Coach's Caribou County Fly Fishing Journal

Black Canyon 4/9/11

2011-04-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Be very careful when fishing Black Canyon. Not only was the fishing poor and the water off color but around 1:00 I got a text message from another guy that was fishing down there. They had released an extreme amount of water through the dam at about noon. He was out in the river standing on a rock and very quickly the rock was under water. They do weird things with that river and while they do it fishes very poorly and can become very dangerous. Check the Pacificorp website before you leave to check stream flows. If the flow is more than 100 CFS, don't bother. I don't know where I will be fishing in the coming weeks, but there are a few local creeks that are spring fed that should be pretty good. Utah folks will wait for Chesterfield to open up and I will wait for 24 Mile reservoir. Hopefully the Portneuf will blow out soon leaving the river much cleaner and the fishermen much happier.

Fishing Report March, 4 2011

2011-03-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

Cold and windy between Lava and Mike's. Took my boy out to the river and only saw one fish. Water color and clarity were very poor even with the low flows. Very little bug activity, I saw a few midges coming off about 3:00 but no fish moving, not even in the foam lines where the usually hand out. Next time I think I will fish higher even if I have to walk some to get there. Some good reports up toward Croney's but will have to check that out another day. Blue wings should start moving in the next month or so especially if we get some 50 degree days. I will be stocking the box with small pheasant tails, emergers, cripples and spent wings waiting for the spring action to begin. It should be really fun in the next month or so as long as the flows come down a little.

Fishing Report Jan. 29, 2011

2011-01-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

Idaho has changed stream seasons and regulations. Check them out at http://idahofishandgame.org. The changes are wonderful and many of the streams that have previously been closed are open under catch and release regulations.

I have recently fished "chalkstream" and have picked up good numbers of fish on the surface and fishing nymphs and streamers. The water is a little off color but there are good numbers of fish finding midges in the foam lines, and the fish seem to be active subsurface. Micro leeches, wooly buggers in purple and olive and the green bomb have all picked up good numbers of fish. Fish seemed to be more active closer to town.

Fishing Report 6-22-10

2010-06-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

There are a few reports coming from the Portneuf of good hatches of PMD's and some good fish being found. Water levels are slowly declining and clarity on the upper river is improving. Most of the area creeks are finishing their runoff stages and are fishing well. I have fished Toponce, Eight-mile and Georgetown creek in the last week or so with good success in each of them. The fish don't seem to care much what you throw at them as long as it is small and dry. Water temperatures are still cold right now, this might be the best it gets on some of the creeks as water temperatures will surely increase.

Fishing Report 6-8-2010

2010-06-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

I have really enjoyed trying to find new water to fish when the streams are turbulent. I have found some success in the very top end of some of my favorite creeks. I also recently discovered a new stream near Pocatello with some monster browns in it, it was extremely brushy but fished very well in the deep holes drifting a San Juan. The Portneuf is off-color and high with very little bug activity. I would have to rate it at a double ghaaagh, right now. The very top of Toponce fished very well. Monday, I fished Paul's reservoir near the Montana line with Tobee and had a great time even though the catching was slow. Tobee taught me a new leech pattern that apparently is prettier than it is useful, but should be a very productive pattern.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

2010-05-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

After a very long 2 years of working on a Master's degree it is finally finished. It is mostly with disgust that I even look at the computer after being attached to it at the wrists for such a period of time, but I am now ready to continue in the blogosphere. This is the weekend that we all wait for; the weekend when creeks, rivers and streams open in Idaho yet are mostly too high and cloudy to fish. There are a few secret places however that seem to clear up and remain fish-able in the early season. These out of the way places are held dear to my heart because they are so few and far between.

Since August 2009 I have fished a grand total of 5 times and at no time did I feel like any of those trips were noteworthy. Now I enter the game again with nearly three months until school starts again and life gets turned on its head. Memorial day weekend is a time when we can reflect and honor those that have served. It also happens to be the weekend I get to call myself a fisherman again. I hope I can keep my priorities straight.

Bear River 1/30/2010

2010-01-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

I am back in the game. It seems like forever since I have fished, because it has been. One of the saddest events of my life happened on Halloween, 2009. While on a family outing to the creek, I fished a little and played with the kids we all had a great time. About a week later I got done with school and was going to head to the river for one last hurrah, and realized that I must have left my chest pack up at the creek that fateful Halloween day. Long story short it has taken some time to replace even a portion of what I used to carry in that bag, and I now have just enough to get back in the game.

