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South Fork Fishing Day
It was Thursday July, 2 on the South Fork of the Boise. It was a busy day with lots of boats and high water, with limited access to fishing holes for waders.
Dr. Jack Matunas and I began fishing a stretch of water a couple of miles above Cow Creek on a big riffle with a side channel. I had done pretty well a few days' earlier on small caddis patterns and sure enough the willows lining the banks were still full of them. We tied on two varieties of caddis to start, a Curley caddis in gray and an Adams caddis in green.
After working the Curley in the side channel a short time I changed flies to a #20 CDC Caddis in green. All of a sudden Jack hooks a nice rainbow on the riffled edge of the main current and I hook a fish behind a brush pile on the side channel. We land both our fish and admire them together in the nets, two gorgeous fish one about 16 inches and the other about 18. We started the day with a double.
We continued to fish up through the hole casting to large rainbows sipping pinks and small caddis. We landed several large rainbows together, and then split. Jack fished the rest of the riffle and I fished the same side channel serving the fly down to feeding fish. The side channel was slow moving, deep and strewn with brush piles and overhanging brush. It would remind of fishing Silver Creek.
I started hooking some really nice rainbows and without the hard current they were fairly easy to bring to the net. I was about half way through the run where I spot a monster rainbow feeding against the other bank. He was directly in front of a brush pile with a canopy of over hanging brush above him; it was nearly an impossible place to cast. Even if you hit his feeding slot perfectly the current would drag the fly and it didn't look natural so the fish wouldn't take. I continued to cast to the fish from above without success, so I moved down straight across from the fish only about 15 feet from his lair. After about 15 short casts I finally settle the fly against the far bank, it drifted naturally over the fish and he subtly raised his head and sipped the fly. I set the hook and he explodes out of the water in a dazzling jump. He runs at me and jumps again within 8 feet of where I'm standing; then runs up river and jumps again. We did battle up and down the channel for a long time, but I finally got him in the fly fishing net, a spectacular 20+ inch fish with brilliant dark colors.
Jack and I continued to work small caddis patterns for the balance of the day with slow steady success. In between wind storms and light rain we managed to land about 25 rainbows, a beautiful collection of large, healthy, over fed fish.
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