Day 2, 1st on the River

 It rained ALL night long.  Luckily though it was not bitter cold when we awoke the next morning.  We started the day with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and put away all the gear and the soaking wet tent.  I don't think the tent got put away dry much at all that week.  We arranged everything in the boat as necessary and we set off. It was about 10:30 by the time we got on the river.  There was a good stretch of water upstream of the ramp that I wanted to fish but hadn't the time for.  Maybe next time.

 It hadn't rained that morning but it was expected to rain for the majority of the day.  This being said we decided to throw a tarp over all of out gear in the back of the boat.  Clouds were always in view that day. 

 We caught whitefish right off the bat that day and all day long.  We were using two sizes of stone fly nymphs that had worked real well for us in previous years.  We threw some streamers in some inviting water but to no avail.  I had a large cutthroat chase a big white streamer in but it gave up as it got closer to shore.  This was disappointing  because the hole I was fishing in seemed to be perfect. 

 We saw tons of Bald Eagles that day.  In fact we floated right underneath a couple.  I absolutely love hearing the call of these animals.  Its a very high distinct screech.  All day long we heard it.  It's a neat experience to watch them soar all around also.  I found it is very hard to row, fish, and take pictures while on a big rushing river.

We stopped at nearly every good looking gravel bar or inside turn to try our luck.  We caught a lot of whitefish with our nymphing rigs.  In fact I broke in the new rod with some whitefish (I took the streamer off and rigged it with a hopper and stone fly dropper). 

 We saw plenty of Eagle nests along the way too.  This particular nest had two eagles in it.  I wish the pictures had turned out better but its hard to focus in with a zoom lens and keep it still while floating down the river in a boat.

Along this stretch of water was a lot of nice cabins and homes.  This is the stretch of river that is above the canyon stretch that is nothing but wilderness for miles. This particular house was interesting.  The lawn was emerald green and immaculate.  I could see through every window.  I noticed that the interior was decorated as a rustic cabin might be.  Personally, I would probably want to buy this house but I can hear Sara now, "the drive way must be horrible in the winter!"  Can't ask for a better back yard though!

 Here was another eagle we saw later in the afternoon.  It's body against the blue blue sky makes for a pretty picture.  These birds watch as you float near but seem rather trusting as you float past because they never turn their head.

 We pulled into a campsite that we have used before.  It is the first one after the ramp that we normally use in Conant.  It is right across from a huge cattle ranch.  The field across the river had hundreds of cows in it and they made it all the way down to the bank of the river.  We set up camp early so as not to get caught in the dark.  After the tent was up and the rain fly was hanging on a limp because we were trying to dry the inside of the tent after it was soaked from being packed away all day.  Howard was cooking some cans of clam chowder up on the stove.  I decided to try out a run right in front of our campsite.

I waded out past the cove behind me in the picture and started catching fish right away.  I had tied on a bead-headed pheasant tail nymph to drop from my stone fly.  I was catching white fish on both!  Some of the fish ate the pheasant tail but got caught up on the larger hook of the stone fly.  This happened twice and you can always tell because it feels like the fish are twice as big as they actually are since you pull them in sideways.  It was a great half an hour or so of fishing.  I bet I caught nearly a dozen right there at camp.  To top it all off, I landed this monster rainbow (the first trout of the trip) with my last cast right before I walked in for dinner.  Howard asked if I wanted to keep it like we are told to do with the rainbows but I told him it was too much work to fillet it up and I had no problem with catching rainbows.

 Howard was gracious enough to snap some pictures of me fighting some of the fish.  These sort of pictures are always my favorite because they capture the action I was going through and shows the moment for what it truly was.  We went to bed a little later that night.  We just couldn't get up out of our seats on the bank.  The clouds from the day were long gone and the sky was full of stars.  It was a nearly full moon and the sky was lit up.  There was also the mooing of the neighboring cows in the air.  We had some Butterfingers that Karen had given me for my birthday for my birthday cake.  It was in fact my birthday that day.  Howard and I agreed that there is no better way to celebrate.