I have fished Black Canyon twice this winter both times with encouraging success. For the most part the fish were taking midges both times that I have been in the canyon. This has been good for me because my midge fishing was something that really needed some work. Today was beautiful, the temperature was cold but the fish were very active. In an attempt to see what the fish really wanted to eat I fished nymphs, streamers and midges. The winner of the day by a long shot was a #16-20 Griffiths gnat.

Portneuf River Report 9/7/2009

2009-09-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

Water Color: Very Good

Water Quality: Excellent

Water Temp: Cooler than last week 55 degrees

Weather: 75 degrees, windy, partly cloudy

Time: 4:30-6:30

Bugs: Hoppers, Hoppers and Hoppers

Flies: Daves Hopper, Parachute Hopper, Pheasant Tail droppers

The Portneuf fished well today with good numbers of large fish eating hoppers and droppers. I hooked up more on the dropper than the hopper, but the action will only get better from here. I really think that as the forecast is supposed to be cooler at nights that the fish will get very active. The larger fish are really starting to move. This may be the best that it gets until the river closes.

Portneuf River Report 8/29/2009

2009-08-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Water Carity: fair

Water Temp: unknown, but warm still

Weather: Mostly cloudy 65 degrees.

Time: 9:00-11:00

Bugs: Caddis, small mayflies (not many), grasshoppers.

Not many fish moving this morning on the River but it is beginning to show signs of life. I hooked into one really nice fish and saw a handful of others working. The water quality is getting much better. The banks of the river were swarming with hoppers by 11:00 but fish are still not keying on them. We need some colder nights in order to really start the fish on the hunt. My guess is that due to the nice weather and warm nights that the fish are active at night. I would be interested to fish the Portneuf at night and find out if the big boys more active in the warm months. I expect the quality of the fishing on the river to change dramatically in the next few weeks.

Blackfoot River Report

2009-08-08T19:41:00.001-07:00

Water off color

Air temp: 60

Bug activity: some PMD's, very minimal.

Usually the Blackfoot River is low and clear this time of year, but this has been anything but a normal year. Today the Blackfoot was still off color and running a little high. The narrows is really the place to be as the water that is usually too low to fish is actually quite nice right now. There were good numbers of active fish closer to the National Forest boundary on the west end of the river. I found some really nice fish in this section, they were feeding just subsurface on what looked like emerging PMD's. I really would expect for the river to clear a little more in the next few weeks and for the fish to get really active as the nights get colder and the hoppers get bigger.

Portneuf River Report

2009-07-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

I fished the upper Portneuf this morning and let's just say it was really crappy. Water clarity is poor and the flows are still high. I have always held that the Portneuf is a morning fishery so stumbled out of bed this morning in great anticipation. At first glance the river looked good so I walked over the hill to one of my favorite stretches. The one angry bull that bellowed at me from the other side of the fence was the most excitement I had all morning. Not a fish in site, not a rise, not a wake nothing. There were good numbers of caddis hatching so that may prove promising for the future. On another note the stretch of the river that I was fishing usually has a nice gravelly bottom, this for the most part there is mud up to your knees, the river didn't blow out this year like it usually does in the spring so I think all the sediments just piled up. I really do think that the river will start fishing well when the farmers turn off their water, but it may be until the middle of August til it is ready. I'll keep posting.

Fish Pics

2009-07-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

I got to take a trip with Nate to some creeks in the Columbia Gorge fishing some native redsides, later we went exploring a little creek on Mt. Hood. We found some great coastal cutts. Not huge but really nice fish for a creek this size; with small rods and fast water it really made for some exciting action.

A really nice coastal cutt with all of the heavy spotting.

Most of the water on the creek was very fast

Here are some pictures from a creek near the Continental Divide that we found. We don't really know the name of it but it was somewhere near Monida. Also are a few random Portneuf pictures that I liked and some from Birch Creek, on the highway between Terreton, Idaho and Salmon, Idaho.

Portneuf at Dusk

Todd with a nice Birch Creek brookie

An Average No Tell 'um Creek Brookie

That's right we worm fished the heck out of those brookies, mostly because we found a few really nice cutts in the same stream and wanted the brookies gone. . .yep we ate 'em.

