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Northern Idaho – Day 5 – One Last Hurrah

October 12, 2023
Adventure, Beer, Camping, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Outdoors, Travel, Wade Fishing
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Packing up to leave is always bittersweet for me. On the one hand I’m usually ready to be home and see my family by the end of every trip. On the other hand getting back home means getting back to the daily grind and the stresses that go with it. Plus I hate the activity of packing up, I’d rather be fishing.

We did do a little more fishing before we headed out. I had to make one more try at a bull trout before putting the fly rod up to travel home. I chose a juicy looking roadside run to pick apart with a streamer and did manage to fool a cutthroat, but no bulls were raised.

Up above the juicy run was this cliff face that produced several fish for Marcus and I, much more productive than the run below. We headed out shortly after fishing those two spots. It was time to head back to civilization and talk to the families we had not spoken with since arriving at our campsite.

Milk shakes were secured at the nearest gas station and breweries were visited once we were back in Spokane – milk shakes and beer – staples for any western native trout trip! Stay tuned for a report from this year’s trip to Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado!

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.