A Thursday in Idaho

It was decided that a trip over to the South Fork of the Clearwater may be better if we snuck out on a weekday, rather than fight the usual crowd on the weekends. Nick and I left early Thursday morning driving out one of my favorite US highways, Route 12, towards Lewiston, ID along the Lochsa. It had rained the night prior, so the road was nice and icy on the pass, but clear as usual in Idaho.

Keeping this somewhat abbreviated, as we got there, there were campers and fishermen everywhere along the drainage. So much for the weekday idea. Plates from all over the northwest. We fly fished in some of my usual spots, though the fish, steelhead, were all about the drainage. One local told us that it had slowed down quite a bit recently. We watched a scene where a fellow below us cast a spey rod gently laying out line and getting the perfect drift. He was on our side of the bank, chatting with his friends on the opposite side of the river who were casting bobbers and jigs. His wife was with him with the net and two large pvc tubes. On the other bank he was also visiting with the ID game wardens who were driving along the drainage everywhere. This fellow caught five fish, and placed them in the tubes and waded them across the river to his warden friends who took them for an analysis of some sort. The guy had it dialed in pretty well. Right cast, right section of the hole, right drift, right fly - right now! We watched in awe.

It did not happen for us this Thursday afternoon, but Nick got to watch someone who knew what he was doing and see some beautiful fish. There were quite a few fish moving up the river, including a few along the bank resting behind boulders that looked like they had been pretty chewed up somewhere along the journey back up to the hatchery where they were born. I'll be fishing more in Idaho this year as we travel to some of the races, but it may be the last season fishing over there as they are charging a bit much for an out of state license.