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September 25 South Fork of the Boise River
It was 10:30 in the morning as I plunged down the bank to the river and as always I waded across to the other side. The river flow only 300 cfs so wading was not a problem. I get across the river to the bottom of a short run of flowing water against a brushy edge. The run was strewn with boulders, the current was slow and a foam line worked gently along the edges. Perfect fishing waters.
I no sooner arrive at the far bank and I see a big rainbow peak his head out right along the bank about 20 feet above me. Looking further up the river I see another fish feeding, then another and I realize I've waded right into the middle of a feeding frenzy of giant rainbows. Standing in one place looking up river for 50 yards I can see at least 30 fish positioned in the shallows leisurely sipping what looked to be emergers.
I unhook my "tie on" fly from my pole and it just so happened to be a #18 pink emerger. I focus on the feeding zone of the first fish I saw and he is rhythmically sipping the surface. I lay the first cast slightly ahead of his zone; it drifts slowly over his head and ever so subtly he sips the fly. A soft hook set, a monster boil and bolt and one the first cast of the day I'm into a large rainbow. He shared a lot of electricity with me, but there was power outage as I slipped into the net. Wow! A gorgeous 18 inch rainbow with brilliant colors and an overfed body was voicing his displeasure in the net. So we shared a few minutes together and exchanged pleasantries and he melted back into the river bottom like a ghost.
My attention turned back to the rivers edge ahead of me and in a matter of seconds I'm tunnel vision on another fig fish within 2 feet of the bank about 25 feet away. He's in real shallow water so I don't want to cast directly over him. I shade my cast to the left of the fish, doesn't take. What the hell… I put the next cast right on him. The fly moves in slow motion toward his lair and in equally slow motion the fish softly sucks in the fly. From slow motion to explosion in a heart beat and the battle was on. After a long rundown river, and few magnificent jumps, another giant fish nose dived into the net.
And so it went for the next hour and a half, spot a fish, hook a fish, fight a fish, and land a fish. I fished the entire run of water and there were only 2 fish I couldn't get to take, the rest of them ended up in the net or kicked me loose. Where the dust had cleared I'd landed 13 fish, and 35 years of fishing the South Fork I've never seen a run of bigger fish.
The hatch cooled in the heat of the day and it was back to the South Fork fishing. I was working the edges, searching the riffles and catching a few fish here and there. I continued working the pink emerger, but #18 CDC Caddis Green and Black brought most of the fish the net the rest of the day.
I finished the day below Cow Creek on a big riffle. The sun was down, the air was cooling and at the top of the riffle in shallow water there's 4 giant rainbows thrashing the surface. I'd seen a few green caddis a few minutes earlier so I tied on a CDC Green #18 and snuck up on the riffle. There was one enormous fish feeding tight to the edge so I laid a cast to him. He surfaced about 2 feet closer to the bank than my fly location, so recast to him. The fly no sooner began to drift and his big head appeared over my fly. I drive a hook in him and he boils out to deep water. It was a slow, powerful fight. The fish was heavy he relied on the current to quarter angle against me. I finally guide him to the net and we stared at each other in disbelief. He thought I was ugly and I thought he was abnormally large so we got along quite well. I admired him for a long time, revived him well and watched as he disappeared through the cobble stone.
Another day on the South Fork, 24 rainbows and one white fish later I'm in the car reminiscing the day. What a river!!!! What spectacular fish!!!! Is there anything on earth like dry fly fishing? I think not.
We'll be offering the pink emerger in the fly catalog very soon because it has tested exceptionally well.
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