were leaving.  It's always kinda cool to be one of the few left on the water.  The Turkish moon set around 10:20 and then it was all stars and headlamps from fisherman retying and car headlights filing out.  The emergence was small and late, at least where I was.  But...there were plenty of feeding fish between 10 and 11 PM.  This is a 15 minute exposure taken wide open at F2.8 at 21mm.

 

 

Here's a 9 minute exposure also taken at 2.8 and 21mm.  Three headlamps and star trails...  The north star is the least "blurry" of all the stars in this frame and the most prominent.

 

 

Moonset and a red sky.  The moonset was not too long after the sunset tonight and as a result there was a surreal quality to the sliver of the moon and the reddish light.  Taken at 300mm at just over a second at f5.

 

 

Just after sundown and as more brown drakes started emerging the sky was taking on a life of its own.

 

Silver Creek Update

After a few consecutive nights at Silver Creek I took the night off and apparently a few bugs emerged late last night...  Don't know as I was not there.  In any event, I just got back from poking around the Creek.  Windy and scattered thunderheads.  I didn't see a single bug in the grass.  I looked from the Picabo Bridge all the way upstream to the Willows.  Here are a few shots from this afternoon:

 

 

 

 

Lupine

Silver Creek

The good news is there were mosqitoes tonight, fierce ones, and that means it is getting warmer.  The bad news is there were mosqitoes tonight and I had short sleeves on.  I did see a few prairie caddis.  Just a few.  I left the creek around 9:30 PM and heard someone say they saw one brown drake.  I didn't see one.  The forecast is for cooler and wet weather again.  Even freezing overnight temps in Ketchum later in the week.  Maybe we'll have a June 25th brown drake emergence with nobody around?

 

Here's a single frame from tonight:

 

Brown Drakes???

I have been getting emails, texts, and phone calls inquiring as to when "it" will happen.  I spent about 4 hours on Silver Creek today and have yet to see a brown drake.  I did, though, take a few macro shots of brown drake nymphs.

 

 

 

Really, anyone's guess as to when brown drakes will start is as good as mine.  I will say, though, that being there for the first strong night is often my best night.  Last year is ceratinly similar to this year and in my journal for last year I have the first solid night--there was a weak night at the end of May--of brown drakes on June 8th.  Given that, any night now...........

 

I also took advantage of the sky today and tried 5 exposure HDR.

 

 

 

 

 

Two Sides of The Fence.  That's my title for this one.

 

And 1 black and white...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated River Flows

OK, much has changed in the two or so days since I posted water levels.  It has been RAINING.  It's not at the moment but it's slated to continue off and on at least for the next 5 days.  Much like last June, going into May we had a low snowpack and it was looking like a drought year.  Well..., with the consistent rainfall and cooler temps our water situation is looking much less dire.  I am not an irrigator, and will say our water situation is not dire at all.  Spring green is abundant and the wildflower show we had last year is likley to happen again.  Here's the river scoop as of now:

Big Wood:  2,310 cfs and rising FAST.  The clarity is gone.  The snow levels have gone way up and as a result the rain has been pouring on high elevation snow which greatly increases runoff.  The historic mean flow is 1,600.  The advanced hydrologic predictions embedded within the USGS site have the Wood peaking today.  With more rain possible, I think we are likely to see the Wood continue to go up beyond today...

Big Lost:  The Lost was sitting at 200 cfs two days ago and fishing well, very well.  The reservoir is just about at capacity and the flow has increased to 426 cfs.  If you are thinking of heading that way, keep a close eye on the flow as it's likely to keep heading up as the water flowing into the reservoir has gone way up.

 

Update:  The Lost has gone up to 1,100 CFS and is for all intensive purposes blown...  Could be awhile before it drops to fishable levels again.

Silver Creek:  Less prone to flow fluctuations, Silver Creek is sitting just above the mean flow at 144 cfs and brown drakes are just around the corner...  Pmd's and baetis yesterday but the wind may have taken them to the Madison River after they emerged.

 

Here's a shot of the Lost on Tuesday when the flow was 200 cfs.

Silver Creek Sunset

Drove down to Silver Creek this evening hoping to see some bugs and to perhaps get out of the all-day rain.  The wind stopped blowing around 8:45 PM and there was not a brown drake or caddis or anything else I could see in sight.  A few red winged black birds hunted for bugs.  A pair of sandhill cranes let out their pre-historic cackles and moved on.  A small fish occasionally broke the surface.  I ran into a couple from Salmon hoping to catch a night or two of brown drakes.  And then the sun went down...

 

 

Muskrat near the Picabo bridge.

Aerial View of Unknown Lake

Here's a shot of a lake I don't know the name of taken on Monday while flying out of the Middle Fork of the Salmon.  The reflection of the clouds and the lone boat struck me.  I did not notice a single road leading to the lake.

 

 

Well...Here's a quick river update:  The Wood is gaining volume fast and loosing clarity as well.  At the moment, it's flowing at 1,010 cfs.  I'd say it's still fishable in certain spots, but will not be for long.  The historic mean for today is 1,550 cfs.

The Lost is still flowing at an unprecedented level for this time of year: 206 cfs.  It's historic mean for today is 892 cfs.  Mackay reservoir is full and essentially what is flowing in is flowing out.  So...any big change in the flow on the Upper Lost or an agricultural call for more water should bring the Lower Lost's flow up substatntially.  For now though, it's an early season bonus.

