Armed with a new new BC-bred appreciation for Czech nymphing and a 10' 3wt SAGE rod Henry and I tried set out to question some trout on Maryland's famed Gunpowder and lesser known Little Falls this past week. Our plan was to acquaint ourselves with unfished (by us) watery on Little Falls in the morning and then hit more familiar water on the Upper Gunpowder in the afternoon hoping that the trout might cooperate and glance up to a light hatch in the short afternoon.
This is Little Falls -- lovely size and flow
We met at Bagel Meister again in the small town of Phoenix, MD. This is by far the best place to meet for any journey to the GunPowder. Loaded up with Coffee, lunch bagels, silly-delicious breakfast sandwiches and good cheer we headed off to one of the uppermost access point to Little Falls.
Little Falls is one stream system north of the the Gunpowder and aggregates cool water from tiny feeders just below the Pennsylvania border as opposed to the GP which begins at the tail-race of PrettyBoy Reservoir.
Hen Works a deep seem under the Trestle
The water was clear and the sky was grey as we started out. As happens in the Fall both water and air were 54 degrees. Henry ran a long leadered, double-dropper rig under a colored tippet indicator. I started with a standard double dropper under an indicator, but it quickly became apparent that Henry's dead dropping and tight to his fly technique allowed him to adjust to the depth far better and sense strikes that I either didn't get and or couldn't discern.
GunPowder
Throughout the rest of the day I went back and forth and Henry's nyphing method seemed to raise the strike count substantially. The key here is to keep a high tip, follow the fly through a short drift and stay (by way of no slack in you line) directly connected to the fly.
After we both caught a few leap frog fishing on Little Falls will wolfed down our bagel sandwiches on on the 20 minute drive to the Gunpowder. To our dismay the Gunpowder was running too high to be effectively fished. They must have been releasing water from PrettyBoy Reservoir and discharge we around 260cfs. Henry and I decided that we'd only fish this top portion above Falls road where the gorge channelizes flow when its at 200cfs or less and for the record believe that the sweet spot is probably around 130cfs.
Eastern Fly Fisherman Photo? ... Hen High sticks a full Gunpowder
I took these to show Fishing friends the amazing cobble on Little Falls
With the sun quickly falling behind the high walls of the GP gorge and only a fish or three brought to hand we headed back to another access point on Little Falls to see if we could duplicate our morning success. We were in luck and w/o another angler in site we found trout that we had to work for but were happy to play.
12' Rainbow was the biggest fish of the day and the only bow
This little mite of a brown on my last cast of the day in the failing light
Not all falls work out as planned and when Henry couldn't make our September trip to Salmon River he started looking for other opportunities to get on the water. Opportunity knocked on a recent trip to Vancouver and Henry found himself with the balance of half a day to find some water. I've never fished this far West but Fritz says its amazing (Henry agrees).
A good recommendation and a google search later Henry linked up with Valley Fishing Guides and its owner Clint Goyette. Clint took great care of Henry and if you ever get a chance Henry recommends that you call Clint and his team.
Coho Catch
Clint and Hen arrived at some guide-favorite waters southwest of Whistler on the Squamish River and Saged-up Henry with a heavier rod for Coho's and a 10' 4wt rod for Bull Trout.
The mountain clear water was flowing cold a clear from the snowy peaks at 45 degrees and when the full sun rose over the mountains the day warmed up to a lovely 68.
Bull Trout smile for Henry
Clint guided Henry to multiple hook-ups and 4 Coho's brought to hand with a guide-fly called a Gremlin and converted Henry to High-stick Czech Nymphing egg patterns for bull trout. (He offered to give all his indicators to me...he's a Czech convert!)
A Czech nymphing convert
There's Henry mid-stream 4/5th of the way on the right
With my hopes of heading to Salmon River on hold for this weekend, I was joined by James to adventure to a remote Mountain Blue line I hadn't visited in years. This stream isn't a place in the travel guides, but I know it holds small brook trout as it falls through the George Washington National Forest.
We motored west on 66 through rain and clouds until we found a muddy and familiar looking pull-off deep in the woods and high along the VA/West Va border. Bear hunters were our only company, that's right, pickups loaded hounds kicking along the back roads waiting for the lead dog (tethered high on the kennel in the back) to pick up bear scent and start baying! Yep, no-kidding that's how they do it. When the lead dog picks up the scent the other hounds are released and GPS tracked until they tree the bear. Bang.
