Good Old Boys & New Tricks

It’s time to start knocking things off the “to do” lists and getting ready for summer. Spring is around the corner and the sun seems to be announcing its arrival a bit more each day. So this week I decided to get a few things done I had been meaning to for a long time.

TO DO: Doctor

Monday: I went to the dermatologist which I had been meaning to do for the last few months.

I came home and realized that Rala, my female golden retriever had NEVER been fly-fishing and was already a year and a half old!

With Tonks, my previous golden, I trained her using all the commands from the books, she could do directional hand signals, long distance retrieves and a bunch of other things that are really only useful for a duck hunting dog, and not something I really needed as I have been duck hunting 5 times total in my life and Tonks was gun-shy to boot.

So with Rala, we (my wife and I) chose to teach her commands and skills that we used every day first. She was running alongside a skateboard at 4 months, she learned high five to untangle from her leash, she plays with toys and entertains HERSELF for hours at a time. But she still had never been fishing. Well, time to check another thing off the “to do” list.

TO DO: Introduce Dog to Fishing

Tuesday: Rala and I head to the Boise River together. She finally gets to see what those funny wet clothes (waders) that smell like fish are for that she is so curious about each time we come home from a trip. AND SHE LOVES IT!

She gets to go swimming, plus she gets to be next to a human in the water! Happy dog! So after a few battles leaving her tied up and teaching her to be OK with being left behind, I let her heel while I have the leash attached to my belt. She is a smart dog and watched what I was doing intently but didn’t seem to care as nothing ever happened. Then, the indicator sank! I struck and there wiggling back towards me- flowing with the current- as I frantically strip in line, is a STICK!!! (As an aside, if you have never been in the woods with a golden retriever before you cannot understand, so let me paint a picture for you: a new mother shows half of the joy when meeting her newborn child that a Golden displays for a good stick in the woods.) Rala was amazed - now our activity included swimming, with a human next to her, and that strange ball of floating yarn can turn into STICKS! That night, I like to think she fell asleep thinking of her day.

However, my “to do” list was far from accomplished. Rala could navigate some parts of a river, and was learning some skills, but she hadn’t even met a fish yet. And furthermore, I needed to accomplish a few things for myself.

I have spent my entire life on fishing adventures across the west and have had a great time with friends, family, and clients. However, I have never fished solo much and I have especially never gone “destination fishing” alone before.

TO DO: Fishing trip.

Wednesday: I drop Kelly, my wife, off at work and come home to finish packing the car, fishing gear, 3 thermoses, 2 rods, and one dog with a new experience on the horizon. We arrive at the Owyhee in Oregon after getting my license and cannot find a single piece of- even poor- water to fish. We finally jump into a meager piece of water for the sake of training and because otherwise we were going to lose our only shot at a stretch of river to a couple of spoon casters. Needless to say it was frustrating, Rala wanted to RUN and SWIM and I could not fathom actually CATCHING anything out of this run regardless of all other factors. So we left and went driving. I decided to go all the way to the dam to look for potential runs and never found a stretch of water that was empty. We turned around hungry, frustrated and discouraged. My only plan was to return to some water Kelly and I had fished the week before and claim it as my own until the fish started rising and then fish it. We got lucky, the spot was free (it was the second to last spot I know about on the drive out)! I parked the car and ate lunch so that we could calm down and to give the river a rest in case the water had already been fished.

Feeling reinvigorated but not optimistic of my chosen spot (bluebird sky and moderate wind is not good for midge activity), we wandered off downstream. I brought Rala’s leash but she was free of it and wandering at her leisure. Halfway on our walk to the nearest other fly fishable water a car pulled up between us and our spot, well that’s not very nice or lucky, I think. But Rala is friendly and curious and ran up to the fishermen, perhaps a father and son team, with glee. I walk up and talk to ‘em. “We was just gonna head straight out from the car and upstream”, the younger one says, as they pull out spin rods. I negotiate with them and we find that our fishable waters have no overlap and we all continue merrily toward our preferred water.

