Silver Creek, Fishermen & The Milky Way
Big Dipper & Silver Creek
Hunter Churchill tying one last fly on prior to hanging up the Idaho lifestyle.
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 14-24 f2.8
Silver Creek, Idaho Damsel Fly
Damsel Fly. Silver Creek, Idaho
Callibaetis Spinner & Grass. Silver Creek
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 plus extension tubes
Callibaetis Spinner
Callibaetis Spinner. Silver Creek, Idaho
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 plus extension tubes
Fly Fishing Photography & Sun Valley Fishing Report
Silver Creek Riser
Silver Creek Callibaetis Spinner
Hopper. Silver Creek
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lenses: Nikon afs 80-200 f2.8 & Nikon Micro 105 f2.8
The Fishing: The Big Wood is currently running at 379 cfs with the historical mean at 285 cfs. The fishing on the Wood has been so-so with sporadic caddis and small stones. The thunderstorm activity is supposed to wane starting Wednesday and we'll see how the warmer weather changes the fishing. As it is, I would be on the water around 9:30. Every day has been a little different but it has been slowing down around 4 PM. The evening fishing is far better when we have hot daytime temps... Silver Creek has been pretty consistent in the morning starting around 8 or so. Think tricos, baetis and still a few small # 18 pmd's followed with callibaetis. With the cooler weather we have been enjoying the hatch time has lasted until or after 12. Damsel flies, hoppers, beetles and ants have also been good stuff in the afternoon. Like the Wood, the evening fishing is far better when we have hot daytime highs. The Big Lost is running at 489 cfs with the historic mean at 484 cfs. Still a few golden stones and pmd's and yellow sallies with craneflies and caddis added to the mix. Every section is fishing a little different so be prepared to observe a little and adjust. Remember, "you can observe a lot just by watching." YB
Hailey, Idaho Lightning
Lightning & Main Street Hailey, Idaho
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 14-24 f2.8
We are obviously in the thunderstorm cycle. We are slated to have at least one more day of this and the Big Wood River could very well be chocolate milk again tomorrow morning. The Upper Lost has also seen a bump in water flow and the Lower Lost has dropped below 500 cfs to about 482 cfs. The skies, however, have been magnificent and hopefully this current thunderstorm cycle continues a bit longer...
Copper Basin
Copper Basin & Thunderhead
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Grass & Water
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Style, Road & Mountains
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Sage & Lupine
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Caddis
Caddis
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8
Here is a piece I recently wrote on tricos for the Sun Valley Magazine blog:
There is really nothing physically large about a tiny trico. In fact, you could fit about a dozen of the adult mayflies on the tip of your pinky. And yet, their lore in the fly fishing world looms large. Tricos may well be one of the most talked about hatches in the West.
The diminutive size of the small bug, coupled with the sheer volume of their dancing airborne swarms, makes for an absolutely magnificent display. Added to the wonder of the prolific, face-tickling hatch is its general predictability: like many of the best firework shows, it is as brief as it is glorious, appearing for maybe two or three hours on summer mornings at Idaho’s Silver Creek. And, in case you come to expect the glittering, clockwork-like trico spinner fall, the wind will decide to blow every trico all the way to some abandoned and dry motel swimming pool in the Midwest.
But it’s the brevity of the thing that brings us back—the heavy concentration of an extreme number of mayflies that will only last three hours at best. Those in-the-know make the most of it: the alarm is set to get us to the creek by 7:45 am. By noon fishermen are headed north for cooler weather or lunch, and the clouds of tricos have settled and died. Rain clouds may follow in the afternoon, as a baetis hatch takes the place of the trico show and a few terrestrial fishermen armed with beetles, ants and hoppers lick their chops in the aftermath.
For the finned predators who are the real winners on these days, it can be a frenetic thing. Once the tricos start hitting the water as spent (dead) mayflies, they are extremely easy targets for the trout below. The fallen hatch—resembling miniscule crashed airplanes—cover the water in such extraordinary numbers that the adept feeders below will often move through the water like humpback whales feeding on krill, attempting to sip as many spent tricos as possible in one graceful motion. The feeding can be so good trout will pod up in the best feeding lanes and take as many of these tiny fallen creatures as time will allow. Imagine dozens and dozens of beautiful trout feeding on the surface like it’s their last meal.
