Rocky Raccoon

Nick and I were camping at Lufkin Bottom in the canyon stretch of the South Fork of the Snake. It was the second night of our float. I was sleeping soundly in my warm sleeping bag when I awoke to some clatter out where we left our camping supplies, food and cooler. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it toward the noise. There it was, the masked culprit. Its eyes were looking at me with a “bright light, bright light” expression and also looking a little annoyed like I was interrupting something. It certainly didn’t run off. So I pulled on my jacket, unzipped the tent and went out to investigate. I was quick enough that the raccoon hadn’t yet broken into all our food. The food was stilled knotted in the plastic bags. The raccoon slowly walked away liked a scolded child. I put the food in the back seat of the boat where it could be locked up. The garbage bag I just place out of reach in the back of the boat.

OK, back to sleep. Oh, first I had to take a moment and gaze up at the stars. What a gorgeous sky. Without any unnatural light around and being deep in the canyon, you can really see forever. The sky has real dimension, galaxy after galaxy. There is a little reflection on the water and the silhouette of the mountains. It is so peaceful and quiet with just the sound of the river, and without the sound of a noisy raccoon.

The next morning, peeking out of the tent everything looked fine, except for a little frost on the tent….or so I thought. Walking down to the boat there was garbage strewn down the bank. How did the raccoon climb inside the boat to get to the garbage? I have a high-sided drift boat to keep the raccoons out, not one of those low profile jobs. And wait a minute, what’s that bread bag that held our sandwiches doing there on the ground? It was kept safely in the cooler. Sure enough, he’d broken into the cooler too.

Later that morning, a few miles down stream Nick mentioned that he was getting hungry. I reminded him that we’d be having some nice wheat, peanut butter and honey sandwiches right now if Rocky Raccoon hadn’t broken into our cooler and eaten them. There weren’t just one or two sandwiches either, there were three or four sandwiches in that bag. That had to be some satisfied critter.

More Logistics – Shuttles

The South Fork Angler’s shop is a convenient stop for picking up a fishing license and arranging a shuttle. It is also a good idea to inquire what flies have been working and ask any other questions you may have. For non-Idaho residents the license is $8.00 per day. South Fork Angler’s can also arrange a shuttle (or you can contact directly South Fork Shuttles or Snake River Shuttles). It is currently $30.00 for a shuttle from Conant (right behind the shop) to Byington. The Shop has a form to fill out to indicate the details, i.e., put in, take out, where to leave keys, vehicle license plate number and description. For the keys, I always indicate to leave them under the mat, locked in the vehicle. Some people may not have a spare set of keys and will indicate to leave the keys unlocked in the car or to lock car and leave keys on top of a certain tire. The form requests when the car needs to be at the pull out and your cell phone number. A couple of times I have arrived at the pull out prior to when I indicated that the car needed to be there, so it is wise to indicate a little sooner than when you think you’ll really be there. By the way, shuttle services have worked real well for me. I have found they operate well and are quite dependable. I have even called when I’ve arrived early and they have promptly delivered my rig.

A shuttle explanation: After putting your drift boat or raft into the river where you are putting in, you leave your car in the parking lot. While you are floating the river, the shuttle company moves your vehicle to where you indicated was your take out. When you arrive at your destination, your vehicle is there waiting for you.

South Fork of the Snake River: Camping

Floating and camping along the South Fork of the Snake River is a great experience. Camping right next to the river is amazing – sleeping to the sounds of the rushing water, seeing the clear night skies into the depths of the stars, being among the wildlife and fishing from early morning until night.

The South Fork has several designated camp sites along the canyon stretch. There are sign-in sheets at the Conant put in. This is right behind the South Fork Angler’s shop along Highway 26. Camp site maps are available here also. The camping is free and so are the maps. You do however; have to pay $3.00 per day for a recreation pass for parking. You fill out the information on the envelope and put in the needed money or check. You rip the flap off the envelope and put it on the dash of your vehicle. The envelope with the money goes in the indicated slot.