Silver Creek is flowing just about on par for this time of year at 120 cfs.  Hatches have been spotty but over all decent fishing.  Pmd's and baetis plus small terrestrials have been the ticket.  Brown drakes are what many of us are waiting for on the lower river--below the highway 20 bridge.  It's been cool and wet and could really come off any day now.  While it gets pretty crowded, if you have never witnessed the brown drakes, it is absolutely worth checking out.  The hatch can be face tickling prolific!  For me, brown drakes is the official start of summer.

 

 

Pronghorn

These pronghorn antelope were grazing an alfalfa field as I happened by in the Camas Prairie.  When I stopped to try and take a few shots I expected them to take off.  Instead, two of them grew curious and slowly walked toward me.  I took this shot through the front passenger window.  As I tried to slowly open my door and sneak up to the top of my car for a better vantage point they quickly turned and high tailed it.

 

 

More Middle Fork of The Salmon

Here are more pics from the Middle Fork of The Salmon:

Pistol Creek meets the Middle Fork.

 

 

Leopard Lilly

 

Cinquefoil.  Pronounced sing ka foil.

 

 

 

Pistol Creek approach.

 

Here are a few mushrooms growing in a whole from a burned tree in the 2000 Pistol Creek Fire.

 

Log-jam pools on Pistol Creek created some pretty spectacular cutthroat water.

 

 

Bear Valley Creek from the air.

 

 

 

Middle Fork of The Salmon

What a way to kick off the season.  The Middle Fork and tributaries were clear--highly unusual for this time of year--and relatively low.  The wildflowers were blooming: Leopard lillies, arrowleaf balsamroot, scarlet gilia, stonecrop, larkspur, syringa, cinquefoil, etc...  The contrast from the 2000 Pistol Creek fire and dead standing trees and the spring-green underbrush was astounding.  Wolf scat was scattered on many trails and deer and elk tracks were ubiquitous.  Osprey had their young perched high atop dead trees along the river.  Mergansers flew up and down the river daily.  We found a steelhead sitting at the head of a run on a Middle Fork tributary.  It's size trumped the few visible Cutthroat nearby.  And ticks were abundant...  I have many more pics I'll be posting when I get off the river later tonight.

 

Here's the Middle Fork of The Salmon and Pistol Creek as seen from the air.

 

Moonrise light and startrails at 2:30 AM on the Middle Fork.

 

Not evident here, but our flying weather was poor and after trying to get in after an hour and a half of flying and probing each drainage for a gap in the low ceiling, we gave up and landed in Cascade.  We made it into the Middle Fork the next day.

 

Our pilot, Mike, often just shrugged his shoulders after turning away from a potential but unsafe route due to a low ceiling into the Middle Fork.

 

 

Pistol Creek

 

Pistol Creek airstrip

 

The magnificent Leopard Lilly

 

Scarlet Gilia

Moving Water On The Big Wood

Here's a moody moving water shot I took a few nights ago on the Big Wood.  It's a 30 second exposure at 21mm on my frequently used Nikon 14-24 2.8.  I am flying in to the Middle Fork of the Salmon tomorrow for 3 quick days.  I won't be posting here until I get back.  Looking forward to capturing some in-flight shots.  Given the low water at the moment the fishing on Saturday just might be good.  It's usually an unfishable mud bath in late May and early June.  We'll see...

Should the water not go up on the Lost this weekend the fishing there should be very good.  While the water levels should be fishable on the Wood, there are still quite a few spawning fish in the river.  Of our 3 main watersheds, rainbows spawn first on the Lost (often beginning the end of Feb.) then Silver Creek (from my recent walks rainbows have been done down there for at least two to three weeks) and finally the Big Wood where the rainbows will probably be done by the second week of June.  In any event, in my opinion our stream closures in April and May seem a bit arbitrary.  For whatever reason, low water years often fish quite well.

As my guide season is about to commence, I am hoping to post here daily--or as frequently as I can-- photographic journals of what I am seeing on the river.  It could be a spinner fall that catches my eye or the man behind the counter in Sammy's Gas station in Mackay.  This blog is not meant to be a typical fishing report.  If anything, I hope to encourage everyone just how valuable our water is.  My approach is usually on the subtle side but you will occasionally be seeing pics of dewatered or altered rivers.  As water is a lifesource, I find it first and foremost my most compelling subject and issue.

 

Additional Fallen Light Shots & Moose Peterson

Here are a few more last light shots taken 2 nights ago at Silver Creek near the Picabo Bridge. 

On another note, have you seen or heard of stumbleupon.com?  If not, check it out.  It's free and you can set it up any number of ways including having it stumble through different photography Web sites.  I am a member and feel free to share some of your favorites.  Here's the URL:  http://www.stumbleupon.com/

 

Here's a beyond-the-ordinary photographer's site to check out:  http://moosepeterson.com/blog/

                                                            

While Moose Peterson doesn't know me, he has offered and continues to offer incredible advice.  He's got a great site and is very generous--generous is an understatement--with sharing his photography knowledge both behind the lens and in the digital darkroom.  His enthusiasm toward photography in general is contagious.  I have certainly gained a great deal from him.  A trip through his blog is a lesson unto itself.  So check it out...

 

 

 

Last Light On Silver Creek

Drove down to Silver Creek last night to get a few falling light shots.  It was cold.  Something like 43 degrees according to my car.  The nighthawks were doing their erratic flying and sandhills were squawking away.  Gulls sat on the alfalfa fields.  There were no bugs to speak of.  The light though, well that's another thing.  Despite the cloudless sky, the light was sensational.