It’s this last meal concept—and the thought of tying on a #22 female trico spinner to the end of a 14-foot leader in cold, gin clear, spring-fed water—that gets many of us through a particularly long winter.
Link to the Sun Valley Magazine Web Site: Click Here
Fly Fishing Photography
Lime Green Stonefly & False Hellebore
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8
Hopper. Late July, 2011. Silver Creek, Idaho
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8
Rainbow & Light
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Sun Valley Fishing Report & Black & White Images
False Hellebore
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 24 pc-e
The Fishing: The Lower Lost dropped down below 600 cfs and is now just over 600 cfs. The historic mean flow is 567 cfs. Golden stones, yellow sally stones, pmd's, #12 caddis and a few crane flies. It's good stuff if you can find wadeable water. The Mackay Reservoir is still full and our mid-summer fishing on the Lower Lost should be great. The Big Wood River is running at approx. 453 cfs with the historic mean at 354 cfs. The best fishing is now a bit earlier and starts around 10 AM. Big stimulators, caddis, small green drake patterns and even pink albert patterns are working. Think droppers like #14 pheasant tails, #14 black anato mays, and #14 stone fly nymphys. The trico madness has started on Silver Creek and has been getting going around 8:30 AM or even later on the cooler mornings. PMD's and baetis have also been coming off and often simultaneously. By 11:00 or so the hatches have been done but the hopper population is growing and if you are willing to stick around, especially on a windy afternoon, the terrestrial fishing is just getting going. The best part of the day on Silver Creek is still the evening with caddis, pmd's and baetis.
Silver Creek Black & White
Footbridge. Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho.
Caddis Migration. Lower Silver Creek. July, 2011
Sage. Near Silver Creek, Idaho
Flav Spinner. Big Lost River Drainage, Idaho
Silver Creek, Idaho
Barbed Wire, Sunset & Tangle. Silver Creek
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Water Line. Silver Creek, Idaho.
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Horsetail Grass. Silver Creek, Idaho
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Camera: Nikon D3S
Silver Creek & Horsetail Grass
July Silver Creek Sunset
Silver Creek Caddis
The evenings on Silver Creek have been really good. The warm summer days usually mean happy caddis evenings and that's exactly what's happening most evenings now on the creek. Fish upstream of the highway 20 bridge as the water temps downstream have been super high and while there are a few fish down, upstream and especially the Nature Conservancy section has been great.
Horsetail Grass 1
Horsetail Grass 2
Butterfly
Golden Stonefly & Reel
Big Wood Rainbow
Moon & Canada Geese
Black & White Aspen Images
Aspen Pano 1
3 image pano taken using the shift function of the Nikon 24 pc-e lens
Aspen Pano 2
Another 3 image pano using the shift function of 24 pc-e lens
Aspen Stand 1
Lens: Nikon afs 80-200 2.8
Aspen Stand 2
Lens: Nikon 24 pc-e
Sun Valley Fishing Report & Wild Rose Images
Wild Roses
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon Micro 105 f2.8
The Fishing: Lots of positive changes as the Big Wood has dropped considerably and despite the swift water is fishing, at long last, really well. The current flow is 855 cfs with the historic mean for this day at 600 cfs. It's still high but we are getting there. The clarity, incidentally, is good, even below the confluence of Trail Creek. There are lots of bugs though; Green Drakes, Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and a few # 12 tan caddis. Large Royal Stimulators and Green Drake patterns have been working well in any of the soft water for which there is more and more of daily. The Green Drake thing won't last much longer... The Lower Big Lost has dropped to 793 cfs with the historic mean for today at 625 cfs. Golden Stones and PMD's if you can find soft enough water... Silver Creek is slowly starting to fish better in the AM. Tricos are starting to appear throughout the Nature Conservancy section and they often happen in conjunction with baetis and pmd's. The Green Drakes on the Creek seem to have finished. I fished Silver Creek this morning and the bugs, at least where I was, were all but done by 10:30 AM. Every day has been a little different and I would expect inconsistency for about another week before the tricos really start, hopefully, going like clockwork. The evening fishing on Silver Creek has been the best time of day to be there. Pmd's, baetis & #16 or smaller olive caddis. Bring mosquito repellent!