As we approach the run I notice a few dry flies starting to emerge but have yet to pay them any mind. I have a dry and a dropper on, of course, because the Skwalas are supposed to be coming off soon, right? As my two fly patterns continue to fail me and Rala is getting less and less patient- tied to a willow- not being allowed to romp free everywhere I decide I should read the signals of the river and make a fly change. Actually a tippet, fly, tippet, fly change (which is why I was reluctant in the first place since tying four knots whilst telling a puppy to STAY is a challenge).  I finally get all the tab ends clipped off the knots, I look up to see a nice gust of wind blow across the riffle and spray white across the drift. DARN, I was too slow, there isn’t a single fish eating dry flies in sight and it’s an obligate right handed pool- so I have to fish switch. Oh well, I’m out here to fish, so I throw anyway, a #16 parawolf adams with a trailing LRO midge emerger into the feed line- and everything disappears! Perhaps because the rod was in the wrong hand, or perhaps because nothing had happened up to that point in the day, but I had forgotten why we were even at the river by this time and eventually remind my brain that I am fishing, and strike.

And there connected to the end of the line is the most silvery shiny wiggly funny smelling stick anyone has ever pulled out of a river - and Rala meets her first rainbow trout. This is better than a stick! It’s sentient and tries to get away splashing!! Now I have a fishing friend! I let her off the leash and start canvassing the water properly short to longer left to right working from inside to the outside seam. Rala watched the fly every cast for the next three riffles and was rewarded several more times by wiggling fish! 

 We moved up to the spot our car was parked and it was a great decoy, we still had the run to ourselves. We jump in and I start casting to very SPARSE rises in the slow water, however Rala has noticed something else entirely: mayflies, exactly like the pattern I have tied on are beginning to emerge from the water and fly away. Once as I am watching a drift come back towards me I look over and she is rising up from the nose nearly as tall as I am onto her hind legs sniffing an emerging mayfly. Here is where she finally makes a connection and starts “hunting” emergers.  As they break the surface and start to dry their wings, Rala pounces and its “bobbing for mayflies.” Between the naturals and the artificial producing fish, Rala learned that afternoon how to be a fishing dog, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Rala "hunting" emergers (Ctrl+click to follow)

As the day wrapped up I found a few more large browns (which was the point of the trip). Rala’s enthusiasm for each fish was proportional to its size and fight, which made me just as excited as she was. Periodically throughout the afternoon, I would look behind me and she would be swimming out to an object in the middle of the river. From observation, there appear to be two distinct reasons to swim to something in the river. The first is to retrieve it, and the second is to stand on it. The caveat is that all things in the middle of the river must be examined for these two possibilities. Occasionally I would hear water dripping off of her coat and look back to where she would be searching diligently to see if a fish we had released in that spot had returned yet, even lying down a few times to wait for the fish to return while watching my fly from a distance. 

The evening started to approach and we left, earlier than normal but Kelly would be worried as I was out of cell range. As Rala and I left that day I felt a surprising amount of pride in that little dog. A different SPECIES from my own, yet we communicated and learned from each other and in two days learned how to co-exist on flywater together. As I drove, I went over in my head what the next steps toward teaching her to be a fishing dog were: river crossings, log jams, rapids, reading currents and more.

As I fell asleep that night I know that we were both thinking of our day. I was so proud and giddy I think I fell asleep giggling telling Kelly stories from our day.

Rala with her first white fish

TO DO: make a garden and yard.

Tomorrow…

Owyhee Brown Trout

Yummy!

Watching, always watching

Tight lines!

-Blake Schnebly

Fishing report first week of March

Fishing report March 1, 2014 Lost River Outfitters

Let there be water!!  What a change we have seen in the month of February in our water supplies and snowpack.  The high pressure off the west coast has broken down and given us a nice series of storms.  Both our snow water equivalent and precipitation to date have gone from below 50% in our central Idaho drainages to around 70%.  The Big Wood snow water equivalent is at 83% and rising today.  Snow water is what fills our reservoirs.  We are still behind, but in much better shape than anyone could have imagined in mid January.  The Salmon drainage is over 100% in snow water equivalent.  Eastern Idaho and Yellowstone are in the +90% to + 100% snowpack.  Our low elevation snowpack is slim, but we have had lowland rains which should help our water tables.  The high country is looking great, with backcountry skiing in full swing.  It looks like it will keep coming and we are thankful.

Some of the dreary days have given us time at the tying bench to replenish our trout flies, prepare for spring saltwater trips, and fill fly bins for spring steelhead season.  In the mean time temperatures have been mild. We have enjoyed some great winter fishing days.  Here is what has been happening on our local rivers and what to expect in the near term.

