Big Wood River Green Drakes

Green Drakes on the Big Wood River have not started yet, but the drake nymphs are really abundant in shin deep water up and down the river. My son, Charlie and I turned over some rocks yesterday in Hailey along the Big Wood and found a ton of green drake nymphs.  The river is fishable yet swift now but expect this hatch to happen after the Wood has dropped a little more which will likely mean an incredible Green Drake year on the Big Wood. With colder weather forecast the Big Wood should drop over the next few days. Look for adult Green Drakes around the 24th or so of June...

Imitation & Natural. Green Drake Nymphs. 

Green Drake Nymphs. This was shot in a clear tin full of water placed in the river. Once a nymph is taken out of the water it gets far darker.  

Hand Full Of Drakes. 

Umpqua's Epoxy Back Green Drake nymphs and The Real Deal. 

Silver Creek Brown Drake

Ok, I know the Brown Drakes are done on Silver Creek for the year, but here's one more. I can never get enough of this hatch. When it all comes together and the spring air is warm and the wind lies down and miniature submarine wakes crisscross in the water and an emergence starts and spinners start to swarm in the air and it gets a little frenetic and the next hour and a half you never want to end.

A Silver Creek Brown Drake. 2013. 

Camera: Nikon D3s 

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 ƒ2.8 

Pahsimeroi Valley Ranch

I was recently hired to photograph a ranch that's for sale in the Upper Pahsimeroi Valley in Idaho. It's on a small spring creek that has a growing number of fish including a limited number of salmon and steelhead that come up to spawn.  If you have not been to the Pahsimeroi valley, it's pretty spectacular. Here are a few of the images I took:

Fenceline

Old log building and likely new building site. 

A spring creek that flows through the property. 

A meadow & wild iris. 

A 3 image panorama of a meadow.

Wild Iris & Meadow. 

The front entrance.

Spring Creek & Lost River Range. 

Fly Fishing Photography & Kids

I spent an entire 15 hour day on the water recently with a ten year old in the group. He didn't complain once and just wanted to fish. Below are a few images from that day. 

Double checking the back cast. Evening session on Silver Creek.

Taking a break. Picabo, Idaho. 

During the break... 

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8

Silver Creek Brown Drakes III

The Brown Drakes on Silver Creek have essentially ended but it was a great Drake year. There were 6 strong nights and a handful of really good mornings. Below is a sampling of some of the images I took during the Brown Drake frenzy.

A headlamp Brown slips back into the darkness. Silver Creek. 

Derek Sullivan timed his trip to Silver Creek perfectly. Not having any prior knowledge about the hatch, ho got the last big spinner fall. 

Jared Kirby and a great Silver Creek brown. 

A beautiful evening on Silver Creek. This was my second consecutive evening with no Drakes. 

Brown Drake soup. 

Mid-afternoon lull meant a little experimenting. A Picabo area ditch. 

Brown Drake Madness

Drakes from a lower angle. 

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8

Silver Creek Brown Drakes II

We have had 5 consecutive Brown Drake nights and tonight should be another great night as there are a ton of bugs in the grass.  This hatch kick starts our summer season here and it has been a great one so far. Look for at least two more nights of the frenzy and then a couple of days of sporadic bugs...

A Brown Drake patiently waits in the grass for the evening spinner fall. Silver Creek, Idaho. 

A newborn Red-Winged Blackbird cries out for mama. Silver Creek, Idaho. 

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon Micro 105 ƒ2.8

Silver Creek Brown Drakes

Yesterday's Brown Drakes go like this; the kind of wind that makes eyes tear and spring-green tall grass blowing around like millions of cheering fans and crepuscular nighthawks whooping overhead and then like the hatching of something not visible came tens of thousands of Brown Drakes. It was cold too. Almost no prairie caddis and not a mosquito to be found. Look for the bugs to continue over the next 3 to 5 nights.

A headlamp spotlights Brown Drakes drifting down Silver Creek last night.​

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8

iso: 17,959 (no joke) There was no noise software used. ​

Big Wood River

Ok..., it's June 1st and the Big Wood River is clear and very fishable. Yeah, it's a bit swift but far lower than the typical flow for this time of year. At the time of writing this, the flow on the Big Wood River is 636 cfs and the median flow is 1,550 cfs. Quite a difference between the current flow and the median. You can see in the the image below that the clarity is really good. I fished the Wood today with my two sons and Will, who is ten, caught his first unassisted fish and has decided he is really interested in fly fishing. We also turned over rocks near the bank and found many green drake nymphs.