So...extra attuned to bears, we bushwhacked East for 200m until we found the lovely and happily lonely water. With the water at 64 and the air at 52, after a weather front blew through, we couldn't entice any brookies, but I know they are here and I'll be back. After climbing back in the truck we motored 15 minutes to catch a few trout at a better known stream so we could end the day on a high note and James could notch another stream to his belt. We found this second stream unexpectedly slow and but that just made each catch more exciting, food tastes better when your famished, and when we were finished we found that unbeknownst to us we had been fishing probably 15 minutes behind another pair who'ed just walked through our water -- drat!
With two dogs company I set out w a fish pole and no destinatyion last weekend. It was blissful. Jamie guided me to a lonesome forest road in the George Washington National Forest where I chased brookies for 2 hours as I cleansed myself of I-95 worries and thoughts.
With my last fishing trip with my brother Marc now two months in the rear view mirror, I was feeling the itch and was now desperate for another adventure. Though Matt and I talked over the past year about reconnecting again in Idaho, I felt a higher calling and need for some quality one on one time with my son Eric who's starting his senior year as a Red Raider at Texas Tech. With plane itineraries from Jacksonville and Lubbock bringing us to Salt Lake City within minutes, the trip was a go for a three day Labor Day weekend adventure.
The basic plan called for flying in Friday around 1 pm, zipping (80 MPH speed limit) up to Mackay, check in to the Bear Bottom Inn, and fish for a couple hours before dark. then grab dinner and call it a night. The weather was on the hot side (70s) but quickly cooled down to the 40s on the high mountain plateau as soon as the side dropped behind the hills. In other words -- pretty perfect!
I packed four flyrods - Orvis Superfine 761 & 602 for small stream fishing and Access 864 and Recon 905 and we picked up a small spinning rod as this was Eric's first time with a fly rod and wanted to have an alternative to try out in some of the bigger water. If you recall last April when Matt and I fished with our buddy Len in Wisconsin's Driftless Area, Len outfished us with his spinning rod by a large margin. It made me wonder how a spinning rod with a Panther Martin would work in Idaho. We'd find out soon enough.
So back to the Big Lost, we fished a couple of pools below the reservoir for about an hour and were able to hook and land a handful of rainbows on nymphs. Eric quickly mastered the drift and flip of the nymph rig back upstream and I was much pleased to see him get on the board early.
Content that we were off to a good beginning, we retreated back to the Bear Bottom Inn for a terrific dinner, a few Mt Borah Amber Ales, and called it a night. Day 2 was a bit of a drive from Mackay to my favorite piece of water perhaps anywhere -- Camas Creek. As we drove up Morgan Creek Road we were stopped by a few officers from the Idaho Bureau of Land Management who were warning drivers of the recent wildfires in the area. The road was passable but the burnt hillsides presented a stark reminder of the real dangers of wildfires in this remote wilderness. We arrived at the creek, geared up and then walked for about an hour downstream before we hoped into the water.
The water level looked near perfect. It had been two years since Matt and I fished this water and the honey holes of that trip... were gone ! That creek has a knack for changing its flow every few years and though I was at first disappointed my sweet spots were no longer present, other prime runs and pools stepped to the forefront and proved equally productive. We began working up the creek with a basic double nymph, split shot and indicator rig. It would not be long before the first hookup... and then it began to steamroll.
Isn't Idaho great!
We caught a handful of cutthroats in a couple nice runs while working from one good looking spot to another...
... before catching fire in one amazingly productive hole. The picture above is the run that was on fire.
After I pulled a cuttie out on the first cast on a Prince nymph, Eric decided to give the spinning rod a whirl and WHAM! the fun began. In a matter of about 20 minutes, we successfully caught 8-10 beautiful cutthroats and bull trout from 14 inches to Eric's big bull trout that pushed 20".
The deepest part of the hole was probably 6-8 feet deep. Watching Eric work his spinning rod with great precision was really impressive. He could place that lure exactly where he wanted and it proved irresistible to the waiting trout. When it wasn't crushed in the deep center of the hole, we had front row seats viewing the trout charge from the depths into the tail end of the run and hammer the silver spinner. It was cool. A couple of things that happened here made it more memorable. First we had a double hookup of broad-shouldered cutthroats. The while I was bringing in about a 10 inch cuttie, a monster bull trout appeared out of nowhere stunning that trout then snatching that trout broadside in its jaw resembling a hammerhead shark. The rod doubled and he disappeared into the depths. The cuttie came free for a brief moment and as I brought it back through the shallows at the tail of the pool, he came back! The bull snatched the now-wounded cuttie and took off again. It escaped again and was grabbed one final time. This was incredible watching the whole game play out. I got the cuttie in -- he was scarred and torn up some -- I hope hi made it (in another hole).