I've been everywhere...man

2009-07-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

I feel like that old Johnny Cash song, I really have been all over the great northwest in the last three weeks and have had a chance to fish nearly everywhere that I went. The first leg of my trip was to Northern Idaho where I fished for native cutthroats on some miniscule streams and some stocked rainbows and brookies on some bigger water. Then it was off to Portland Oregon. I fished with Nate, and we had a great time exploring some less traveled creeks in the Columbia Gorge. We found some really beautiful native redband trout in the gorge streams travlelling east toward Hood River. We then worked our way around Mt. Hood where on the eastern side we fished Cold Springs Creek and found a slough of native coastal cutthroat (at least that's what I think they are after looking at Cutthroat Stalkers cutthroat ID page). Later we fished a very small tailwater to a crappy looking reservoir and caught some brookies. The highlight of the trip for sure was the small, very fast water of Cold Springs Creek catching those little and sometimes not so little cutts. Now I am back in Southeast Idaho and have found myself doing some reclamation, I mean brook trout extermination, work on a little stream north of Dubois, Idaho almost to the continental divide and Wyoming border. We found some really nice cutthroat in the small stream and also found that if we fished worms in the creek we could catch lots of really big (10-14 in) brook trout. So the three amigos harvested about 60 brookies from the stream in two days and had a great time doing it. We also fished a little reservior filled with cutthroat called Paul's Reservoir near the Idaho/Montana border. Finally yesterday, I got to fish one of my all time favorite "fun water" at Birch Creek. Really, it turned out to be much more than we expected when we found a great stonefly hatch on the creek and got to fish huge flies to voracious fish. Tobee and I fished a stretch of the creek .3 miles long and landed over 100 fish in three hours. There is a reason Birch Creek is popular, I'm just glad to be able to fish some places that not many people fish. I have some great pictures but don't have them downloaded yet so those will come in the future.

June 10, 2009

2009-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Fished a few places on Toponce Creek this afternoon and really had a pretty good time. Fish larger than expected have moved out of the mainstem of the creek to the softer water of the South Fork. I fished three areas of the S.F., the extreme upper only producing a few small cutts, the middle was the best and actually had a great mayfly hatch, and the extreme lower which had picked up more water and the flows were just a little too high. It was about 50 degrees and cloudy today which really aided all the bug action. In the stretches of faster water I ran some weighted nymphs with some good success and in the slower water with rising fish I fished dries. I found one hole where there were probably 10-20 fish sipping adult mayflies and I automatically thought it would be like shooting fish in barrell. An hour later I had finally found the right pattern and landed about 10 of those fish, but I had to clear out my box to get it done. Talked to a friend of mine that has fished a few more things and according to him the Bear River is terrible right now, probably due to the "recreational flows" for kayakers and rafters. The Portneuf is high right now but fish can still be taken if you don't mind getting out the lead and dredging for them. 8 mile Creek near Soda Springs is high but fishable. Pebble Creek is the same. In addition, I drove through Yellowstone Park the other day and the park waters are realy fishable right now. Here are some pictures of our Yellowstone trip just to spice up the blog a little.

Spring fishing report

2009-05-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

I have had the opportunity in the last week to travel the area and check on the condition of some of the water. In general most Caribou County streams are still too high to fish with a few exceptions. The Portneuf River flows are at good levels and the water clarity is surprisingly good. The river bottom is exceptionally muddy this year, probably due to the low spring runoff that usually blows out the river. I went to only one spot on the Portneuf that usually holds good numbers of fish and did not even see a fish, so I need to do more exploring. The very top of the South Fork of Toponce Creek fished well in the beaver dams. I caught two very small cutthroat yesterday out of 24 mile creek, but watch out for the mosquitos. Ledge creek has some great brook trout fishing. I checked out a friends recommendation in Franklin County this week also and found the water looking in pretty good shape. I believe they call this water the West Fork of the Bear River. I will be out of town for the next week but it looks like flows are already on the downhill slide and that things should be pretty normal by the second or third week of June this year.