South Fork of the Snake, Fall 2011

I flew out to Salt Lake early Sunday morning and arrived around noon. Howard picked me up at the airport.  As we were driving back to his home, I couldn't help but notice the  mountain tops were capped with snow and the mountains themselves were full of fall colors.  This immediately got me excited because I was anticipating a beautiful fall week on the Snake River.

Once at home we discussed the agenda of the week. Howard thought it might take the rest of the day and possibly most of Monday to get all the necessary gear ready so he was thinking about setting off early Tuesday.  This would have been fine but we both REALLY wanted to make this trip as long as possible so we could thoroughly get our fill of trout and wilderness. Well, we decided to get the boat completely ready to go that afternoon so all we had to do was drive the next morning. Once the boat was pulled out, we loaded all the light gear into it and covered it up. It was ready to go.  I then made lunches while Howard packed his gear. I made 8 lunch meat sandwiches out of pastrami, roast beef, Cheddar and Swiss. I made 6 peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  I loaded up all the food into a plastic tote that didn't need refrigeration and put it in the garage.

I decided I wanted to have all my rods rigged and ready. I rigged my 5 weight up for nymphing. I had two stone fly nymphs tied on with an indicator (thingamabobber) and split shot.  I rigged my new TFO 7 weight rod with a black streamer.  I then rigged a third rod that Howard lent me, with a hopper pattern with a stone fly dropper.  Stone flies are what did the trick two years before when we went in the fall.  All these flies I had tied myself by the way. 

I then transferred all necessary clothes and gear of mine out of my suitcase and into a green duffel bag Howard lent me. This would just be more convenient for travel and camping.  Before we knew it, all was ready for the next day.  We were on the road by 10 AM the next day.  I had loaded the Lexus while Howard finished some mapping and last minute items. We had decided that we wanted to camp under the dam and float that upper stretch for the first day's float. Neither one of us had done that section before so this would be a new adventure.

Howard had a brilliant idea on the way to Swan Valley, ID.  We should stop at Golden Corral for lunch and FILL UP.  I had mentioned what our lunches were to be for the week.  Our dinners included beef stew, ravioli, soup, and chili....... all of which were to be cooked in their original cans. This actually is a great way to do dinner.  None-the-less, we stopped one last real meal that happened to be all-you-can-eat.

We arrived at South Fork Anglers around 3PM and made arrangements for a shuttle.  It was here that we were informed ( by a young, not so fish savvy girl) that the ramp we planned on using was not in good shape so we planned to use one about a third the way down the stretch of river we were to float the next day.  We bought my license and took off to see the campsite near the dam and to check out the area. It was then I somehow remembered that I forgot the milk.  Luckily there is Huskies', the convenience store fight across the street form our campsite. I ran in to get the milk and while in there I over heard a man tell the owner about a mountain lion hunting trip that almost went all wrong.  He apparently was using two goats, that were out in his truck, for bait and while he was using nature's facilities, a cougar came and he was without his gun. He frightened it off before it got his goats though.  Weird, they were good looking goats too. Made me think about keeping my knife very handy though.

 
We checked our the dam, saw people catching fish right under it and we both got excited.  We had no spinning gear so we didn't fish.  It wasn't the right environment to fly fish. We hopped in the Lexus and set off to set up camp.  We found the campgrounds in GREAT condition and to top it off they are free after September 30th.  We found an awesome site right along the river under some large cedar trees. Only one other man was in the area.  I saw an eagle's nest right on the other side of the river. Perfect!  Rain was predicted for that night and the next day.  We watched as it rolled over the mountain and toward us.  We heated up our clam chowder and hit the sack early, around 8. It rained all night long. We had forgotten to zip a vent closed and I got 2 drips directly in my eye but other than that we stayed warm and dry.  The tent was damp around the edges but no complaints for a solid night of rain. Howard bought two new sleeping bags for the trip, both rated to 0 degrees and -40 degrees. They worked wonderfully thank goodness because it did get COLD!