Thunderstorms

We are back in the thunderstorm cycle.  The cool weather feels great and who can say no to a little extra water in the middle of the summer?  We had a great one where I happened to be today.  The light was magical and the thunderhead was brooding and ominous and kicked out enough electricity to make us decide to stop fishing for about twenty minutes and watch the show.  The smells too are magical when it rains this time of year.  A cross of wild roses and sage and sweetgrass.  Moose tracks were filled with water.  Daring or naive swallows bolted through the dangerous sky.

Even without lightning this sky says enough:

For those who are wishing I would post a few more in color:

Osprey

Today was the first muggy day we have had in awhile.  No lightning or thunder.  Slow soft rain.  Drier in Mackay but with the penalty of a consistent north wind.  A fox ran erratically through a fallow field near Old Chilly Rd.  An Osprey sat near its nest and watched out over the Lost River Range gallantly while its chick screeched.  We are now in the heart of the summer and the Lost River Range, Idaho's tallest, only displays faint bits of white patches of snow on the southwest slopes.  It's a stark range.  The tree-line is definitive and the walls of granite and fields off scree and shale above that line are hard and steep.  Pronghorn graze for scarce grass below the Lost River Range.  Cattle graze and giant pivots and anachranistic wheel lines spray water on fields of grass and alfalfa near adjacent dry ground.  Sage dominates the landscape and the hint of precipitation along with the steady north wind spread its pungent and welcoming smell.  Dessicated cow turds are robust and ubiquitous. 

High Elevation Summer

"The real world goes like this: The Neversummer Mountains like a jumble of broken glass."  That's the first line from James Galvin's novel, The Meadow.  It's been plastered to my mind over the course of the last month or so.  Today's my first day off the river from guiding in over a month.  My suburban is dirty.  Could use a vacuum job.  Late morning iced coffee.  No sunscreen, for now at least.  My lunch plates and cutting board sit clean in the kitchen.  Tomorrow's lunch is marinating in the fridge.  No morning rush to load gear and a fifty pound cooler into the back of my car.  No lunch prep last night.  Just what is it like to guide 32 or more consecutive days?  Every day is different.  Every person I have fished with this year, thank goodness, has been a pleasure to be with!  I have encountered one incredibly rude person on the Lost River.  I have fished with 5 year olds and an 80 year old and just about everything imbetween.  My only criteria is that the client(s) wants to be on the river.  Not too hard to meet that.  My office is the river and my job goes far beyond putting people on fish.  We eat when we are hungry.  Try and fish when the fishing is best and talk about whatever happens to come to our minds.  I have helped 2 people change a flat over the last week on Trail Creek road.  On one of those occassions, I helped Don, the cowboy living and working from cow camp in the Copper Basin.  He needed a tool I happened to have.  While he may have been grateful I happened to stop by, I was grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with him for a half an hour or so.  The social part of guiding is my favorite part and that includes articulating to someone how to get his or her size 14 royal stimulator from the fly-catch to the mouth of a feeding trout.  It includes talking about bugs and wildflowers and contentious issues like wolves, water and overgrazing.  So..., I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be on the water as often as I am and to observe what many can only imagine.

Golden Stonefly Shucks:

Sego Lily:

Camas Prairie Fencepost

Here's an image I originally skipped over.  I took it in the Camas Prairie this May.  I converted it from RAW to black and white:

Cottonwoods & Aspens

Here are two completley different frames taken within close proximity of one another:

Aspens:

Cottonwoods:

Get it while you can on the Wood...  Green drakes are still coming off on the Wood and shouldn't last much longer.  I marked my first green drake day on the Wood as July 2nd and it's the 19th and they are still lingering.  Most of the bugs are done, however, south valley.

Blue Skies & The Lost River Range

Here's a shot from Trail Cr. Rd. looking east at the Lost River Range.  The Summer-Blue sky has been fantastic and temps have been in the mid to upper 80's. 

Golden Stonefly.  Lost River Drainage.