For the camping you indicate on the form which sites you plan to camp at. This doesn’t reserve the site and you may decide during the float on a different site. Someone else may be at the site or you may want to stop sooner or float longer than originally intended. I have always floated during the week, not on weekends or holidays. I have never had a problem finding a site. Each site actually has a few camping spots so there usually isn’t a problem.

There are a couple of requirements for camping along the river. One is that you must have some type of sealable “porta potty”. A bucket with a sealable “gasket” will do. I have a bucket with a gasket seal where the middle actually screws off to make it easier to take on and off the lid. I also have a plastic toilet seat lid I put on while doing my business to make it more comfortable than just sitting on the side of the container. At the end of the float at Byington, there is a place to clean it out. The use of plastic bags for human waste is illegal except for WAG BAG and RESTOP 2 bag systems (biodegradable and approved for landfill disposal).

The second thing needed is a fire pan. The pan needs to be big enough (at least 12” X 12” with a 1.5” lip) for fires and to cook on if wanted. It also must be used off the ground. Rocks on each corner will work if you don’t have a stand. The idea here is to pack out all the coals and ashes and to prevent damage to the ground, plants, etc. It also helps prevent forest fires and litter. One thing I’ve noticed is that these camp sites are well taken care of and are neat and clean. They usually have wood piled up at each spot. I was very happy with the camp sites. I had a small hatchet which helped cut the wood and split the logs. On my last trip I bought a foil pan that is used to cook turkeys in that met the above description. I didn’t use it however, and used a sterno cooking apparatus for warming up dinner instead. A little propane stove would have worked well for quickly warming up a can of stew as well. For me, being able to quickly warm up a dinner and spend my time fishing is desirable over spending time preparing a fire and the clean up involve.

I have arrived to the river too late to put and float to the first camp site. There is a camping site between Conant and the bridge near Swan Valley. This is a nice campsite. You do have to fill out an envelope, put in the required money (about $15) and pick out your site. When I camped here a year and a half ago there was a bull moose in the camp site which provided wonderful pictures and much excitement.

Sheep

Earlier this month (September 10th) I fished a new stretch on the Weber River. There were quite a few holes and deep water stretches that I was unaware of. It is exciting discovering new, productive stretches. I was fishing with a caddis emerger dropper and a bead head caddis nymph on the point fly. The first six fish I caught were trout, no white fish. This is quite unusual, but I enjoyed it. The trout included a large brown and a large cutthroat (about 17 inches). The cutthroat took me downstream through two other holes before landing him. Once again, I was glad I had a net. Then, the last three fish I caught were white fish. When I first arrived, the sky was cloudy and had actually rained on my drive up. By the time I caught the white fish, the sky was bright and sunny.

While changing out of my waders, a herd of sheep following the rancher on a tractor with feed came by. There were approximately 50 sheep and huddled together quite well with the larger, faster sheep eating from the tractor. They all followed right through the gate and into the corral with no stragglers, amazing. I went and talked to the rancher and thanked him for the nice show. I usually don’t see such entertainment while changing my waders. He said usually it doesn’t go so smooth. Most times the sheep go wondering off in different directions and he has to work to get all of them into the corral. The rancher’s friend and wife were helping with the sheep drive and credited the well behaved sheep on bringing the wife along.

Of course I asked the rancher if he ever fishes the Weber River. He said he didn’t but his brother had caught a 26 inch brown the previous year. There are big one’s in there.

Nymphing

Nymph fishing is the most common method I use and will be discussing this form of fly fishing the most in this blog. I started out fly fishing like most, using dry flies. I started out fishing small streams in wilderness areas where the fish readily rose to dries. These areas included Eagle Cap Wilderness in Oregon, the Sun Valley area in Idaho and the mountains just above the Washington State border in Canada. I taught myself how to tie flies and used these exclusively.

While studying at BYU, I watched someone catch brown trout from the Provo River with nymphs. I was intrigued and started studying nymph fishing. I nymph fished from the mouth of Provo canyon all the way to Deer Creek Dam. I noticed a couple of things nymph fishing. The size of the trout I caught was consistently larger. The number of trout I caught was higher. Although I admit it is more fun to watch the fish rise to the dry fly, I obtain even more joy catching more and larger fish.