Big Wood

The Big Wood is fishing quite well.  The floods of last September did not kill the bugs or all of the fish.  The trout are looking quite healthy and starting to bulk up for the spring spawn.  Midge hatches have grown heavy enough to make the trout selective in some pools.  Water levels have risen due to the warm days and some early runoff, but not enough to change the river much.  Large Stonefly imitations are still working, but a double nymph rig seems to be more consistent.  An Anato mayfly nymph, brassie, or copper john with a zebra midge trailer has been an effective combination, in sizes 14 and 18 respectively.   If you encounter a pod of rising fish trail a dry midge from a larger dry so you can pick out the rise to your midge.  We like the LRO midge emerger as the trailer.  The trout will eat it wet or dry and many of the fish are picking out the emerging midge rather than eating the fully emerged adult.  Don’t forget your 6X tippet.  Fluorocarbon on your nymph rigs seem to result in more eats.

The inflow of the Wood to Magic has been spotty.  Some days are better than others.  Water levels have tripled in size in the last week, so maybe some fish will move up from Magic.

The outflow of the Wood from Magic has had triple the flows it normally has, still only 5 cfs, probably due to some rain and melt on the dessert.  Those fish will eat midge pupae, scud, and small nymph imitations readily.  Please release your fish in the lower Wood, they are all we have to replenish that potentially trophy fishery after the low water kill of last summer.

Silver Creek

Closed until Memorial weekend.

Lower Big Lost

This is the time for the lower Lost to shine.  Midges and Baetis hatches combine to make one of your most memorable winter trout days.  Flows are 84 cfs, which is enough to move your fly through a drift.  Imitations need to be good on fine tippets as they will get a very good look at your imitation. The winter baetis is big for baetis,  size 17-18.  I like sight fishing the feeders with a large baetis imitation, small adams, or gulper special with a trailing size 18 pheasant tail on 6X fluorocarbon.  It pretty much covers your bases during the hatch periods.  A dry fly on top or a baetis nymph or midge pupae just sub-surface.  Large stonefly nymphs in the faster rocky reaches are also good, if you just want to relax and watch the bobber.

South Fork of the Boise

Flows are at 307 cfs right now.  I would not expect them to move for some time.  The Boise drainage is below 100% and Anderson Reservoir has lots of room to fill.  The hatches on the South Fork are midge and micro baetis at this time of year.  The trout can be challenging when working the micro stuff, but the reward of a 20 plus inch bow is worth the effort.  Girdle bugs in the rocky moving reaches will also produce under an indicator.  Frank showed me a picture of a 30 inch rainbow taken last week on the South Fork.  Streamers with your new switch rod might produce the fish of a lifetime.  It is worth the trip into the canyon and to see the effects of the fires if you have not made it down this year.

 Salmon River

The Salmon below Yankee Fork is flowing at 456 cfs already.  That is about 80 cfs above normal for this time of year.  Steelhead are moving upriver with the ice receding and the increased flows.  Fish are being caught at Challis, and still in Riggins.  They are still coming over the Snake River dams.  Although the run is a bit below 10 year average, we should see our share in the upper river by early April.  If you are interested we still have room at the Steelhead Lodge in Stanley in the month of April.  We would be happy to host you or your group on a steelhead trip for the longest running steelhead in the world!

Yellowstone Park

Closed.  We are booking June and September trips right now.  It is imperative to do it early as lodging can be an issue. 

Open dates are:

June 9, 10, 11.  June 12, 13, 14,  June 15, 16-booked,  June17, 18, 19.

Sept. 13, 14, 15, Sept. 16, 17, 18, Sept. 19, 20, 21, Sept. 22, 23, 24, Sept. 25, 26, 27, 28-booked.

Let us know if you might want to do a Yellowstone trip this year.  Water levels should be good.  It is more than just a fishing trip.  June dates we fish the Madison, the Firehole, the Gibbon, and Duck Creek.  September trips we fish the Lamar, the Yellowstone, Slough Creek, and Trout lake.  We organize the lodging and suggest transport arrival and departures. 

