North Fly

Hare’s Ear Nymph

Hook: #12 Nymph

Thread: Black UNI 8/o

Tail: Partidge fibers

Abdomen: hare’s ear dubbing

Rib: Fine gold wire

Thorax: hare’s ear dubbing

Wingcase: Turkey

An all around excellent pattern~:-)

……and many more dynamic species found in North Idaho. I got back last night from a week fishing/camping trip in the back woods of North Idaho. As usual it was incredible.

The weather was great, and the fishing even better.

On the first day I stuck around the lake and slung heavy streamers and the occasional bass bug. First couple casts and a pretty thirteen inch bass slammed my imitation.

~First Bass of the week (13″)~

The fish were healthy looking, nice and chunky with vibrant colors displayed by all.

Interesting enough, many of the bass I caught during the week gave an interesting revelation of their recent diet.

Once hooked, they would often disgorge two or three Lake trout fingerlings, half digested. Understandable, especially since the Lake trout don’t turn up their nose at a Smallmouth bass fry when the opportunity is offered.

The fish above was one of the nicer ones caught, Fifteen inches of enraged streamer munching dolomieu.

On the second day I packed up my gear and rode out to my favorite small trout stream, ~~~~. There were a scant few caddises fluttering over the currents when I first stepped out onto the white gravel bar of the creek. After getting into my waders I tied an Adams Dry Fly (a fly which is often used as a caddis imitation) onto my tapered 5X leader.  Once I pinpointed a feeding fish, I waded out into the clear, cold currents and began to cast.

~West-slope Cutthroat Trout (8″)~

After twenty minutes I had caught several Cutthroats ranging from average to rather small. However one nice 8″  Trout stood out from the others. It was a healthy looking chap, not to mention breathtakingly beautiful.

~Freestone Creek~

The following day I returned and caught my personal best small-stream trout on a dry fly. It was a strong, ten-inch male Cutthroat, with a flaming red belly and and a blackened jaw.
I was especially exited because of the small size of the stream it was taken from.

~Male West-slope Cutthroat Trout (10″)~

The fish was slurping the very occasional insect at the head of a long, deep pool. I honestly didn’t expect a rise from the big fellow, but he surprised me. He struck an Operative Canary dry fly, something I came up with previously.

After I had spent a suitable amount of days on the Backwoods creeks, I renewed my attempts at the lake and caught a several Pike-minnow and lake run Cutts on dries. They were congregating near the mouth of a tiny creek, feeding on fallen insects of great variety.

~Northern Pikeminnow (12″)~

One day I backpacked up to a high mountain lake in search of some different scenery and few willing trout.

The lake is not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but it does get rather deep in one end, deep enough for a few nice trout to exist without any trouble.

The nicest one taken was a 14″ toothy brute that slammed a twitched muddler minnow.

~West-slope Cutthroat Trout (Lake residing, 14″)~

As you can see I was not equipped with waders, they being too large and clunky to pack in. I had to make due casting from the shore~:-)

Here are a few more pictures of the trip:

Pristine mountain lake~:-)

A large, disgruntled cricket with a nasty bite.

A striped Cicada that I rescued from the water.

An astonishingly brazen mother Grouse who was very clear of the fact that you either leave her children alone or suffer the consequences~:-)

I set about this trip with the knowledge it would be the last of the year, but I now understand that there is a possibility of one last short fling in early September. If so, then there will be one more Idaho post~~however terribly boring.

A large, colorful Dragon I happened to spot while fishing yesterday.

…and  it so happened that a 16 inch Brown Bullhead took interest~:-)

A few days ago I went up to Summer falls for a bit to hike and fish a little. The falls itself isn’t mind shatteringly large, but it certainly is impressive.
Here are a few pictures.

The Falls

Scenery around the falls

From almost under the falls.

Check out this blog by Austin Clayton. Very enjoyable (and helpful) reading!
The Colorado Experiment

The Escapee

Hook: #6 Streamer

Thread: Olive 6/0

Tail: Two Pheasant Fibers

Abdomen: Rusty Halo Dubbing and cream hairs ear mixed

Mottled Back: Hen Pheasant

Rib: 4lb test mono

Gills: Black Ostritch Herl

Wingcase: Hen Pheasant

Thorax: Same as Abdomen

This is a fly I’ve created to match the Hex hatches. I personally have observed few nymphs except for when they swim up to emerge (obviously because they are a burrowing mayfly). That is why I called this fly the “Escapee.” It imitates the nymphs just as they make a race for the surface, avoiding being fish supper if at all possible  :-)

I am just back from my annual Idaho week-long fishing/camping trip. It was great, alot of fun.

The first day was rainy and cold and I didn’t catch a thing. That’s pretty much is the story of the first three days, so I’ll just cover the lot of them with that first sentence.

Then it began to clear up and the sun started to get hot. The fishing also started to pick up and the fun began. Right off the bat I caught a new first—a sucker on the fly. 

It was sixteen inches long and was oozing slime like I’ve never seen on a fish before. It slammed a Bunny Muddler (like the one on the previous page) and fought surprisingly hard. There for a while I was half afraid it was going to snap the already worn 6 pound tippet.

Then after catching the sucker and several smallmouths I hit the small streams for my favorite cold-water fish, the Cutthroat.

I got them consistently on parachute dries and small muddler minnows, but it’s not like they’re devilishly picky.

About mid week I put up my fly rod for a day and went spin-fishing with a buddy of mine. We got alot of bass and one nice seventeen inch Mackinaw, which picked my rod to hook itself on.

Need I say more than that it was extremely delicious cooked up with some onions and butter.

I’ve been coaching my little brother on fishing recently, and he made me proud when he caught one heckuva Northern Pike-Minnow. Eighteen and one quarter inches long.
I got a few nice shots of it:

It almost looks redfish-ish in the above picture.

As usual there was alot of Hexagenias hatching, and a few lent me a moment of their time for a quick photo-shoot  :-)

A Handsome Dun

And a gorgeous Spinner~~

A few more photographs of the trip  :-)

A released Smallmouth bass just before he darted back into the depths

And last but not least……in the true Fly rod-and-Carona-on-the-white-beaches-of-the-Bahamas-ish spirit, I present “Fly Rod-and-Soux City-on-the-white-gravel-beaches-of-a-North-Idahoan-Lake”

Crunchy Squirrel

Hook: Daiichi Classic Nymph/Wet #12
Thread: 8/0 UNI (brown)
Tail: Grey Squirrel
Abdomen: hare’s web dubbing
Back: hen pheasant
Thorax: Grey Squirrel
Legs: white rubber legs (crossed)
Wingcase: turkey (mottled)

Kind of an inadvertent take on Skip’s Nymph. This is a very productive fly for me.