Will Price and his first solo fish. Big Wood River, Idaho. It's pretty cool to watch someone catch their first fly caught fish!

Green Drake nymph. Big Wood River, Idaho.​

Fly Fishing The East Cape, Baja, Mexico

I just returned from a trip down to the East Cape in Mexico. It's on the Sea of Cortez about 45 minutes north of the Cabo San Lucas airport. Lots of dirt roads and cactus and small dusty towns located right on the super clear and warm water of the southern Sea of Cortez where roosterfish come in close to the beach from the deeper blue water. I stayed near the town of La Ribera.  The rooster fishing was tough as usual. There was no bait near the beach and we were limited to a half dozen shots a day. The bonus was landing a snook from the beach near Punta Colorada.

Sunset on Punta Colorada. This was the view from the house I stayed at. Not much in the way of services but located right on a great Roosterfish beach.

Midnight Cactus & Full Moon Light

A typical East Cape Dirt road. There's miles of this type washboard along the coast.​

Portrait of a La Ribera chef.

"The Lighthouse Point"​

The fishing is the reason for the trip but stopping to talk with the locals is the best. These two gals cook at a taco stand in La Ribera. It must have been something I said...​

Portrait of two women. La Ribera, Mexico.​

Not super busy but all smiles nonetheless.​

Guacamole y Cerveza

Simple ingredients and outrageous color. La Ribera taco stand.​

Fresh shrimp ceviche. ​

Lighthouse Restaurant employees. La Ribera, Mexico.​

Hours of casting to uninterested cruisers along the beach pays off. Zac Mayhew, looking like a regular, hoists a fairly unusual East Cape Snook.​

Sunset & House. Punta Colorada

House at Punta Colorada

Last session of the day.​

Getting to the spot...​ Punta Colorada, Mexico.

Soccer goal and pangas. La Ribera, Mexico.​

Inside A La Ribera Church.​

A La Ribera Church.​

Fly Change

Long exposure horizon after sunset. East Cape, Baja, Mexico.​

Northern Harrier

I watched a Northern Harrier hunt near the banks of Silver Creek a few days ago. This particular Harrier came back to the same spot over and over again. It was on the serious hunt. I hid near a small willow and waited for it to pass over. While I am sure it noticed me I don't know that it was bothered by my presence. It was getting attacked in the air by 4 or 5 territorial Red-Winged Blackbirds. I am sure this Harrier was flying right over a few nests but it could not locate any of them under my watch. The Red-Winged Blackbirds, despite their diminutive size, fearlessly and/or dutifully, did everything they could to disturb the hunting raptor. The smaller Blackbirds definitely bothered the Harrier.

Northern Harrier. Picabo, Idaho

Northern Harrier making a little sound.​

Harrier versus Red-Winged Blackbirds.​ The Red-Winged Blackbirds were able to fend off--during my watch at least--this much larger raptor.

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon ƒ2.8 afs 80-200 ​

Leica D-LUX 4

An older--circa 2008--Leica point and shoot arrived in the mail today and I have to say I was super excited to play with it. Prior to this I really never owned a point and shoot camera. I do use an iPhone camera which is a different toy altogether.​ I have the ability to shoot RAW and use manual modes which, outside of the sensor size and iso capabilities, is all I really need in a small camera. Outside of the RAW capability and the manual modes, I love being able to shoot in the 16:9 format. Here is an image taken today with it. Shot in RAW mode and recorded in 16:9 format. Converted to B & W in Photoshop CS6.

Quigley Canyon. Hailey, Idaho

Camera: Leica D-LUX 4

Clouser Minnow

I have been tying a bunch of flies for an upcoming roosterfish trip to the East Cape in Baja.​ I really do not want to spend my time down there tying so I am trying to get it all but the unknown surprise or two finished in advance. I have been using an epoxy called, clear cure goo. It's the best stuff I have ever used and all it takes to harden is a UV light. I have noticed some pretty cool visual results every time I have hit a fly with the light. Whites turn to blue and anything like chartreuse is rendered ultra neon. So..., I just took my vice with a white over chartreuse clouser in it outside in the dark. I hit the fly with my UV light and took a few images with a 105 macro lens. Below is the result.

White over chartreuse 2/0 Clouser Minnow with UV light bouncing off of it. Yes, it's white on top and the UV light turned the white to blue.​

Nikon D3s & Nikon 105 ƒ2.8 Micro lens

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.