I constantly experiment with different methods and in future blogs I will go into the details of setting up the different rig systems. I will illustrate the setups of various dropper systems along with the weight and strike indicator methods. I will discuss the pros and cons of each and my experience using these.

Introduction

This blog will contain stories of my fly fishing adventures. It will include the home waters I frequent weekly as well as the trips I make several times per year to various rivers, mostly in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. I will talk about the trip logistics, the fish I catch, the techniques used and the flies.

I will lean heavily on tips and techniques. Over the years I have used my trips as learning experiences, trying various methods to determine what works best. I do a lot of research on techniques and equipment. I will discuss what I learn and use the stories mentioned in the previous paragraph to illustrate certain points or to be used as examples.

Photographs will be used extensively throughout my blogs. I enjoy seeing pictures of the fish I catch. I keep these pictures on my computers and they are used as wallpaper and screensavers. The pictures will also include stretches of rivers I fish, wildlife I see, maybe some equipment but mostly the fish I catch.

I will usually write about every fishing trip I make and in between trips I will introduce topics that I have not mentioned recently. I will also try to recap some of the trips I’ve made in the past few years and the things I’ve learned or interesting facts regarding the destinations.

I have watched over a hundred different videos and read just as many books. I will try to imbed reviews of these or illustrate the things I’ve learned from them.

Nets

Usually I don’t bring a net while I fish the Weber, but I had been catching so many fish the past few times out that I decided to bring one. This turned out to be fortunate because the water is somewhat fast and the fish are able to use the current to there advantage as they head downstream. Rather than spending time wading downstream trying to find a good spot to beach them, I was able to net them without pulling them onto the bank. This meant I was able to land them quicker therefore not run as much risk of losing them. I have a magnetic device hooked on the back of my vest that attaches to the other half of the device which is hooked to the loop part of the net, not the handle. I can reach behind and grab the net handle and with a little jerk, detach the net. The magnetic device works real well and is surprisingly strong. The mesh net portion has markings for measuring fish but causes too much drag in the water. This means that you have to put the net in the water immediately prior to netting the fish, otherwise your arm gets jerked downstream. I will be on the lookout for a net that provides less drag in the water.

Weber River Caddis Hatch

Yesterday I was on the Weber River by 4 o'clock. I decided to try a spot where I had only fished once before. I rigged up with a couple of caddis nymph imititations on 4X tippet with a 9 foot 3X tapered leader. The dropper was a winged pupa and the point fly a bead head nymph that I had bought at Frontier Anglers in Dillon, MT. I placed a foam yellow strike indicator four feet up the line from the split shot that was at the end of the line. Immediately, meaning the first cast, I was into a big white fish, pretty typical for this river. It took the point fly. Also typical, I usually catch most fish on the point fly, being closer to the stream bottom. The reason I mention this is that on the next cast I caught a good size brown (17 incher) on the dropper which was 6 inches higher. Within the next half hour I caught eight fish, seven on the dropper. I had to call my wife, Jennifer, and let her know how great the fishing was. She was as excited as I was. Of course, after the first couple of trout, I noticed the caddis hatch that was in progress. A few weeks earlier during a caddis hatch I had taken throat samples with a stomach pump of a couple of trout and selected these flies to imitate those samples. By 6 o’clock I had landed 20 fish, over half were trout. Several others of course got off. The weather had been overcast and started sprinkling at 5:30. By 6:00, the weather had cleared up and it was sunny. I caught four more fish in the next hour, but not like the action that I had while it was overcast. Here is the breakdown of fish: three cutthroats, 11 browns and 10 white fish.

At 6:30 a truck with three fishermen pulled up. Just after I had gotten back to the car, they were also leaving. I was on the phone again with Jennifer asking her to bring me home a hot dog from Costco. I wanted to tell them they should have been here earlier while it was raining, not now while it was nice and sunny.

The stretch of river I had been fishing was a straight stretch that was shallower on one side, where I waded, and deeper on the opposite side with brush lining the river. There was a distinct spot where the shallow water turned deeper. Along this seam, along the deepest part of the river and along the opposite side of the river next to the brush is where I was catching the fish.