Anglers Journal

I have a featured piece, both words and photography, in the current issue of Anglers Journal. Last January I spent three weeks with the Salas family at their family owned and operated lodge, Los Torreones, in Chilean Patagonia.

Pancho Salas, the patriarch, blew me away with his work ethic, kind heart, sense of humor and genuineness. He has passed those traits on to his four children as well, three of whom are fantastic guides.

A big thank you to John Mullen for introducing me to Pancho and his family. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to stay with the Salas family in their home and lodge for the amount of time that I did.

I am looking forward to getting back there and hopefully sooner rather than later.

Deadbeat Dam

A deadbeat dam. It's very surreal but no longer serves a functioning purpose. It's a cop out to me--albeit a time honored tradition in the west--to retire dams or mines or anything for that matter and leave them as de facto corpses.

Fish Creek Dam. Idaho.

Picabo, Idaho

Of all of the iconic Sun Valley, Idaho area places in the fly fishing arena, I think of Picabo at the top of the heap. It has, namely, Silver Creek running through it's backyard.

The prairie landscape is striking in more subtle ways than the mountains to the north. The culture in Picabo is quite different than that of its more upscale close neighbor, Ketchum (think Sun Valley, Idaho), to the north.  Picabo, while absolutely tiny, is an amalgamation of ranchers and farmers and ranch hands and cowboys and even a few fishermen.

HWY 20 near Picabo on any given morning before the sun rises, is active with mainly the ranchers and farmers driving their respective pick-ups to work sites. 

While being very interested in the specific fishing aspects of Silver Creek, I'm also really interested in the periphery of trout streams throughout the world. The periphery to me is the human and landscape aspect near a trout stream that is not necessarily fishing-centric. Farm workers and laborers, cowboys, hunters, Chilean gauchos, shepards and anyone else who may be a stakeholder near a river are examples of the trout stream periphery.

The Queen's Crown & Picabo. Fall 2016

East Oxbow. Silver Creek.

Here's a shot from late yesterday afternoon of Silver Creek. We've had a lot of rain which is really well needed! It has also turned some of the brown back to green which will not last for long. Indian summer though for the rest of the week with highs in Picabo near 60. 

East Oxbow. Silver Creek, Idaho.

A Great English Setter

Boone. The kind of English Setter everyone wants. Kind, perfectly affable, behaved, loving... All of those things. He has a great owner though who sets him loose on big land and treats him like a son. Pictured below, Boone, tries to set the land speed record for four-leggeds after waiting patiently (kind of) in the truck while his father (John Huber) and I threw a few casts on Silver Creek.

Boone Dog. Picabo, Idaho.