South Fork of the Boise River below Anderson Ranch Reservoir

March 20, 2008

My fishing buddy, Dan, picks me up in Mendon, Utah at 6:00 am in a small blizzard. We’re heading on a three day, three river fishing trip in Idaho: South Fork of the Boise, Big Wood and Big Lost. The first leg is filled with the usual fish banter, and an interesting experiment by Dan in tying flies with his vise mounted to the door handle (he successfully designs and ties a double midge CDC pattern). The sky is cloudy with snow flurries for the first couple of hours.

Dan’s double midge CDC fly.

After a five hour drive we arrive at Mountain Home, Idaho where we stop and pick up fishing licenses at the local WalMart (and a check for round, decorative marbles – more on that in a later post). Interestingly enough, the lady who sells us our licenses sold them to us last year on our trip. She doesn’t remember us, until we ask about marbles, then it all comes back to her. Map from Mountain Home to the tailwater of the Anderson Ranch Reservoir. From Mountain Home it’s another 45 minutes or so to Danskin Bridge at the far western end where we begin fishing. The river is running a nice 300 CFS or so. The temperature hovers around 40 ° Fahrenheit with little to no wind. The skies are clear. Map from bottom of reservoir to Danskin Bridge.

Copper John-ish. (I usually tie it with peacock herl closer to bead and not the rusty thread).

On the south side of the bridge is a good place to park. We suit up and hit the river east of the bridge. It’s about 12:00 with quite a few midges swarming the water, but no rises. I tie on a size 20 modified Copper John (brass bead head, peacock herl thorax, copper body, white Z-lon "emerger" tail). I fish a 20 foot section between two boulders and pull out a 14" rainbow.

We cross the bridge and move downriver 100 yards. I work my way back upriver. Dan continues past me an additional 100 yards to a promising riffle on the sweeping bend to the south. I work back up to the bridge with the nymph with only one strike, but I miss it. Dan’s friend Ron, from Boise, arrives. Dan makes his way back to the truck and says that he had no success downriver.

We hop in our vehicles and head upstream a couple of miles to a hole that looks promising. We make our way to the water. We see fish taking in a nice stretch of slack water on the far side of the river. I cast a few times with my nymph and soon hook a 13" white fish while trying to make my way to the other side. Ron also hooks a white fish. Dan is trying to cast across the current to the risers on the far side, but can’t get a good drift.

I hurry to release the white fish and tie on a #20 midge emerger. The whole time Dan is harassing me about being slow playing with the white fish and threatening to catch all the risers. I finally get rid of the fish and rigged up. I make a few casts to a riser to the left of a protruding rock. He nips at my fly, then disappears. I work to cover a larger riser above the rock, but end up putting him down. I work my way upstream another 50 feet then we head out of there. (I’m not sure how Dan fares.)

We find a stretch close to the road and hop out. Dan and Ron have fished the river for years, but haven’t fished this section. We take a look and see a few rises close to our side of the river, so park the trucks and head to it.

Sprout Midge.

The river pinches into small rapids that direct the water to the far shore toward a large rock. The current slows and pools against the rock with a small back eddy forming on the near shore. We are 60′ downriver at the tail of the pool. There are risers and I catch a couple of rainbows on my modified "Sprout Midge" emerger pattern (original pattern here at the Westfly site – I use a white Z-lon tail, no thorax, and a grayish parachute hackle). Dan hooks into some.

Ron has moseyed upriver to the rapids and announces there are rises all over the place. Dan moves up but I stay put and catch a couple more. The smallest I have caught so far is maybe 13" with the largest about 16" and most about 14". Most of the risers are now on the far side of the fast water causing drag on my line. I move upriver with the others.

Wow! They are rising in all manners: porpoising, sipping, leaping, etc. There are some nice fish in here, some probably going 20"+. Dan hooks a couple and I get into some too. Ron has to head back to Boise. Dan moves into the head of the rapids and crosses to the far side where most of the action is and the larger fish are. He sits on the large rock to the side of the pool and harvests the run with his double midge CDC experiment. I continue to pick up a few here and there. Dan lands the largest of the day at 19". These are all rainbows with one or two cuttbows tossed in. Dan loses his double midge and effectively switches to a blue-wing olive emerger. I use the midge emerger, blue-wing emerger and a callibaetis pattern.

I finally talk Dan into trying another spot. We head upriver to "Indian Rock." In a large, calm pool, two pods of 15 fish each are working, sipping off the surface. I sneak down to the river and cast, but the water is so clear and calm, the fish ignore my fly. I cast a dozen or so times then leave.

Because someone is parked in that section, we pass "Dan’s Diner" (the name I gave to a 10′ x 20′ section of water where a couple of years ago Dan pulled out 11 fish all over 16", I went later that day and pulled another 5 out). We continue upriver pulling over in a spot or two, but the hatches have died out.

We head toward Ketchum where we will sleep at Dan’s friend’s cabin for the next two nights.

Total fish count: about 20 fish each averaging 14"-16" with 5 or so 16"-18" and 5 or so under 14".

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