FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 - Well, it is that time of the year again, when I get to say goodbye to Sarah and explore more places to fish in SE Idaho. We arrived in Rexburg Thursday night and unloaded Sarah's stuff in about 15 minutes - the advantage of having almost everything packed in uniform, small moving boxes. I slept in the car and arose fairly early to go check out the Warm River and some old intel Rob had from Randy Bragg, to hike the railroad grade through the tunnel, then down to the river.
While at the campground entrance trying to decide if the trailhead was inside ($8 fee), I noticed a car pull up at the pullout behind me and someone in waders getting out. I turned around and inquired if he knew where the trailhead was, but it turns out he was a student at BYU-I from NC who had left his rod leaning against the car when he had driven off about 15 minutes before. Now it wasn't there. I help him look for a while, then commiserated and said it was too bad, we could have fished together. I entered the campground and was getting my stuff out of the car when he comes driving up and says this old lady walking by asked him if he had left his rod there - this about 30 seconds after he says he finished a prayer. See, Heavenly Father is a fisherman! I again extended the invitation to fish together, which Josh accepted, and we began the walk up the old railroad grade. It was farther than I was led to believe, and the river was enticing below, so after about 3/4 mile we started down a trail to the river below. In a deeper run, I quickly picked up three nice rainbows like the one in the photo (caddis green psycho prince size 16, of course), then nothing for a long while. Changing flies, nymphs, dries, no luck. Josh was new to fly fishing, and tried my double nymph, but mostly fished a brown, dubbed hair fly. After the first hole, the river was flat and non-descript, and even in the riffles that were a little deeper where there would usually be some little fish, there was nothing.
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| Warm River Rainbow |
This was not at all the river I had dreamed about (yes, I really have dreamed about this section of the river, but it was always fast moving and tumbling white water in a narrow canyon). But hope is always there for the fisherman, and we kept moving up around the next corner, until the river finally began to change after about 1/2 mile. Big boulders appeared, the canyon narrowed, and we could see some white water ahead. This was the river that was in my dreams! I saw some fish rising on the other side of the river where Josh was fishing, and pointed it out when he caught up with me. He proceeded to start catching them, with beautiful, long casts, not looking at all like a beginner. And I began to find them with the CGPPN. Ah, life is good, but not perfect, as Josh had a blind date set up for him for 3 PM, and so we had to leave just as we were getting into the nice water. As we walked looking for a way out of the canyon, I made one last toss into a small pool below white water and immediately had a nice little rainbow - the river taunting me, that I had to leave, but that's OK, I will return. And I will walk past the railroad tunnel next time.
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| Josh, my fishing companion on the Warm River with his first fish of the day |
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 - After a final farewell to Sarah, I drove west to Birch Creek and again slept in the back of the RAV4 with the sound of the running water singing me to sleep through the slightly open window. I awoke to a beautiful sunrise, briefly fished the creek in this heavily used public fishing area, then left and backtracked to a public fishing access I had seen in my headlights as I passed the night before. I saw many fish as I walked up the river, but few takers, either on nymphs or dries. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I came across a split in the river, where 1/2 to 2/3rd of the water had broken through a bend to a new channel. That explained why the stream I had been fishing was more like a meandering meadow stream, and possibly why the fish were so easily spooked in the quiet water. It was 9 am, and I had a 9 hour drive to get home, so I packed it up after getting the nice little rainbow below.
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| Birch Creek Sunrise |
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| Birch Creek Rainbow |
I had thought of stopping at the Lemhi River, but with limited public access I figured I'd probably hustle it to Washington and catch Little Nunya (I was coming home through Missoula and across I-90. But driving by the Lemhi and seeing it in some spots near the road changed my mind (along with the reports of 16" to 24" rainbows on hoppers that I had read of). So I found a spot with access and no other people, and waded into the fairly small stream, about Tucannon River size (100 cfs) with a little color. I was quickly rewarded with a number of 7" to 9" rainbows, a whitefish, and some gurgling pikeminnow (there are steelhead that make it up to this river, so the rainbows could likely be smolt. I caught a few nicer rainbows near 12" long, and then came to a nice long, deep run. Found another 12" rainbow, then I'm sorry to admit, I began to have fun catching northern pikeminnow, one after another, from 12" to 16", fighting strongly in the deep current, and gurgling as I picked them up to unhook the fly. It was automatic, cast drift, fish, one after the other. I kept at it because there were rainbows there also, finally hooking and releasing this nice one. From there, it just got better.
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| Lemhi Rainbow |
I continued upstream, with a number of 10" to 12" rainbows, and came to another deep run. Now the rainbows were 12" to 14" like the one below. At the top of this deep run, I hooked into a nice one that leaped out of the water, then fought very hard. As I watched in the water, I saw what turned out to be a 15" rainbow, with an even larger fish swimming all around it. Bull trout? Nope, it was just swimming wildly, maybe 18", and then it was gone. I brought in the smaller of the two fish, and the dropper was gone. It was then I realized I had a double with a 15" and about an 18" rainbow, but the 5x tippet couldn't hold the larger fish. The next hole up, I found more 12" to 14" bows, then drifting along overhanging willows, lifted up as the indicator went down and a 20"+ rainbow tail-danced across the water. I held several runs in the deep fast water, had it turned towards the bank several times, but each time it turned back into the fast water as I prayed the smaller fly would hold (it was on the dropper). I must not be as righteous as Josh, because my prayer was answered by a dive towards the submerged willow branches. I pulled just a little harder to hold the monstrous fish back, and the tippet broke. With shaking hands, I tied on the double CGPPN setup again (size 12 upper, size 16 lower, with a small split), ran a few more drifts through the hole, then looked at my watch and realized it was 1 pm and I still had 8 hours to home. I made one last cast down and across the flats at the bottom of the hole where I had seen a rise earlier, and promptly hooked into another bright rainbow, in the 18" range, who after a brief thrash across the surface, dove into the willows and broke off my flies. A sign that it was time to go. My intel on this stream - forget the hoppers! The CGPPN was unreal. I don't know if the color is always here or the result of recent rains. Fishing might be harder if it were dead clear, as the river is small. Also, there aren't a lot of places to fish, so it would not be a good location for a destination trip unless you were fishing with a guide who could provide access, but if passing through the area, you might want to check it out.
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| Nice Lemhi Rainbow, not the largest |
I thought I was done for the day, but climbing north out of Salmon approaching the state line, the road wound along the NF Salmon River, a small, creek-sized stream. Just a few miles from the summit, a historical marker beckoned (well, the stream next to the historical marker beckoned), and in 20 minutes I happily found some beautiful, small rainbows and cutthroats, all happily rising to dries. A fitting close for the day, I happily packed my rod away and finished the drive home, still haunted by the tail-dancing rainbow on the Lemhi, and dreaming of next fall when Sarah returns to school again and I can again visit these beautiful waters.
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| NF Salmon Rainbow |
