Ketchup, Idaho

[flycaster]

Have spent all week in the mountains of Idaho fishing for cutthroats and rainbows with a few more days to go? The weather has been great, 40's and 70's, much better than back home. Some of the fishing was tough this week, but then some has been easy. I've caught some of the best churchgoers ever this week. Grasshopper pattens worked well.Bear Valley creek is a wonderful place. NEVER saw another fisherman.Fact is I worried that I would be in trouble if Mr.Bear surprised me, or vice versatile. I fished on the Big Lost river near McKay for rainbows. Good pods of rainbows were up on tricos early. Size 20's and 22's. Tough.I did manage to hook several 15" fish but there were much larger ones seen. There were some Kokenee salmon in the river and I did catch one,around 15".That was a first for me. The Big Wood here in Ketchum is fishing well. Size 14 ant patterns would just get the rainbows tore up. I quit counting after ten fish, and had near that many others that bumped the fly,and refused it or that I had briefly hooked. Most caught were around 14-15", while I saw some nicer ones that were rather rude in their refusals.The evenings are fun when the Bastia come off. I'm using 16 and 18 Adams and some emerges and spinners as well. Fished on the famous Silver Creek yesterday evening. Talk about tough. The Nature Conservancy tract is beautiful and well worth visiting. No one around much. Fish were sipping small mayflies of some kind and again, there were some dandies in there. I managed two small fish, which is two better than I did last trip here. Today, it' overcast maybe some drizzle. It's going to be a Bastia thing today, hopefully hatching all day. I may take a break in the middle of the day and go to the local gun club. Beretta gun show is in town and there are letting folks demo their guns on the skeet range. Food and drinks are being catered so that may be my lunch option today. I just noticed that some words have been misspelled or changed on this post. Wow. I did not catch churchgoers. That's cutthroat. This IPad has a mind of it' own. Will try to post later on the results of the next two days later. GO VOLS.

 

[Fly Rod Rob]

Flycaster:

It sounds like you are having a wonderful time!! Great fishing and wonderful scenery, what could be better. We need pictures so we can be jealous!! Way to go on your first salmon too!! emoThumbsup

You need to run by "Papa" Hemingway's grave and say "Hi" to a angler, hunter and author. emoWorthy

Have a great trip in Ketchup, er... Ketchum, Idaho. (Darn you auto correct!!)

Safe travel and tight lines!

-Rob

 

[flycaster]

Re: Ketchum, Idaho

The next two days were a little slower than earlier in the week. i still found some rising fish, but not near as many.The front that passed through may have affected things. I had another instance on a trip where I caught the same fish twice. One of the first evenings I fished on the Big Wood river, I was using a dry, dropper with a zebra midge as the dropper. I caught a nice rainbow on the dropper. What made the fish stand out was the fact that it was missing an entire gill cover or plate. Fat fish, about 16". The very last evening I went back to that stretch of river because it seemed to have a decent number of risers in the evenings. Sure enough, when I walked along the run, I spotted no less than five fish rising in different spots. Very slow, deliberate rises. You could not see anything on the surface that they might be taking. I just wanted one fish to close out the trip with, hook one more and just walk away. After who knows how many drifts over most of those fish, I finally got one to eat a rusty spinner. Before I even landed him, I could see the missing gill plate on this fish, the same size as the earlier fish, just e few feet from where I caught him before. That's an odd way to close out a trip. It may be a few years, but I hope to get back to the area again. It's a neat destination, lots to do year round here. I will try and get some pics posted before long. At least before the next trip, which is to the White river at Cotter Arkansas in three weeks. I know, it's been tough. Oh yeah, Fly Rod Bob, I really meant to go by Hemmingways place but I never did. I did see some neat pictures of him and Jane Russell after a pheasant hunt at the Sun Valley Gun club.

 

[Fly Rod Rob]

Re: Ketchum, Idaho

Thanks for the update!! It sounds like an AWESOME trip!!

Last year, my last fish out west was a whitefish!!

Run by Blue Ribbon Fly shop or Mountain River Fly shop in Cotter, AR. They will have all the info on conditions and patterns. Last week they were flowing 7+ generators!! Be careful over on the White.

Tight lines and safe travels!

-Rob