Here's a recent image of Silver Creek looking toward Picabo.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 50 ƒ1.8 lens
"Fly Fishing The Lost River For Blind Albino Trout"
Not too long ago I guided a great group of men for about a week and at one point, after a few cocktails, one of them started discussing his thoughts on the blind albino trout hidden well below the surface of the Big Lost River. This wonderful fiction stayed in the mind of Michael Hoover and he converted his thoughts to a poem he wrote a few days later:
Fly Fishing The Lost River For The Blind Albino Trout
On Midsummer's night under a moonless, starless sky
Go to the place of the Lost River's rise,
And there, to the 10x leader on your one weight line
Tie a tippet, a thirty inch strand of the fine
Blond hair of the girl who broke your heart in 1965.
Tie on a fly, one 28 black no-see-um, of course.
Dress it only with the desiccant of your age.
Make a perfect cast to the rocky ledge
The edge between death and resurrection,
And let that spirit float weightlessly down on the tiny eddy
Where loss meets redemption.
Mend the line.
Close your eyes.
Be the fly.
--Michael Hoover
Sun Valley Fly Fishing
Here's an image of a steelhead being released into the cold and clear Salmon River about 60 miles north of Sun Valley, Idaho. It is the longest anadromous steelhead run, over 900 miles in length, in the continental United States. The Upper Salmon River also hosts a summer Chinook and Sockeye run. The steelhead start to show up in the upper Salmon River some time in mid to late March and the season stays open through April and closes May 1st of each year.
Salmon River, Idaho
Cold water and the least crowded steelhead run in some time on the Salmon River, Idaho.
Wheel Line & Picabo Hills
Nikon D3s & Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens
Salmon River Bull Trout
Here's an image of a bull trout caught on the Salmon River yesterday. These fish will be making a living eating the tens of thousands of steelhead smolt in the river at the moment.
Idaho Spring Landscape
In the spring the clouds take on a different dimension. They carry thunder and the wind is warmer and the brittle and dessicated tall grasses from last summer rattle and farmers push on in their fields discing the soil for this year's crop and dust follows the tractor like a lonely smoke plume slowly dissolving in the palpable spring air and raptors perched on fence posts seem to have more energy and fly like well fed predators and farmers and ranch hands stop for a moment while having coffee with dirt stained hands and notice the green perennial alfalfa popping up and maybe there's a grin and an optimistic thought and then that fades to the inevitable thought of now.
Spring Hills & Night Casting
Spring had arrived early up until today. Much colder and wet for today and tomorrow. This weather will put new snow in the Stanley Basin and clear-up and lower the flow on the Salmon River.
The FlyFish Journal Cover
The new issue of The FlyFish Journal just hit the newsstands and I have the cover image. The shot was taken at 1/8,000th of a second at 200mm. It's of a rainbow just after taking a baetis. Silver Creek, Idaho. I think I filled my waders not long after I took this shot. It was early November.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 80-200 afs ƒ2.8 lens
Big Wood River
Today was the final day of the season on the Big Wood River... The temps were in the mid to upper 60's and it was blue skies. The picture below was taken at the end of the day as the sun was about to go below the mountains.
Fly Rod And Reel Cover
Here's a sneak preview of the next issue of Fly Rod And Reel for which I have the cover image. It's of brown drakes at Silver Creek, Idaho.
Salmon River Steelhead III
Low and clear water and warm weather. Temps neared 50˚ on the Salmon River near Stanley, Idaho today. Water flows are just above the mean and the current flow is 472 cfs and the mean is 462 cfs. Look for flows to start increasing as the warm weather is slated to continue...
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.
Salmon River Steelhead
It's steelhead time on the Salmon River. The fish seem to be showing up between Stanley and Challis. The image below of the smallish hen was taken today. The water is still low and clear but the snow pack at lower elevations in the Stanley Basin is far below normal.
Lodgepole Forest. Winter
This was taken not far from the Harriman trail north of Ketchum, Idaho. Vertical lines and tunnel. 43˚ and the sound of spring was there in the warming snow collapsing under pressure from a boot and the level of the sun and mainly in how the trees reacted to the first warm wind and the lithe newer branches waved about about like happy arms waking up after falling asleep.
Fly Tying & Sun Valley Fly Fishing
It's fly tying madness here along with a strong dose of spring. Highs have already hit 50˚ plus around Hailey and on Thursday the high is forecast to be near 60˚ in Ketchum. The fly fishing on our local water has been and should continue to be stellar. It's midge madness on the Big Wood River and lots of midges and baetis on the Lower Big Lost River. This is certainly the best least crowded fishing of the year in this area and it should continue through March. This is--so far at least--an unusually warm March and hopefully that continues to translate into better than normal hatches, etc.
Trail Creek Road
This is a pretty stark image I took a few days ago on Trail Creek Road not far from HWY 93. The sheer openness and the single set of tire tracks and the spring-like color in the sage caught my eye.
Roughly 12 miles south of the above Trail Creek Road image, I took the shot below as the storm was starting to break. It's a similar horizon below but it has a fence line and telephone poles and a lack of snow on the ground...
Silver Creek. March
The Sun Valley area received about 7 new inches of much needed snow yesterday and I drove to Mackay. Below is an image I took, on my way home, in the late afternoon as the storm was starting to break. It was around 4 pm and I don't know if I can say I have ever seen more fish rising on this section of Silver Creek other than during brown drakes in early June. It was midge madness. Unfortunately fishing is closed at the moment on Silver Creek.
Desert Center Pivot
I drove over to the Big Lost River and Mackay yesterday. Drove north of Mackay too. By the Mackay Reservoir where there were still ice fishing huts and up to the East Fork of The Lost where there was about 5 inches of new snow and it was snowing hard and the visibility was maybe 500 feet.
Through The Windshield. An Idaho Junkyard
Here are a few of the images I converted to black and white from a recent trip to an Idaho Junkyard.