False Hellebore

Our flowers and plants here seem to be at least two to three weeks ahead of schedule. Arrowleaf balsamroot, larkspur, phlox, bluebells, etc are blanketing many of our hills at low to mid-elevations. I would think many of our early summer hatches on the Big Wood River & Silver Creek should come off a little early as well. Brown drakes on Silver Creek is our first big hatch and hopefully it happens after opening day which is on Saturday, May 25th. Callabaetis and a few pmd's have been coming off in the preserve section on Silver Creek and fish have been consistently up and eating. Now is the time to canoe Silver Creek prior to fishing season opening.

False Hellebore. Near Hailey, Idaho

Nikon D3s & Nikon 35 ƒ2 lens

A couple of videos to check out...

These two videos are completely different and both amazing in their own way. The first is a video on Kimi Werner titled, "Variables." ​I first saw the image of Kimi and a great white in a recent Patagonia catalogue and was blown away by her sense of calm and by the image in and of itself. The still image was taken by Chris Wade.

The second video is from MediaStorm​ which is a site that is worth spending a lot of time on. If you go to their site be sure to check out the Infinity Awards presented by the International Center for Photography. In any event, watch the video embedded below on Afghanistan by Seamus Murphy. His photographic work is extraordinary and it is really a fascinating set of videos on his multiple trips to Afghanistan beginning in 1996. Here's the link to the VIDEO.

Rising Rainbow Trout

Last November I was quite obsessed with getting images of rising fish at Silver Creek. The baetis thing lasted well into the month and there were plenty of beautiful days and many of which were perfect for baetis.​ Instead of carrying a rod I packed my camera. I am sure a few fisherman wondered what in the world I was doing. Below is an image that slipped through the cracks.

A rainbow after a rise. Silver Creek, Idaho. November 2012.​

Nikon D3s & Nikon 80-200 ƒ2.8 afs lens

Silver Creek Preserve

We are in a bit of a thunderstorm cycle at the moment despite the fact it has not rained much. Trees are budding and flowers like bluebells and phlox are popping out at lower elevations.​ Thunderheads carry on and the wind blows on many days. The image below was taken on Sunday evening of the Silver Creek Preserve. What you cannot tell is how hard the wind was blowing...

Silver Creek Preserve Oxbow. Spring

Nikon D3s & Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens

Early Spring Near Silver Creek, Idaho

Go south of Sun Valley, Idaho and pass through Hailey and Bellevue and take note after passing through Gannett of the hints of green popping up. Some fields are still being disced and dust from the tractors stays suspended like silt in nearby Silver Creek after a moose or fisherman has waded through the Creek.

Spring Landscape. Hills behind the Silver Creek Preserve.​

Discing a field near the Silver Creek Preserve, Idaho.​

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:

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​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.​

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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.​

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Mend the line.​

Close your eyes.​

Be the fly.​

​--Michael Hoover

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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.

A Salmon River, Idaho steelhead gets released.​

Salmon River, Idaho

Cold water and the least crowded steelhead run in some time on the Salmon River, Idaho.​

A typical cold spring day on the Salmon River, Idaho

A small Bull Trout. Salmon River, Idaho

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.​

Bull Trout (salvelinus confluentus confluentus). Salmon River, Idaho

A loaded rod readies to fire forward. Salmon River, Idaho

A Salmon River, Idaho steelhead is released.​

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.

Center Pivot, Power Lines & Spring Thunder Head. Picabo Hills, Idaho

Picabo Hills & Spring Squall

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.

The FlyFish Journal Issue 4.3. Cover

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.​

Big Wood River, Idaho. March 31st.​