Here are some pics of different cutthroats and bulls from the fish in this one hole.
After that hole we continued working upstream, and continued finding beautiful cutthroats along the way. We also came across two pair of spawning pacific salmon. Amazing that these fish are able to make the journey from the Pacific Ocean, up the Columbia River, then on to the Snake River, onward to the Salmon River, then the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and finally to little Camas Creek. WOW!
Enjoy the rest of Camas Creek fishery.
What an amazing day we had. After a relaxing drive home, we checked into a motel in Challis, and prepped for one more day of fishing.
The weather was again perfect for our next day destination -- Big Creek. Big Creek is small stream water and the rod of choice this day was my Orivs 6 foot, 2 weight. Dry fly choice -- Joe's Hopper. We began our hike up the trail -- the air was as crisp and clear and clean as you could ever imagine.
Sometimes half the fun of fishing is the adventure of getting there. We trekked for about an hour before hopping into the creek. The water was as crystal clear as any water you would ever find. It was now "hopper time!"
Cutthroats were feisty and aggressive
Eric -- fish on !
It was interesting that both the Big Lost and Camas had a fair amount of "rock snot" on the river bottom, Big Creek had none -- it ran as clear as you can imagine.
Last cast - last fish
After a successful trip of in this beautiful back country water, we hiked back out to our SUV. Wanting a last cast, last fish -- I walked Eric over to a spillway that crossed the dirt road. Having already broken down the fly rod, I had him cast his spinner across the outflow thinking there'd be one last cuttie lurking.
We drove out and headed back to Mackay for the night.
However, as there was still a couple hours of daylight remaining, I said we needed to hit the river one last time. Eric headed up to the reservoir and I headed downstream to some water I fished many years ago. The river was high and fast. I nearly took a swim (probably should have) crossing to the other side. Walking down the through some brush, I spooked a deer and nearly had a heart attack. I had my standard nymph rig ready to go when I hit the river, but for some reason I wanted to dry fly fish so I swapped out the nymphs and split shot for a Mackay Special -- a size 8 dry that resembles a crane fly. I fished it years ago as it had a reputation as a Big Lost River favorite. The manner of fishing it was skating it across the top rather than dead drifting. I was in a run about 50 feet across, 6 feet deep, running hard in the center but there was some slack water along the far bank. I cast slightly down and across and began skating the fly. That's when it got insane!! For about 1 hour as the sun was starting to set over the mountains, dry fly action was explosive.
My first hookup was a rainbow -- now here;s the fish story -- was pushing 20 inches. He skyrocketed out of the water, and bolted down the center of the river peeling line out like a marlin on a mission. No way to work him back upstream, I began chasing him downstream. After a few minutes -- slack. My leader broke about 3 feet from the fly line. I should have changed the leader beforehand, but who ever prepares for the big one. Then I realized I left my tippet spool back in the car - which Eric had. Fortunately I had few more feet of rolled up tangled line from Eric's spinning rod that I had tucked in my vest pocket from Friday night. Though not tapered, it would do. I was back in the game. And the fish were waiting. Fish on - landed. Fish on - land. Big fish on -- another run downstream and loss. Fish on, fish on, fish on. Unbelievable. I could land the 10 inch rainbows and brookies, but lost 3 legit huge rainbows. Honestly I don't what I was doing wrong. I can only figure I had so much line out in the fast water that eventually some slack was created underwater and the fish shook off.
But it was an amazing hour.
I had to cross the stream now -- and it was getting dark. It was not easy, very dangerous, and by all means I should have gotten swept downstream. I headed back up to the bridge to meet Eric and found him with a fish on and a beautiful brook trout coming to hand. Last cast - last fish.
Our last cast, last fish of a memorable trip
We headed back to the Bear Bottom Inn, grabbed a couple of cold ones and sat out on the front lawn as twilight set in. We walked around the quaint neighborhood and there were deer in people's front yards, side yards, driveways, in the street -- totally unafraid of the world going on around them. This is a pretty special place and I can't wait to come back.