Flavs and Wildflowers

Here are a few pics of flav spinners (Drunella Flavilinea).  While the larger green drakes (Drunella Doddsi and Drunella Grandis) garner more attention locally, I have often found a fly sized more closely to a #14 flav works FAR better on the Wood and nearby streams.  The dog days of Summer have started with the high today in Ketchum somewhere near 90. Here are a few flav spinner pics:

Here's a pic of Bitterroot taken around 7,500 feet:

Larkspur:

Stonecrop:

Royal Stimulator.  I don't have many guide days where not a single fly is lost or changed, but yesterday, we managed to fish the entire day with just this stimulator:

Black & White Clouds

Here are a few captures I took today of clouds.  We had a steady north wind all day with virtually no clouds until we were changing at the car.  I converted the pics to B & W using NIK's Silver Efex Pro.

Here's an image of a flowering brittle cactus.  These flowers typically last just two days.

Green Drakes Are Still Popping...

So I guided the Big Wood today and saw some green drakes and a pink albert here and a golden stone there.  At least where I was, the fish acted as though they had seen MANY green drake patterns.  Good fun though and a perfect 80 degrees and no clouds.  Here's a shot of a 'bow that took an undersized green drake:

Adipose fin on a moving cutbow:

Some flower shots.  The higher elevation flowers at the moment are spectacular.  The echinacea pic is from my garden.

Higher Elevation Fishing

Here's a black and white of Porphry Peak near the Copper Basin.  No thunderstorms today but we have certainly been in the pattern.

Here's another whitefish pic.  Why another?  Well, I found a dead Whitefish on the bank of the E. Fork of the Lost today and it was obviously the result of an unhappy fisherman.  Here's the logic: "The whitefish is getting in the way of catching what I want to catch so I'll just throw it on the bank to die and that's one less to worry about."  Despite the negative stigma, the whitefish, not trout, is believed to be the only indigenous fish to the Lost River watershed.  Treat them with respect.  Don't nymph and you'll catch FAR fewer.  Or, better yet, learn to appreciate their presence.

Bahamas or Idaho?

End of June Hatches... In July

Well... the fishing is reaching it's early Summer peak.  Thunderstorms today with more forecast for tomorrow.  Mid-day green drakes on the Wood.  Water flows are still dropping making for far better south of Ketchum fishing.  It's really worth getting out now before the heat-of-the-day doldrums set in sometime around the end of the month.  Here are a few from today:

The whitefish:

Fence Post Caddis

Now That The Water is Dropping For Real...

Our rivers have cleared up and are finally starting to fish.  We are in the middle of green drake madness on the Wood.  Yeah, it's still super swift and less so in other spots but it's fishing well with the brunt of the action showing up around 1 or 2 PM.  Think fast water and rising fish.  Golden stones too.  Here's a pic of new golden stone shucks:

I am now officially on the river pretty much every day.  I'll have to look at my calendar but I have guided for about 17 consecutive days with many more to come.  I am finding it a bit more challenging to take the shots I am looking for while guiding.  Here are a few I have snuck in the last couple of days:

A slower pace in the Lost River drainage...

The flowers up high have been and still are spectacular.  Bitterroot is pictured above. 

Hailey Rodeo & Vastly Improved Water Flows

Here are some 4th of July Rodeo shots:

On a fishing note the water levels have GREATLY improved.  The Wood is finally wadeable near Ketchum and even crossable for the bold.  Green drakes are mainly in the Ketchum area where the water is clear and lower than below the mouth of Warm Springs Creek.  Fish apparently like to eat green drakes, especially in the moderately fast water.  On a more serious note, fish are still spawning on the Wood and in the Copper Basin. Hard to believe given it's after the 4th of July.  The higher than normal water levels coupled with cooler weather has stalled almost everything but the hatches.  Silver Creek is still unpredictable as far as hatch time and wind, etc...  Today, at least where I was, there was essentially NO hatch.  I counted 3 green drakes.  Didn't have baetis or pmd's.  Only a sailor would have liked the weather...

Silver Creek & Green Drakes

OK, here are a few pics of baetis taken at Silver Creek this morning.  Pmd's, baetis and green drakes with a bit more consistency than last week.  The green drake thing makes for some pretty good early afternoon blind casting opportunity after the AM baetis and pmd smorgasboard. The Big Wood looks like it is FINALLY on its way down and is 1,190 as I write this.  The strongest part of the green drakes has blown through Hailey and is starting to show up in and north of Ketchum.  The Lost is flowing at 1,090 cfs.

