Snake River with Howard

After my spectacular trip through God's Country (Yellowstone and the Tetons), I drove the eight hours down to Salt Lake to celebrate my father-in-law's 50th birthday. It's a gorgeous drive through canyons and lakeside country. I did get stuck behind a slow moving car through a huge canyon that caused me to be late for dinner but they saved me a plateful of pork and potatoes which I relished. It was great to be able to be there with them for Howard's birthday party.

Howard and I left first thing the next morning after getting all the supplies together and loading the boat. It's about a 4-5 hour drive to the South Fork of the Snake River near Idaho Falls. This stretch of river runs through a picturesque canyon full of Bald Eagles and fish. Three years ago I had the pleasure of making this same trip with Howard and we saw not only these animals but had a close encounter with 2 bull moose. One wandered into our camp one evening and then we saw one on the river as we floated by. It was one of the neatest experiences of my life. Though we did not see any this time, we still had an extremely successful fishing trip.

We stopped at South Fork Outfitters to set up the shuttle and to purchase some flies. Howard had fished here with Karen and her boyfriend the week before and had some luck with a new imitation called a Rubber Legs. It imitates a stone fly pretty well. We were using this brown pattern and an orange pattern. The fish seemed to prefer the orange when both were offered.

We hit the water late in the afternoon so most of our time on the river was spent fishing from the boat, looking for our first campsite. Howard c aught a few whitefish but I went without the first day. We set up camp right outside an bald eagle protection area (one of many). We snapped a few pictures and enjoyed Campbell's beef stew and left over pork. It hit the spot. We warmed the stew and meat up on my Sterno stove. It worked great. We went to bed at dark and woke up early the next morning to fog and a little frost. It was also pretty darn cold! When the sun came up, we soaked it right in. It did warm up back into the 70's later that day so it was only a short-lived chill.

That day, the fishing picked up. I started out using two of the rubber legs at once but decided to save some frustration and time untangling knots by switching to just one fly. That seemed to do it for me. I caught a good number of whitefish that day. We found the best water on the river and pulled out whenever we saw the opportunity. Because of the quarter-sized blisters I obtained on my hike in Yellowstone, I found walking around in my waders a bit painful. But the success we had fishing was well worth the little bit of pain.

Early in the morning, a male bald eagle soared only 30 feet above us and cruised down the river. We saw him again the next morning. It was truly a majestic flight. We had ourselves some peanut butter and honey on multi grain with powerade for lunch in the boat. It was refreshing and the bread really filled us up. We continued fishing through the day till nearly dark when we stopped to set up camp again. It felt great to take my waders off and slip on some flip flops even though it was still pretty chilly in the evening. It didn't get as cold overnight this time but we awoke to find a raccoon had gotten our lunch and spread the garbage around. Darn; n o lunch today. We bathed in the sun when it rolled around and set off again. Today we would cover the most ground trying to get to the pull-out at a decent hour. We caught lots of whitefish again. We both caught a cutthroat a piece and Howard caught a few browns and a rainbow. He's quite the fisherman. We found a spot where Howard caught 16 whitefish and a handful of trout in 45 minutes. I caught about 15 whitefish in this spot too. Great spot! All the trout were caught in the shallows (up to a foot and a half) and not in any real features.

I really enjoy fishing from the boat while drifting. We found we were having great luck in

water about 3-4 feet deep and often in flat featureless water. It's really neat to be able to have long drifts without mending and see the fish strike from above. Using the net is fun from the boat and its convenient to have a good place to set the fish and take out the hook. It's a lot of fun. I took a lot of scenic shots from the boat that last day that included a cave, fall colors in the trees, and features of the river.

This trip was truly great. We caught a lot of fish and the camping was awesome. Fall was showing its face and the temperature was perfect. I think though that my most vivid memory has to be the eagle flying over the rive each morning. We saw so many eagles, some of which were perched right along the river. They are not only a rare sight but they are big, beautiful, and majestic. They are nothing short of perfectly graceful when they soar above. I'm truly thankful for the opportunity I have to go fishing with my father-in-law in so many neat places and look forward to the next great float.