On the way to BYU-I (or back from) - Part 3

 

Spent yesterday unloading Sarah's stuff, helping her move in, buying more stuff, attending the Parent's meeting, and then biding farewell.  Headed to Birch Creek BLM campground to sleep in the car.  I rolled the window down a bit so I could listen to the sound of the creek as I slept - nice!  Morning came with a beautiful sunrise, a brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart, and an hour of fishing with similar results as Wednesday - a good number of 7 to 9-inch rainbows.

Sunrise at Birch Creek

Birch Creek rainbow

After an hour of fishing, I left Birch Creek and headed for the Big Lost River to check out the tailwater fishery below Mackay Dam.  There are a few sportsman access points around Mackay.  The first one I went in to (Upper Access?) looked empty, but then some bait chuckers drove in and plopped in the river just upstream of me.  Looking to move I found cars upstream and down, perhaps fisherman, perhaps not, so I left to check out the access a little ways upstream at the base of the dam.  This one was empty - yes! 

The river is decent sized and very nice in this stretch.  I was nymphing and rotated through flies the first couple holes, had a few misses, spooked some fish in the tailout, and finally settled in on a size 18 micro golden stoneflow and a size 12 caddis green psycho prince for the most part.  A size 14 purple psycho prince also produced.  Hoppers were ignored.

Big Lost River

I found the fish that were actively feeding (at least on what I was tossing) tended to be in the riffles, not in the tailouts or deeper sections of the holes.  Once I was dialed in, I landed probably 30 fish or so, most in the 8" to 12" range, with a few a little bigger, up to about 15" or 16" for the biggest.  I saw bigger fish in the holes and occasionally rising.  This was a short section of maybe 5 or 6 holes like the one pictured between the starting point and the base of the dam, but I spent about 3 1/2 hours here, enjoying every minute.  If there were other fisherman, you'd be consigned to trying to coax fish out of one or two holes.  As I was fishing on the right hand side of the island just below the dam, a couple other fisherman appeared up the left hand side and plopped themselves in the hole at the base of the dam directly above me.  That's OK, it wasn't that good a hole anyway (a big pool, not a riffle) and I caught a couple in the water they had just fished through.  Met another fisherman on my way back down who was fishing small dries in the flat water (tricos?) which I think is more typical for the purists who fish these waters.  Any rate, this is a great place to stop if in the area, and I will try to pay a return visit.

Nice Big Lost River rainbow

Big fish of the trip - healthy fighing in the fast water

I briefly checked out the access point below Mackay and found one brook trout and nothing else.  By the time I got back to Arco, it was 4 pm and I was only 111 miles from Rexburg, so I packed things up and turned for home.  I drove off to check out a Silver Creek access point, but it looked too much like a big Rocky Ford for my tastes, then as I passed Anderson Dam and the South Fork of the Boise, I was tempted to briefly wet the fly, but I decided to leave that exploration for another day.  I have four years of back-and-forths to Rexburg to check that one out.  Arrived home just after 10:30 pm, not bad for as much time as I got to spend fishing on the way home.