Silver Creek Sky
Silver Creek Sky
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
Idaho Landscapes & Sun Valley Fishing Report
Silver Creek Preserve & Storm
Upper Salmon River After Sundown
Sawtooths & Moonlight
Salmon River Long Exposure
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
The Fishing: OK, lots of changes. First, the Big Wood. The Wood has finally dropped to a fishable level upstream of the Warm Springs confluence. Clear enough water and tough wading but it's fishable and working. The flow has dropped down to 1,250 cfs and as few as 5 days ago the flow was just over 2,000 cfs. It's dropping pretty fast and expect better fishable water south of Ketchum soon. Think green drakes and big stimulators.
The Lower Big Lost has also dropped down to essentially 950 cfs which is still pretty high.The upper Big Lost as measured at Chilly is running at 1,050 cfs which is still too high to work.
The crowds have finally diminished at Silver Creek as there is finally other fishable water and the Creek has been inconsistent. I guided Silver Creek this morning and early afternoon and had sporadic baetis and pmd's. There were enough bugs to keep the fish on the surface until around 11 AM and then we needed to walk to find feeding fish. Damsel flies, beetles and ants are great afternoon searching patterns. The best time of day on Silver Creek at the moment has got to be the evening. Pmd's and lots of fish on the surface. Just bring long sleeved collared shirts and be prepared to utilize your deet as the mosquito population before dark has been prolific.
Silver Creek Black & White
Silver Creek & Storm. July 2011
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 35 f2
There was a pretty dry and super windy and dusty storm at Silver Creek last night. A few people were on the water braving the elements. Can't imagine the fishing was any good but the light was fantastic. No lightning as I was hoping for but the dark brooding sky was more than enough.
Nik Software's iPad Application Snapseed Review
Here are a few images I just took this evening with my Nikon D3S near Silver Creek. I have been struggling to find a method to upload RAW files from my Nikon bodies to an iPad to later edit on the iPad. What I just figured out is by setting your DSLR to capture RAW + JPEG or if you have two card slots setting one to capture in RAW and the other to capture in JPEG allows one to fully utilize any editing software on an iPad. By only selecting RAW the iPad can read the file but with a Nikon NEF file any editing software only displays a tiny thumbnail which makes it incredibly difficult to edit.
Ok, now that I can actually edit an image where the image appears on the iPad as it should, I must say that NIK Software's relatively new photo editing application, Snapseed is an incredible tool! From simple black and white conversion to selecting certain portions of an image to work on, to selective focus, frames, cropping, etc, this app seems to have it all. Without owning a laptop I can now process files on the very iPad I am now typing on, edit those images, then post them to this blog. Pretty cool stuff...
If you have an iPad this photo editing appplication is by far and away the best I have found.
Hailey, Idaho Rodeo
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon 24 PC-E
Sun Valley Fishing Report & Chinook Salmon...
Here's an image taken yesterday at Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork Of The Salmon River. It's a Chinook Salmon trying to make it up the very long and fast Dagger Falls. There were at least a dozen or so Chinook hanging out below the falls and then trying to leap and make it up. I enjoyed a great day just cruising Idaho roads looking for shots and trying not to donate all of my blood to the very abundant mosquito population...
Camera: Nikon D3S
Lens: Nikon AFS 2.8 80-200
Aspen Study 1
Aspen Study 2
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon 24 PC-E
The Fishing:
The Lost and Wood are still too high to reasonably fish. The Wood just dropped back down to 1,870 cfs and the historic mean flow for today is 886 cfs! So we still have time on our hands before the Wood becomes fishable. I just got back from my trip to Silver Creek this morning and it was SLOW. I fished the Nature Conservancy section and we had a very light baetis emergence and just a few pmd's and callibaetis. Very few fish were up eating anything where I was. Hopefully today was more of an anomaly and that things will pick up as we are super limited on our fishable water at the moment...