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A Trip to Lowman Idaho
July 10th-12th, 2009
This summer has been quite hectic with various trips for weddings, bachelor parties, and back packing trips for Dry Fly Innovations. Needless, to say my wife has been stuck at home because I have been gone for the last four weeks and she could not take the time off to go on any of my trips. We finally had a chance to go hang out and have fun in the mountains just the two of us. Our destination was to head towards Lowman Idaho and hit up the hot springs at Pine Flats.
Fortunately for me, my wife Jessica feels the same way I do when it comes to camping right next to someone and having to pay for it. So we took off on Forest Service Road 582 heading towards Red Mountain and we found a beautiful spot right next to Clear Creek to camp. The first thing I did is walk onto a log that was sticking out into the water and I could see that there was a massive caddis hatch going on and the little stream was alive with fish. I told Jess I have to go fishing or at least try while that caddis hatch was going strong. I quickly put my pole together, tied a new tapered leader with about 4-5 feet of tippet, and picked a nice juicy Adams Caddis (Green) and headed straight for the log.
The very first cast I made drifted for about a second and out of nowhere a fish came up and took it. I set the hook and landed that fish and I realized it was a Bull Trout (4-5"). I carefully took the fly out of the fish's mouth and put it back into the water. I made another cast in the same hole and wham another fish came out of nowhere and took my caddis. I landed that fish and it was another Bull Trout (4-5") and at this point I start to wonder if there is anything else in this little stream besides Bull Trout. I fished for two hours that night and caught several fish and every single fish was a Bull Trout ranging from (2-6"). We had to quit a little early because Jessica lost my last Adams Caddis fly and they were not to excited to go after Black Gold so we decided to call it an evening.
We took off the next morning and headed up towards Bear Valley throughout the flatlands and I was looking for a place to fish but the mosquitoes were just too thick and ferocious. So we headed back down and I found a beautiful little stretch of water that I just had to fish and I tied on a little CDC Caddis (Gray) and made my first cast and like clock work a fish came up and took that fly. It was another Bull Trout (4-5"). At this point I just could not fish that stream any longer because all there was in there was Bull Trout and they are an endangered fish in all Idaho waters. It was unfortunate, but it had to be done.
It was a great trip and we had a blast but the most important thing that we witnessed on this trip was how healthy and vibrant the Bull Trout are doing. There was a lot of small Bull Trout in Clear Creek, which leads me to believe that this species is doing well at least on that little stretch of river that flows from Bear Valley all the way to highway 21. It was great to see the fish are doing well, but it cut our fishing a little short because there was no sense of fishing anymore if all there was in the stream was Bull Trout. So Jessica and I focused our attention on something else just as enjoyable and that was going to the Pine Flats hot spring for a good swim. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun in Lowman Idaho.
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