Life is Crazy Busy

2009-05-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

School is now out and track season is over. It is time to get back to the blog. I really have not blogged because I have not fished in nearly two months. A new baby, sports seasons etc.... I will now hope to do better. Tomorrow is the opener and the upper Portneuf and some of the surrounding streams look pretty good. I plan to check them out tomorrow and report. If there is still anyone out there who reads this blog stick with me, it will get better. Wish me luck on the opener.

Great February Dry Fly Fishing

2009-03-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

I was looking for some action on the fly rod last week and found some great fishing not too far from the car or from home. Anytime the temperatures rise above 32 degrees in February I can usually be found somewhere in my house turning cartwheels. Fishing trips lately have been few and far between. I escaped on a beautiful Saturday afternoon last week for a 1 hour trip to Black Canyon. The canyon stretch of the river upstream from the Grace power plant is a beautiful stretch of river with terraces separating deep pools. Each pool, run and riffle has its own character and the water can often be difficult to read and even harder to wade. The bottom of the river is lava rock from an ancient flow, the current has chiseled the large canyon and made some holes only as big around as your leg and deeper. On more than one occasion I have been walking along the downstream edge of a terrace shelf and with one misplaced step found myself up to the hip in a hole barely big enough for my boot to fit through. Take caution and it is always good if you don't know this stretch of river to take a buddy along.

This trip didn't turn out to as much of a challenge as I thought that it might be. In fact since I have started keeping this blog last March, I have now caught a trout on a dry fly for 12 consecutive months. This is a feat that I am somewhat proud of even though if you know where to go on the Bear there is a good chance of fish rising in the middle of a blizzard. the fish don't seem to care much what is going on with the weather as long as there are midges coming off, and they come off in droves. Midge activity in the soft water where the fish don't have to expend much energy to get a mouthful of the little black bugs really get the fish going, and if you don't find midged coming off on top of the water there is a good chance there are active larvae and pupa working their way to the surface in the winter months.

When I see mouths and tails I throw an 18 or 20 griffiths gnat or a parachute adams in the same sizes. When I see backs and dorsal fins I throw a small brassie or black midge emerger. If neither of the above are happening I chuck a standard nymph or a small midge larvae pattern or San Juan worm with success. Streamers will always work and as the famous Gary LaFontaine once said, "you know what they say about wooly buggers, they work" and the Bear River is no exception. A streamer fished very slowly may be what you really want to fish when you just want to catch fish, but fish them slowly, dead drifts work as well as slow upstream strips.

Whatever seems to be going on around this area, Black Canyon is always the one place I can go to forget that it is winter. The scenery, wildlife and the river is beautiful and the fishing isn't bad either.

Bear River Report

2009-02-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

Fished the Bear River last Friday and had a great time. The day was a bit warmer and I found some fish on the rise right away in some of the slower runs. It was just the medicine I needed during what appears to be never ending winter again. I then turned to the old trusty heavily weighted wooly bugger. I swung it through some of the deep holes with very little success and then found that by pulling them slowly directly upstream I could move the fly slow enough to attract some attention. All said the scenery was fantastic, there was very little snow in the canyon and I picked up about 15 fish in an hour and a half. It was just great to be outside again, hear the river and feel that crisp winter breeze (OK I could live without that). The fish do seem to be smaller than past years and the size did improve the farther that I got from the bridge. Awesome.

The Holidays have been good

2009-01-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

I haven't fished for a while, but life has been pretty great. I have been at home helping take care of our new son Cam. He was born on Dec. 18th in Soda Springs. Life brings us all great gifts and the birth of a new child is certainly at the top of the list. Hopefully, if I play my cards right I will have 3 fishing buddies in a few years. Tyler is now 5, Jay is 2 and Cam is two weeks old today.

The week before Cam was born I did make a trip to Black Canyon by myself and the fishing was less what I had hoped for. Pacificorp ran a series of whitewater releases through the canyon this year in order to provide recreation for a few (I don't really think they exist) white water experts looking for class five material. What it seems to have done is wash sediments from upstream into the canyon and wash out the bugs. I have tried to verify my hunch about the bugs with other anglers and many of them agree that insect life appears to be much less prolific. One angler that I visited with that has fished the canyon for 15 years claims that this has happened every time that they accomodated the mystery kayakers. According to the local experts numbers of fish and aquatic life can stay down for up to two years. This is a poor management choice by Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Pacificorp. It seems as though they don't understand where their bread is buttered.

Finally!!!

