Island Park trip

Started out fishing the main stem of the Snake around Idaho Falls. The state record 26 pound rainbow was recently pulled from the river just above American Falls. We fished two spots. The first one was at the put-in for boats that were floating the section just above the lake. Only caught a few bows here so we moved upriver to Firth. There we caught more stocker bows in fast, well oxygenated water but nothing impressive- one bigger fish sighted though. Water temp around 64 I think.

Next stop was the Teton River. We fished where a few guide boats were pulling out. Water temp around 63. Nothing really hatching and the stomach sample had only little black snails. The cutts in this river are totally covered in little black spots that come from a harmless parasite.
Then to Coffepot Rapids on the Henrys. We fished the far side and found zillions of little stocker and wild bows. Devin fished behind me and still caugth plenty more: proof of the effectiveness of French nymphing. He also hooked one kokanee and one 20 inch bow.

Box Canyon also only produced little bows and some nice whitefish. Much of the water looks the same so it's hard to pick out good holding areas. Flows were around 600 which apparently isn't ideal because I'm told its much better at 900 or at 300. For some reason the big fish can be very elusive here, maybe because they can spread out well at this flow. Maybe the warmer water from the Buffalo played a part in putting the bigger fish down. But I'm told when this river is hot it's really hot.

We stayed at Scott's trailer near Island Park reservoir and took his boat out Labor Day morning. Motored over to the "Thumb" bay. The cabin in the background is owned by the Trude family which is where the Trude line of flies came from. Despite the water temp being about 64 there were plenty of fish up very shallow. Devin absolutely railed on the big bows using the Loch technique: 3 fly tag rig, all tungsten beads, flashy green #10 "Pops" bugger being the main attraction. He used a 3 sink then switched to a 7 for the "pulling lures" technique. This involves placing a flashy orange "blob" attractor fly in the middle and retrieving as fast as possible. Plently of fish fell for the blob. I got my butt kicked cause I tried to stick with bigger flies.

An unusually friendly moose just chilling by the trailer

Then off to Red Rock Creek - headwaters of the Beaverhead. We came expecting easy fishing for grayling but were shocked to find the fish concentrated in only a few holes and very unresponsive to our flies. Absolutely nothing hatching and very low, clear water Devin was smart enough to try nymphing some #12 olive beadhead buggers which had enough movement to provoke strikes. Stomach sample only had water boatmen.

Luckily we found a large deep hole where the majority of fish in that section were hiding from ospreys. Many of the fish had scars from osprey attacks. The water was just deep enough for the fish to let their guard down and take our flies - but Devin's buggers still outproduced my prince and pheasant tail nymphs. We caught around a dozen fish out of there- whities, brookies, and of course some large grayling with one pushing 17 inches. There was one 20+ inch cutt in the pool that kept chasing our hooked fish and Devin even hook it with his second fly.

This was one of the most educational trips I have ever been on.