Just back from a trip to fish the Big Lost River, oh, and to pick Sarah up from BYU-I....
Melinda came with me to keep me company and to surprise her Sister. After staying in Boise Thursday night, we stopped briefly at the fly-fishing only section of the Little Wood River. Found a nice little stretch of rapid water, not much in the way of fish. One small brown to hand, one missed, and a nice sized one followed. The one I caught hit the strike indicator and was hooked with great skill in the side on a size 16 CGPPN. The big one followed a black streamer in. A lot of slow meanders with deep holes on this stretch. Pretty water this time of year, but I think it warms up to marginal temperatures in the summer.
We continued on to the Big Lost River and found the river much smaller than when I fished it in September on the way back from Rexburg (about 110 cfs versus 250 or 300 cfs). Found similar fishing - good! Caught them on both size 12 CGPPN and size 18-20 nymphs (I can never remember the names - small ones).
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| Rick's largest fish |
Melinda got into the action in a nice run with lots of smallish trout feeding at the surface. We each caught quite a few smallish rainbows, taking turns with my new 6-piece stowaway rod, which was christened on this trip.
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| Mel and a beautifully colored rainbow |
Then, I found one of the bigger ones, about 18-inches, which Mel fought and brought into the water in front of her, but came unhooked before I could get it for a picture (I lost my net somewhere). A short time later, I saw a similarly sized big boy slice across the top of the water right in front of us. Mel tossed her flies just upstream and we watched as her indicator went down right in the area where the big fish had been. Could it be? Our question was answered by the large fish leaping several times out of the water. I'm pretty calm when I hook a nice one, but I lose it when one of the girls gets one. Poor Mel. I started shouting instructions - fight it with your hand, not the reel! Let the line slide through your finger if it starts pullin hard! Tip up! Get its head turned! Bring it to shore! All so fast she can't even process what I'm saying. Despite my help, she brought a beautiful 17-inch rainbow into the shallows, the largest fish of the trip, caught on a size 20 nymph.
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| Mel and the biggest fish of the trip |
On the way out I returned to the first hole for "two more casts". On about the tenth cast, I caught this beautiful brook trout, a nice end to a beautiful day, and we turned towards Rexburg and the real purpose of our trip.
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The next after loading up all Sarah's stuff, we left Rexburg for home with a couple stops planned on the way with potential fishing. After driving through steady 30 mph winds and rain, we stopped in Burley for breakfast. We had a hint of blue sky to the west and a little hope that the rain would stop so we could visit Box Canyon Creek, part of Thousand Springs State Park in SE Idaho. The creek was reported to have trout. As we drove the final few miles, the clouds thinned and blue sky appeared in the west. By the time we arrived, the sun was out, but the wind was undiminished. We hiked into this beautiful canyon fed by 180,000 gpm springs thought to originate from the lost rivers to the north. The water really is Carribean blue! We followed the trail along the rim of the canyon, down into the canyon, and to the waterfall partway down the canyon. The canyon bottom is extremely brushy, with only a few places to access the river, and no real banks. The wind was blowing steadily about 30 mph up canyon along the river. Add to that poison ivy that was just starting to leaf out growing throughout the brush, and there wasn't much in the way of fishing. I did pull one small chester out of a little run that I could get to and had another strike (size 12 CGPPN), but even without the wind it would be hard to fish this one. But if you are in the area, it makes a wonderful stop to get out and stretch the legs before continuing on your journey. Last stop was a look at the Malad River where it exits the mouth of the gorge, with not intention of fishing given the wind. This one is reported to have nice trout fishing, but was running high and fast with runoff. I'll have to see how it looks next September!
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| At the head of Box Canyon |
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| Girls on the cliff above the springs |
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| Waterfall on Box Canyon Creek |