2008-12-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Whip finish and head cement and you're done. This is by far my favorite

winter pattern in Black Canyon. Tie them in a variety of colors. The only difference

from a regular wooly bugger is the large cone and thick lead wire. Tie them really heavy.

Wrap the chenille forward away from your body and then wrap the saddle

in the same direction. Remember with hackles shiny side forward.

Leave the tinsel for last and wrap it in the opposite direction of the chenille and saddle.

Next tie in the marabou tail and wrap over the lead to make it smooth.

Tie in a piece of chenille, tinsel and the tip of the saddle at the hook bend.

This is a size 4, 4x long hook with a large cone head

and heavy lead.

By the time I finish teaching and doing homework the last thing that I want to do is blog. I have somehow mustered the motivation tonight. I could use this time to complain about all of the fishing that I haven't done but I will instead say that I have fished once in the last month. Pathetic. I got down to tying some Buggers tonight and that perked up my spirits. With the winter all but here, I now dream of Bear River rainbows, and fat ones at that. In preparation for the trip that may never happen I began tying my Black Canyon arsenal. Part one the Wooly Bugger with plenty of weight. Here goes. As you can see the pictures are in reverse order. Great for the dyslexic.

Pumpkins and Cutthroats

2008-10-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Tiffany and I had a great time today taking the boys to the pumpkin patch in Preston and then retreating to the Cub river for a picnic and fishing. I only got to fish for about an hour, but hey, it was an hour more than the last two weeks combined. The Cub River is a beautiful little cutthroat stream in its upper reaches about 10 miles southwest of Preston. It is pocketwater that has decent little cutts in almost every pocket and seam in the river. The fishing was pretty good, fish were rising to the trusty P.A. and I landed about 5 and missed several others. I did get some pictures though thanks to Tiffany of the river and how beautiful it is this time of year. No fish pictures though, sorry. For anyone that is interested I did pass through both Black Canyon on the Bear River and the Onieda Narrows in the past few days. AWESOME. The water is perfect and the fishing looked great from what I could glimpse of the river. I saw plenty of rising fish in the Narrows in the foam lines and the water below where it is usually to fast to wade was very fishable. Check out the link to Oregon Trout's blog for pics of our Deschutes adventures.

The Elusive Deschutes Steelhead

2008-10-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have never caught a steelhead before. My trip last weekend led me to the lower Deschutes River in Oregon around the town of Maupin. Maupin is a cozy little town with a few fly shops, restaurants, motels, an eight man football team and not a few steelhead fishermen. Luckily when we arrived at the river after our 1 1/2 hour drive from Gresham at 7:00 AM we found relatively few people on the river and some willing trout on our nymph rigs. I caught 4 of the 5 first fish of the day between the three of us, in the first 1/2 hour and then only two others the rest of the day. Nate got into 3 really nice trout in a row 18, 17 and 16 inches in that order and fat. The fishing slowed considerably by 10:00 and we were working for only the occasional hit the rest of the day. Nate and I fished a section about 1 1/2 miles downstream from where John was and we had no luck. We wandered around for a while and then decided to go find John. When we found him he immediately had a story about a steelhead that he had just hooked but had released early. We thought, "right". Not 30 seconds later John was into a decent steelhead and we were feeling more than a little sheepish. John played and landed the 7 pound steelhead like a pro on a 4 weight rod. That was, in fact, my first and only look at a real steelhead. Oh well, maybe next time, it was still a great time.

If I had a nickel...

2008-09-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

If I had a nickel for every fish that I have caugt recently I would be a poor man. Have not fished much lately. My day usually goes like this school-football-dinner-homework-bed. My recent schedule has forced me to put the fish on the back burner for a while. In the last few weeks I have made a few trips to the Portneuf and I fished 8 mile creek with some boy scouts on our last campout. The Portneuf has fished great the last few times I have been there. If you can find sections were there is good moving water or a little wind it is very possible to have enough cover to be able to catch alot of fish. It is commonly believed on the Portneuf that once the water gets low and really clear that it is impossible to get close enough to a fish to catch one, but with the right conditions and knowledge of the river it is very possible to catch lots of fish. I fished a section about a week ago that had moving water and was very weedy. In the seams between the weeds was a cutthroat. I only caught one rainbow and nothing over 20 in. but if you want some tough, fun fishing find this kind of water. Stiff tippets with hoppers are a winner right now. I had to go to a 2x because of all the weeds in order to keep their heads up. I expect that with the colder temperatures at night the fishing will get even better clear up until the closer. My brother is getting married in Portland this next weekend and I get to go back to the Deshcutes. The fishing there has been good of late and the word is that this year is a record steelhead run. That would provide some real excitement.

