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Northern Idaho – Day 4 – More Big River Action

October 11, 2023
Adventure, Bucket List, Camping, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Outdoors, Travel, Wade Fishing
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What a hiatus, I know. Haven’t made much of an effort to sit down and write in quite a while and it honestly hasn’t bothered me one bit. I can promise to do better, but I know better than that, anyway, here’s some more from our trip to Idaho back in 2022.

The next day was spent fishing with Marcus back on the big river. I don’t remember much from the day, but I do remember the fishing being so-so (compared to other days) for me, Marcus doing a good bit of Euro nymphing, and we actually ran into another fisherman later that morning (we were fishing behind someone). Apparently the day was completely overcast too according to the pics. My memory fails me at times and this is certainly one of those times. I should probably do a better job of documenting these trips shortly after they’re completed.

I also remember the arduous hike from the river to get back to the road when we were ready to make a move; which is from where the above perspective was shot. We fished a section of river in the morning that curved away from the road, parking at one end where it was relatively easy to enter the river at and hiking back when the road and the river met back up a good bit upstream – the only issue with that was the elevation was quite a bit different, as you can see. Probably not an issue for folks who are in shape and are use to elevation change, but I don’t resemble that remark.

We made another move up river and if I remember right the fishing improved a bit, to the point where I quit taking pictures of every fish. It’s hard for me to get to that point when I travel far to fish, but it does happen.

Here’s your sign! It was another great day spent on a river in Northern Idaho. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience catching a bull trout in bull trout country on this day. We had one more morning to go before it was time for us make our way back to Spokane.

Northern Idaho – Day 3 – Back on the Big River

October 28, 2022
Adventure, Beer, Camping, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Hiking, Outdoors, Scouting, Travel, Wade Fishing
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Marcus was ahead of Blake and I on the tributary and had elected to walk out and head back down to the main stem before we were ready to. I was happy with our decision to stay because I don’t know that he ever made it up to the nice spot where Blake and I finished up and caught those nice cutts. We hiked back down the trail from there and decided to fish the main stem of the river in that area where the tributary dumps in while we were waiting for Marcus and still had daylight. We rang Marcus up on the walkie and found out he was further downstream from us so the water from that point upstream was ready to be fished.

The fishing that late afternoon, especially the dry fly fishing, was a lot of fun. It was outstanding. I was having a hell of a time landing fish without a net and then taking a pic so I documented maybe a quarter of them. I did get a fun series of Blake catching a nice cutt right before we decided to head back up the road to the campsite.

I just learned Google Photos will animate your pics for you, so I may start throwing those in more posts. Sorry, not sorry.

It was a great way to end what was already a fantastic day and that success played into how we’d spend the next day.

Northern Idaho – Day 2 – Backcountry Sun

September 28, 2022
Adventure, Beer, Bucket List, Camping, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Hiking, Outdoors, Scouting, Travel, Wade Fishing
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Good fishing continued into the afternoon and for me average fish size went up, which was awesome. I still caught smaller ones, so numbers didn’t drop, but larger ones were sprinkled in more frequently. I captured a story in three pictures below of Dad setting the hook on a fish, lifting it out of the water, and then a long distance show off.

Not all the water was fishy though. There were some long, flat riffle stretches that didn’t yield many fish. The fish we did catch in those places tended to be smaller. Just like the rivers I fish in Louisiana for spotted bass, you really wanted to target anywhere there was deeper water. Around boulders, around timber, undercut banks, where tributaries dumped in, and definitely in deeper runs and seams. Places you typically find fish, it wasn’t too hard to find them. There weren’t any long, deep, slow pools in this section of river either.

We fished our way up to a crossing trail and then took it back to the main trail along the river to make our way back to our campsite. I was sufficiently worn out when I made it back to the campsite. Absolutely whooped. The long, upriver wading mixed with the hike back took a lot out of me. It was so worth it though. It made the Sky Kraken from Fremont extra delicious that night. It may have been my favorite beer from the trip.