Silver Creek Feeding Rainbow Video

 

Here's a short clip I shot today on Silver Creek.  Not much in the way of bugs at the time I was there but there were enough baetis and midges to get a few fish up on the surface.  The wind that we have had the last to days is slated to end tonight.  We shall see...

 

Nikon D3s, Nikon 80-200 f2.8 afs lens

Copper Basin

Camping

Oxbow.  East Fork Big Lost River

 

Smores & Camp and one exhausted setter.

 

A Bend In The Stream

 

So much to do until there is no gas left...

 

The best part...

 

Camp

Nikon D3s, Nikon 14-24 afs f2.8 lens

The fishing was lousy and the wind BLEW.  We are probably a few weeks away from the wildflowers going off at higher elevation.  We saw two cars in two days...

Fly Fishing Photography

Silver Creek Brown Drakes

Four eyes are better than two. John Huber sends a spinner toward a toilet flush.


The Take

 

 

A Silver Creek Brown

 

The Release.  The brown drake hatch on Silver Creek is one of my favorite hatches for many reasons.  The warm light and the ephemeral spring-green being one reason.  The sheer volume and size of these mayflies is--while I have witnessed it many times before--an unforgettable experience.  As a pretty busy guide, it is really the only summer or fall hatch I regularly fish with friends and it has become a tradition to fish and hang out with a group of buddies and watch and participate as it all unfolds.

 

The fishing can be super good as well; that is until the fish are so distended and stuffed that they can no longer gorge with abandon.

 

 

We often fish well past dark and if we are lucky will stay on the water past midnight.

 

You can hear and see fish rising but cannot see your fly...

 

Moonlight near midnight


A headlamp is mandatory if you are planning on tying any knots.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 14-24 afs f2.8 lens


Backlit.  Brown Drake

Nikon D200, Nikon 105 micro lens

Brown Drakes II

Fly Fishing Photography

Caught In A Web.  Brown Drakes.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Brown Drake

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

With a strong emergence last night and many spinners in the grass this afternoon there should be quite a spinner fall tonight.  It should be a visual spectacle...

Fly Fishing Photography

Silver Creek

Andy Ziemba and a late night bent rod.  Silver Creek

Almost midnight.  Silver Creek

After the sun goes down there is a period of time when the color blue takes over.  "Blue Hour," Silver Creek

A bend in the Creek and the "Blue Hour."

Nikon D3s, Nikon 14-24 f2.8 afs lens

Well, our summer season is getting an early start out of the gates.  Brown Drakes on Silver Creek are just getting going and it is only June 1st.  If I have it correct, drakes started last year around June 18th.  It is a hatch worth seeing and is one of my favorites to photograph.  Yeah, it gets pretty busy on the water but once the sun goes down and the bugs get ramped up you never really notice. 

Last night there were a bunch of Lesser Nighhawks making their who, who, who, who call and it was debated how the bird makes the sound.  Is it thier wings or vocal chords?  As it turns out it is their wings.  Here is a clip from Avian Web .Com:

 

"The male performs a dramatic aerial display during courtship, flying first at moderate height, then diving straight towards the ground. When he is about two meters from the ground, he will turn upward. Near the end of his steep dive a deep booming swo-o-o-onk sound that is caused by air rushing through his wingtips as he flexes his wings downward. The intensity of this sound is said to be more or less proportional to the speed attained. This dive is usually part of a courtship display, but can also be directed at rival nighthawks and intruders (including people)."

Fly Fishing Photography

Opening weekend, Silver Creek.  Brent Bernard, clouds and a bent rod.


Silver Creek & Tall Grass & Fish On.

 

Silver Creek Rainbow

Brent Bernard ecstatic after his first cast of the season on Silver Creek yields a great brown.

 

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

New York City Marathon

 

Diana Price running through the Cedar Bend Preserve.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

My wife, Diana, will be running the New York City marathon this fall to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training in honor of her mom, Abby, who is a leukemia survivor and for all of the other families who have faced a similar diagnosis. This will be Diana's third fundraising effort for Team in Training--to date she has helped raise over $12,000 to fund the critical cancer research and support services that the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society makes possible. It's a cause that's important to our family, and I hope you'll take a minute to check out Diana's fundraising page (http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/nyc12/dbprice#home).

 

"Whitefish" Ed

"Whitefish" Ed & his million dollar smile.  Ed showed up at the grand opening of the Picabo Angler on Saturday and hung out for the rainy and cold afternoon.  Having a PBR or two with Ed is a treat. 

Ed is no doubt the brightest dressed fisherman on Silver Creek and the Henry's Fork.  Many would also say the brightest fisherman on the water.  He is keen on intellectual fishing conversations.  Within moments of meeting him he offered me one of his bright pink "whitefish unlimited" hats.  I am now a proud owner.  I also had to get a few shots of him sitting in his van with a few of his fishing outfits.  Check out the sequins.

A true in-the-moment guy.

Ed putting a 1 weight to work at the Picabo Angler on Saturday. 

A Santa Barbara Landscape

Miramar Beach.  4 image pano taken using the shift function on the Nikon 24 pc-e lens.  This image is really meant to be viewed large.  I have just added it to my pano gallery where you can view it at a larger size.

On another note, I have finally upgraded my computer.  My last machine, a Mac, was a bit aged and as a result brought my editing tasks to a creep.  I am now using an iMac with 16gb's of ram and 14 terabytes of back-up storage--2 Lacie 6tb drives and 1 Lacie 2tb drive.  I am running the Lacie 6tb drives using a Thunderbolt connection which seems VERY fast.

The joy of finding a smashed penny for the first time.

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

Silver Creek, Idaho

Nature Conservancy.  Silver Creek.  3 image pano taken this afternoon.  Wind, moose, and baetis. Cool temps too; somewhere in the neighborhood of 50, not to mention the 20 plus mph wind...

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

Nature Conservancy & Moose

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens

Silver Creek & Wind

Nikon D3s, Nikon 24 pc-e lens