Good fishing, don't give up.

Kevin

August 23, 2008

2008-08-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Great fishing on the Portneuf in the mid afternoon. A few fish looking for hoppers, most were eating smaller bugs on top. Good amounts of activity and fish rising. Caught one bigggg fish and a few other smaller 16-20 in. fish. I have also heard great reports from the Blackfoot river and several of the larger creeks toward Caribou Mountain. Fish on the Blackfoot really like Dave's Hopper and I have seen pictures of some in the 2-3 lb range. Below the narrows seems to be the place to be.

Taco or Burrito?

2008-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Will somebody out there that reads my blog tell me and the 8th Grade class at North Gem what the difference is between a taco and a burrito!!!! We are confused.

Aug 12, 2008

2008-08-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

I need to take more pictures. That is the conclusion that I have come to after viewiing several other blogs. Mine tends to pale in comparison, still I chug along hoping to offer as much info as I can on my home waters. Right now the Upper Portneuf is fishing well in the mornings and evenings. Very shortly the fish should be onto the hoppers in the afternoons. I have not fished the Bear River in quite sometime, but it should fish well later in the month. Usually the water really clears up after they quit messing with the flows and in some stretches the fish will really be looking up for hoppers. I will definitely be out in Black Canyon by the end of the month looking for some of the big fish in the canyon to be looking up. Creeks in the area continue to fish well. Check out McCoy, Tincup, Bear, Brockman, Pebble, Toponce, or Eight mile creeks. I don't think that you can go wrong with any of these creeks later in the month. All of these have good populations of Cutts and are a real hoot to fish. The real purpose of this post is to chronicle the results of my last trip to Bonners Ferry. My brother Todd and I fished Snow Creek and Myrtle Creek and though Myrtle Creek is much larger I ended up catching more fish and larger fish in some of the big pools below some small falls on Snow Creek. Myrtle Creek new to me and has some beautiful water. The real joy of my trip was fishing a canyon section of the Moyie River where we found some great fish, mostly rainbow, and one really nice cutthroat. It was a great time skipping along the really slick rocks, more like greased bowling balls and I have the bruises to prove it. We probably caught 30 fish in this section that recieves relatively little if any pressure since access is through private land and pretty difficult. Well worth the trip.

August 7, 2008

2008-08-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

Met with the cutthroat stalker this morning for a full day of fishing. I am going to keep my post fairly brief as I am bogged down with homework (yuck) but will give you a link to his site that will provide you with a great story I am sure about our trip. We fished the Portneuf in the morning and saw great numbers of mayflies in the area downstream from the parking lot on Croney Road. We were mostly casting to rising fish in the morning which made this trip really fun. Except for the one that got away. It is very rare that you get a shot at a fish more than once that is 20" or longer. I missed the first time and then donated my P. Adams to his nose on my second chance. I dreamt about it last night. We then moved downstream to fish the area downstream from the horseshoe bend. I had good success in some faster water but by 11:00 all the fish had gone down. I found about 5 nice fish on a P.T. nymph in some of the faster water. Most of the fish that we did catch on the Portneuf today were over 15" with a few pushing 20 and one that I landed in the evening that was well over 20". Check out cutthoat stalkers blog for pics and video. We fished in the middle of the day on the South fork of Toponce and had limited success, it was not what I had expected at all but the south fork did fish better than the main fork where we only landed a few fish. I have a post coming soon on my adventures in Bonners Ferry.

Toponce Creek July 22, 2008

2008-07-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

I guess Tyler was hot!The creek is really looking in good shape. The big hole
DT's first Cutt on a fly rod

Took Tyler and DT fishin' on Toponce creek. We had a ball until the sun went down. Then the fish went down too. Drove by the Portneuf and it is running high but pretty clear. There should be fish feeding. We had a great time tonight, the only casualty was Tyler's new Cars watch that he bought with his own money today. He forgot to take it off before falling in the creek.

