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FISH OF THE SPUDLANDS

A Nympher's Delight

check flows -- catch fish

WALLPAPER: AT WATERFALL RIFFLES

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BEWARE OF IDAHO

.. A few miles, of delightful tailwater riffles and runs, await anglers willing to eschew the dry fly religion du jour.
.. We visited the Box Canyon of the Henry's Fork and it exercised our memory mechanisms. Hadn't fished there since 1968 or '69. Our error.
.. Back then we recognized two parts of the Snake River: 'The North Fork,' and 'The South Fork.' Folks today still understand when we say 'The South Fork.'

FLOAT BIG'UNS EARLY

.. "The Box" is an intimate stretch of water with a lot of willing fish.
.. We had believed, (in the 60's,) that it held 20,000 fish per mile. Today, the estimate is about 7,000 fish per mile. That's still a goodly number since the best holding water concentrates the fish.
.. There is nothing to prevent folks from floating a fly: some do, especially when the salmonflies are popping. The rumored truth of the matter is that the sub surface biota is so dense that the the fish just have to park themselves in a gentle spot and open their maw and let the river sweep food into it.

GET DOWN QUICK

.. This is both good and bad. You need to find the fish. You need to poke 'em in the nose.
.. History and geology conspire to make the simple task of catching a trout more difficult than it would seem to be.
.. The porosity of the jointed and segmented basalts of the Island Park Caldera provide many nooks and crannies for the resident biota and for the wayward nymph hook.
.. This is one place where the old axiom holds true: "If you ain't hookin' rocks - you ain't catchin' fish."

SHORT AND SWEET RIDE

.. The little canyon was carved by the combined forces of the Buffalo River and the Henry's Fork.
.. The scouring force of these two rivers was curtailed in 1939 when the Island Park Dam was completed.
.. The dam created the Island Park Reservoir and drowned some of the best fishing on the Trude Ranch, (yes . . . that Trude! President Herbert Hoover loved it.)
.. This dam and the check dam at the mouth of the Buffalo River just above it's confluence with the Henry's Fork River have slowed flows, (most of the time,) to produce ideal water for catching fish.
.. The dams have tamed the roiling, canyon carving discharge of the two rivers into a pleasant stretch of river for floating in a drift boat  -- or canoe, or tube, or kayak.
.. Should you not be a "nympher;" and should you fish with a guide, you will probably 'cherry pick' the riffles and fish in a most conservative manner. This will stab you some fish and lose you very few flies.

VERY SMALL WORKS TOO

.. If you're after the giants, and if you have flies to lose, you should probe the dark crevasses near large boulders. The giants are there. The crevasses hold deep dark secrets and enormous fish, as well as a full assortment flies - a veritable gold mine of history.
.. Look for flows in the 800 to 900 cfs for a gentle day. Fish deep and fish slow. Lose flies and call it good. Go big when the big bugs are around. Go as small as size 18 when they are not there.
.. You can even drown your favorite surface imitations - (after mashing them into nondescript wads,) and enjoy this little segment of the Snake River.
.. We'll be back.

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WALLPAPER:   BUREAU OF RECLAMATION WATER HOUSE - 1939