Fish far and fine,

Scott Schnebly

Fishing report 1/21/2014

Fishing report Jan. 22, 2014

To say our fishing has been and will be weather affected is an understatement this past year.  If the weather pattern doesn’t change it will carry into our summer and possibly future years.  A two thousand mile long, four mile high, high pressure system has been sitting off the Pacific coast for a year now.  If you recall, the last real wet westerly system we had in Idaho was in December of 2013.  Since then our storms have come from the north.  Typically they go east of Central Idaho and are fairly dry by the time they reach us.  The airflows over the summer came as monsoons from the south and with the thunderstorms creating lightning and our huge fire season.  September gave us big rain from the monsoonal flows, which, on top of bare burned ground, created mud flows into many of our watersheds.  Some of our rivers flowed black to dark brown for weeks.  The South Fork of the Boise was closed, the Big Wood unfishable, and the doomsday predictors said everything in the rivers died.  All the bugs and fish were gone.  Recovery would take years.  Happy to report that is not the case.  Long term the carbon in the streams will be good.  We should have more plant growth, more food for the insects, and therefore better growth for the fish.  The Yellowstone fires in the 1980’s were a good example of that very thing.

In the mean time we are only about 50% precipitation of average in Idaho.  We need water for our fish and crops, and winter sports.  Hopefully the weather pattern will change.  We are not the only western state affected.  Here is our mid winter fishing report.

Big Wood River

The September floods did result in some dead fish.  It seems whitefish were found dead as well as some trout.  We could have lost some young of the year fingerlings as well, which will show up in a couple of years.  This winter guide season has been productive however. Some afternoon days producing 20-40 fish for those who don’t mind nymphing.  There has been some rising to midges in soft water, with hatches heavy enough for the trout to be selective in some instances. Midge hatches should increase in February. A few of the rainbows are thin, no doubt due to the stress of the flood and dark water, but many are fat and healthy.  Due to low snowpack the river is easily accessible and many days on the water have been above 32 degrees, so iced guides not much of a problem.  Below Magic Reservoir fish have survived near the dam.  They are thin due to the stress of having spent the latter part of the summer in warm water and probably competing for food.  Those fish are the seed to repopulate the system when water flows return to a more normal state.  Please treat them gently and release.

Silver Creek

If you are in the area you should stop by Kilpatrick Bridge to see the progress of the Silver Creek project.  We should see the waters below the pond improve in water quality and fish populations as a result.  It is pretty an amazing change already.  Although the water gauge says frozen, the creek is not.  The best approach is streamer fishing this time of year.  Try a black leech or bugger or a Philo Betto to entice the larger browns and rainbows this time of year.  Floating lines are fine.  We should see some midge hatches in February, with occasional rising.

The Lower Big Lost

The Lower Lost is flowing at 75 cfs today.  It was too low when it was first shut off flowing in the high 50’s.  The pools were ponds and all of the fish that would take were stuffed into the riffle water at the heads of the pools.  Nymphing the moving water is the most productive this time of year.  Pheasant tails, zebra midges in the riffle waters with 5 and 6X fluorocarbon is a good choice.  In the faster rocky runs a stonefly nymph is always a good choice.  Look for the midge hatches to improve as the winter goes on and we can always count on the March baetis for a good dry fly fix.

South Fork of the Boise

 This is a different river after the floods.  If you get a chance, it is worth a drive into the canyon.  Boulders the size of trailer houses came down the mountain and changed the river.  I had a chance to fish it a few weeks ago and although it suffered the same fate as the Big Wood, there were some very healthy and large trout, and even a number of whitefish to the nymph.  There is some rising to midges and look for the tiny baetis to bring fish to the surface in the very soft pools.    

Steelhead

Although our steelhead run is not big this year, it is better than twenty years ago.  Somewhat less than 110,000 fish have reached Idaho so far.  Reports are that the Snake and the Clearwater are giving up some winter fish to some hardy spey casters.  We are booking the Stanley Steelhead Lodge now, and have taken a number of early dates in late March and April.  If you have specific dates or requested guides it would be a good time to call the shop and get on the book.  208-726-1706

Lost River Events

Fly tying classes

Fly tying classes begin in February.  There is a sign-up sheet on the counter.  Cost is $20/class.  Materials provided.  Beginner to steelhead intruder classes offered.

Fly fishing film Waypoints

Benefit for the Nature Conservancy’s restoration project. Fly fishing film, Waypoints, will be presented by Lost River Outfitters and Waterworks-Lamson at the Next Stage Theatre on Jan. 24^th at 6:30 pm.   Raffle prizes include Smith sunglasses, a Waterworks reel, Ex-Officio shirt, men’s and women’s Scottevests, men’s and women’s wool base layer from First Light, a gift certificate from Enoteca, among others.   Raffle tickets are $5.00.   