Oregon Pictures

2008-07-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

July 21, 2008

2008-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't fished much this summer at all and I am about to go crazy. On the 5th of July I took my brother Todd and Les to Toponce creek and we just had a ball. We hiked up the south fork above the beaver ponds where we got into loads of cutthroat. We then fished the main stem for a few hours the fishing was pretty spectacular. Les didn't even hook himself in the nose this year, but that was the joke of the day. On the 4th Todd and I fished Blacksmith fork and I have to say that was one of the worst experiences of my life. Besides only catching 4 fish I think that every person in Utah owns 4 ATV's and they were all in Blacksmith fork canyon. Note to self avoid anywhere that people know about on holidays. Other than that, I was at scout camp this past week near Palisades dam and took off for a few hours to fish Bear Creek on the west side of Palisades reservior. I caught a mess of fish, most in the 6-10 inch range but there are some hogs in there. I had one surprise me in a muddy looking slow channel that was about 18 in. One of the most beautiful cutts I have ever seen. I hope this week to be back on the river and after more fish. It's dry fly season and everything is looking up. Head to the small creeks for a great time and you might even get surprised in the process.

June 28, 2008

2008-06-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Finally it is great to be home and check up on some of my local favorites. The water all over the west is running high, and I have seen alot of it in the last three weeks travelling through Oregon, Washington and Idaho. I found a little creek that feeds the Moyie River near Bonners Ferry that I had never fished before and my two brothers and I had a wonderful time catching little native westslope cutthroat. It was particularly special to me because most of the streams that far north have become so overrun with brook trout that it is a special occasion to find a creek with almost nothing but cutts. I went out to check on the Portneuf and Toponce creek last night. The Portneuf was high and muddy, when farmers want water they get water. Toponce Creek was high but actually fished pretty well. I talked with another fly angler that was doing well on a wooly bugger. I had a hard time passing up the rising fish so I threw a parachute adams which always seems to be the go to on this creek. I expect the water to be very clear maybe even within a week or so and for appetites to be voracious. Sometimes mother nature surprises us with water and we have to wait until that magical day when the runoff has finally finished. Thanks for the good winter. I think that I might have to push south of the border for a few days in the coming weeks and test out some of the water in the Logan area.

June 7, 2008

2008-06-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

The Deschutes river in Central Oregon is a beautiful, powerful river that runs through a deep canyon in the area below the town of Maupin. The river also holds one of the most powerful trout that I have had the privelege to hook up with. The fish were few and far between, I only hooked maybe a dozen or so all day but wow! when you hook up you hook up. These redside trout are some of the toughest hombres around. I was lucky enough to be able to go with John, and Nate who fish the Deschutes often and they were great. The salmonflies and big golden stones were moving into the shallows by afternoon but the fish were still not keyed in on them. I had such a wonderful time, pictures are coming soon of our trip. Thanks, guys for letting me come along. I wonder what the rivers at home are doing. I will not be back til the end of the month but can't wait to get to the Blackfoot for the opener.

Vacationing at the beach,
Coach

May 28, 2008

2008-05-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

I have been around and checked a few places out but have not spent much time anywhere. Last week I spent about an hour at 24 Mile reservoir and had no trouble finding fish. I was having trouble hooking up however. I was getting consistent strikes fishing a little caddis emerger. I was fishing without an indicator and strikes were really hard to detect. There was a lot of "swirling" going on from 7:00 on. I also drove up to Toponce Creek the other day and the gate was still closed. I talked to one guy who said that they were supposed to open the gate yesterday but I have not been back to check it out because the water was raging. Pebble Creek road was open but the creek was blown out by runoff. I did fish the Portneuf below the Pebble Creek bridge yesterday about 11:00. There were a few mayflies coming off but not enough to get the fish looking up. I picked up a few chunky rainbows but only had about half an hour so I didn't get a real good idea of what's going on.