Baetis:

Water Levels and Mate' On The River

At 2PM or so, even on the river, some caffeine is nice.  I just fished with two gentlemen for three days, one of whom is from Argentina and carries the often social tradition of drinking mate.  There is an accent mark after the "e" in mate but I cannot figure out how to show it.  Anyway, the fine art of distributing the yerba properly in the gourd, pouring the hot water in such a way some yerba is left dry until later on and the overall process and social aspect made for some fun caffenated afternoons.  Here's a shot of the gourd and bombilla (straw).

On a fishing note, the Big Wood was even higher today at a nice crisp 1,620 cfs this AM (the median for today is 1,020) and the advanced hydrologic prediction shows a VERY gradual decline in streamflow over the next ten days.  Green Drakes are starting to show up on the Wood and if you have the guts and wading will-power to fish it, it could prove worthwhile.  The Big Lost is also flowing on the high side at about 1,120 cfs.  Silver Creek has been pretty inconsistent.  A few tricos are starting to show up in the AM along with baetis, pmd's, some callibaetis and thank goodness for the few but noticeable green drakes.

Big Wood side channel:

Just what in the world is this?

...A thunderhead above Silver Creek I captured today.

Silver Creek

Ok, so the Lost bumped up to over 1,000 cfs and the Wood also saw a bump to about 1,500 cfs.  Warm weather and high elevation snow equates to more runoff.  The only bump that Silver Creek seems to be getting is in the number of people.  Unfortunately there are just not that many choices at the moment and as a result Silver Creek gets a little extra traffic. 

The weather on the creek today was ideal with very little rain and overcast conditions.  Pmd's, baetis and quite a few green drakes.  We used all three of those with success.  The weather outlook is for sun and warm conditions--like 80 degrees in Picabo-- for at least the next three days.  Here are a few shots from today:

For whatever reason I kinda like small fish pics.

Wild Iris are still in bloom and usually by the time they are just dessicated stalks the green drakes are over and small numbers of tricos on their way.

Focus...

Side Channels

Tis the season for side channels.  As yesterday's warm weather burned off yet more high elevation snow we saw another bump in both the Lost and Wood streamflows.  If it was not for branches, side channels, forks etc.. it would be tough to be on anything but Silver Creek at the moment.  Here's a single frame from a side channel today.  Narrow and swift and stuffed with overhanging branches calling for your flies, these side channels are a great challenge for anyone and often can be quite rewarding.

Post Summer Solstice & Water Conditions

OK, so just how are our water conditions compared to the past?  If it was not for the USGS streamflow updates online I would say the water is much higher than normal.  The water clarity, however, is turning for the better and there is some visibility.  I guess I am just antsy for lower water as the flow on the Big Wood as I write this is 1,260 cfs and the 94 year median for now is 1,280 cfs.  We are essentially right on the mark for this time of year.  I also just took a look at the advanced hydrologic prediction for the Wood and IF it is close to accurate the river will be very slowly dropping and should be somewhere around 975 CFS by June 30th.  We'll see.

The Big Lost is running at a cool 816 cfs and the 94 year median for now is 815 cfs.  The good news is the Mackay reservoir is FULL.

While the water conditions seem to be on par at Silver Creek the fishing/hatches have not been very consistent on a day to day basis.  In other words, the creek has been tough.  A few green drakes, some baetis and some pmd's...  A callibaetis or two through the s-turns as well.

Rainbow Close-ups and More

Here are a few shots from today.  Cool and sunny weather.  Just about perfect.  We may have hit 68 degrees.

Big Sky and Big Clouds and Contrast Too

Thunderheads and cool weather.  Just got back from Silver Creek.  It's 10 PM.  Brown Drake spinners and prairie caddis in the willows.  Beautiful cool evening. After driving through the willows, I decided to fish the Preserve and saw just two other cars.  Both cars were parked at the top of the s-turns and I had the section from the cabin up to myself.  A few risers and wind though.  Lost my mouse pattern to some bushes and called it a night.  Here are a few snow, mountain and cloud shots:

11,051 feet.  Still high elevation snow left.  Devil's Bedstead.

Rock 'N Roll Peak

Road & clouds near Gannett

As seen from the road to Point of Rocks.