A beer and wine reception begins at 6:30.  Tickets are $10, or six for $50 and are available at Lost River Outfitters.

Yellowstone Park Fishing Adventures

Yellowstone Park Fishing Adventures

We are booking our June and September Yellowstone trips now. Some dates are taken.  If you have not fished Yellowstone Park it you owe it to yourself. It is our domestic “international” fishing adventure, and is much more than just a fishing trip.  We make lodging arrangements and can help with your airline connections. If you are interested send me an email at scott@lostriveroutfitters.com and we will get you a photo album, details, costs and answer your questions.

Fish far and fine,

Scott Schnebly   

News from the store:

The new Patagonia Women’s fishing line is in!

Patagonia is introducing a new W’s wader, fishing jacket, and other W’s specific clothing items and we have the waders and jackets in stock!

The drop seat wader has many great features! One of the greatest innovations is the drop seat, making it possible to attend to Nature’s call in relative privacy and without removing your jacket! Come on in and check them out!

I will post more about these waders on our next blog! And, we’ll have another ladies night soon!

We also have the new Winston Boron III LS in stock now! Not only does this rod cast like a dream, it is also the sexiest rod Winston has come out with!

Stop in and cast this great new stick! We’ll gladly take you outside and let you try it! It’s always fun to cast a new rod, and the boys and gals in our shop would love to go out into the sunshine and let you play around a bit!

I am at the OR Show in Salt Lake right now and will report back next week.

Remember, if we don’t have what you’d like, we’ll gladly order it for you!

Susanne   Susanne@lostriveroutfitters.com

 w's wader video

Idaho Premier of Waypoints film

We have teamed up The Waterworks-Lamson company   to bring you the latest film by Montana-based Confluence Films, the well-known filmmakers of Drift and Rise.
 This Idaho premiere of Waypoints will be held at the nexStage Theater in Ketchum, on Friday, January 24th 
 The event will start with a 6:00 pm reception and show time is at 6:30.  
The proceeds from this event will benefit The Nature Conservancy's Silver Creek Preserve and will be earmarked for restoration at the creek.  A brief update on the Kilpatrick Pond project by a Nature Conservancy representative will precede the film, which is 80-minutes in long.
  The 6:00 pm beer/wine reception and $5 per ticket raffle will also contribute to the benefit.   
Raffle prizes will  include the newly introduced Waterworks-Lamson Litespeed IV reel, a Trout Unlimited membership and lots more!
  The event will be $10 per person and you can go to https://www.ticketriver.com/event/9524-waypoints--the-idaho-premiere to buy tickets online now,  r you can drop by Lost River Outfitters after Jan. 14 to buy event and raffle tickets can  -- a deal of 6 for $50 on the event tickets and 10 for $40 on raffle tickets will be available at the shop  only. 
 We hope you can join in for this evening of epic fly fishing on film for the benefit of our local waters!  Give us a call at LRO for more information – (208) 726-1706.

Fall is for Steelhead

Come September, all of the Idaho steelhead junkies start checking Columbia river fish counts religiously. We start tying flies and gearing up for fall trips. Once October rolls around, the Clearwater and Salmon start filling up with anglers looking to "swing up" a summer run steelhead. While this year's steelhead counts are well below the 10 year average, Columbia and Snake river tributaries have fished better than they did last year.

The Clearwater fished very well (by Clearwater standards) in early October.  Some buddies and I spent three days swinging flies around Orfino, and we hooked (and even landed) a few fish.  The biggest surprise on that trip was the incredible number of Chinooks in the system. We saw Chinooks rolling through many of the runs we fished, and I even managed to land one on a floating line and a sparsely tied spey fly.

 

The Salmon River has fished very well this year downstream of Riggins.  The stretch that gave up very few fish last year showed some mercy in October with multiple hookups a day for some.  The fishing downstream of Riggins has slowed down, but there are still fish being caught.  With cold, November water temperatures, it's time to put on a sink tip and fish slightly larger flies.  

The fishing on the Salmon River around the town of Salmon has been very slow.  If things warm up, that area should get a good push of fish, and fishing should improve. Unfortunately the catch rates have been bad so far. 

Our fall steelhead season is far from over.  If you haven't tried swinging flies for steelhead, now is as good of a time as any to start. Just be careful; the tug is the drug!

-CM