May 10, 2008

2008-05-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Portneuf at Pebble Bridge

I got to go to one of my favorite local creeks this last weekend. Tobee and I went to Birch Creek and fished it a few miles north of Lone Pine. We had a great time throwing small dries to brookies and rainbows. I fished backwards, trying to find a pattern that wouldn't work and after many attempts on only didn't catch fish on a yellow sally. We fished for about 5 hours and landed over 150 fish. Somebody out there tell me if I'm wrong but there were redds all over the upper reaches of the creek. Must have been spawning rainbows, even though I thought all the rainbows in the creek were triploid fish. Good reports from 24 mile and Chesterfield from boats trolling hardware, bank fishermen and float tubers. No motors on 24 Mile. Streamers, chironomids and nymphs fished under indicators have all been producing. I personally can't wait for the opener on the Portneuf. There has been more water this year than last and we should see pretty consistant flows and the water is getting clearer everyday. Toponce and Pebble should even be ready for the opener with the cold temperatures keeping the runoff pretty moderate.

Good Luck,

Coach

April 28, 2008

2008-04-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't blogged in while because there hasn't been much to talk about. I ahve taken a few more trips to Black Canyon in April and did ok on midges and small mayflies but overall have not had the kind of numbers that I did in early March. I tried to fish some streamers a few weeks ago in the canyon and only had moderate success, it was more fun to chase rising fish. With the amount of snow that we had this winter the water is just now starting to run high in many places and will probably do so through part of June. Tyler and I had fun on Ledge Creek the other day only a few hundred yards from the highway in Soda. Ledge Creek is very small and I don't even know how many people actually believe there are fish in it but we managed a few brookies and had a great time. Only 3 1/2 weeks now until the general stream season so the action should pick up. I expect good Baetis hatches from here til early June if there is a place the water is not too high. The Oneida narrows seems to do pretty well on those overcast days. Stillwater is also a good bet this time of year as the action heats up on Chesterfield and 24 Mile reservoirs for trophy fish and at places like Condie and Twin Lakes for bluegill and bass if you like that sort of thing. I haven't quite figured out 24 Mile or Chesterfield yet on a fly rod but have taken a few fish over 20 inches on wooly buggers, nymphs and chironomids. I can't wait until the creeks open up and we can get after some cutts.

March 21, 2008

2008-03-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Went with Albert Hansen again to the Bear River and did really well. From the bridge at the Black Canyon access I fished further from the bridge today than I usually do and picked up alot of fish. The average fish seemed to be much larger the further I ventured from the bridge. The water clarity and quality was excellent as they are holding more water back at the Grace dam which helped the wading and the catching. Today was mostly cloudy and about 45 degrees. For the most part heavy weighted streamers were the best bet with a big conehead sculpin pattern being the winner for the day. Albert didn't do so well today he was trying to fish dries to imaginary rising fish, just like he saw those Utah guys doing. Check out Albert's latest picture.

March 14, 2008

2008-03-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

I had a coaches clinic in Missoula MT and decided to drive south a little and fish the famous Bitteroot river today. Met a guy at the river that said he knew the river pretty well so I fished with him. I only caught 1 fish today, a big old ugly squawfish. I was a little early on the skwala hatch but had a good time and got to see some great country.

March 7, 2008

2008-03-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

Number 30 almost made me late for dinner. Went fishing today with Albert Hanson and I totally kicked his butt. I tried for twenty minutes to get number 30 on the line and finally had to pack it up and leave. The weather was not as nice as it was last Saturday, but the fishing was just as good in Black Canyon. As you can see in the picture there were a few fish up in the afternoon. It's always pretty fun to take a decent fish on small flies, in this case it was a #20 parachute adams. I was struggling a little at first then found this big ugly streamer in my box that I think I stole from a friend of mine. I caught 28 fish on that streamer but I'll have to wait another day for number 30.

Happy fishin',

Kevin

Bear River -- March 1, 2008

2008-03-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up and it was 42 degrees at 7:00 AM. After the long winter we had around here it was a beautiful morning. I decided to take a trip to Black Canyon and it was even warmer there. Nymphing the big holes in the canyon was not the name of the game today. Picked up a few fish on the big green ugly early. Then about 9:00 midges started to come off and the fish were up. Found half a dozen fish or so on a #20 Griffith's gnat and another few on a #22 Parachute Adams. The real winner of the day was swimming big wooly buggers in black, brown and olive through the big holes. Also dead drifting and stripping them strait back upstream picked up good numbers of fish. I talked to one kid from Logan that had come up for the day and was doing great on a size 8 brown bugger with a little split shot for extra weight. No need for a sinking line here. All said, I landed about 20 fish in 2 hours with most of the fish in the 14 - 18 inch range.

Happy Trails,
Kevin