Government Censored Fish

Paddy and I fished on an undisclosed river yesterday (I'll admit it was in Idaho) and had the best day of fishing we'd ever had. Really. We guess we caught about 60 fish in three hours ranging from 16" to well over 20", including more ginormous whitefish.

One whitey was so big I couldn't get my hand around it a lost it before I got a photo--not that I'd post the censored fish photos. I'm a freaking whitefish machine. I've been thinking about getting together with Whitefish Ed to start Whitefish Unlimited.


Paddy fishing on undisclosed river. If you can figure out where we are, you're welcome to go. All fish photos were censored for their protection.

Truly amazing fishing, fresh snow on my favorite mountains, and 80 knot winds. I later checked and it said it was only 17, but I swear it was blowing straight from Canada. I wore long johns, fleece pants, and puffy pants under my waders and long johns on top with a down vest, down jacket, and my wading jacket. And the wind still got to me. Burr.

Amazing, though. Best day ever. Really.

Record Whitey?

No, I'm not talking about my tan-free body.

Paddy and I went steelheading today and Paddy caught the two biggest whitefish I've ever seen! Well over twenty, but we're not the types to carry tapes (real numbers make clients unhappy).



No steelhead landed, but a few hooked and we were mostly looking at water. I've got Spey fever and I was trying to find as many Spey pools as possible even though the Spey rod was a little incomplete. Paddy brought the bottom half of his T&T Spey rod and the top half of a broken T&T 6 wt. They don't match, surprisingly.

Paddy's way behind on zebra midges since he's putting together some flies to sell to Montana Fly so he tied over Galena Pass. Even Dramomine wouldn't keep me from puking doing that.



160 fish in the Pahsimeroi hatchery today!

Glamour Shot...of the crotch?

The fishing's still awesome. Midges, midges, midges. Hopefully some baetis soon.

This shot is of my crotch-interesting. Photo by Mark Stone.



Tonight's the Fly Fishing Film Tour--Hope it's good--I'll at least drink some beer.

Steelhead Mania!

The 2009 Salmon River Steelhead run is the largest in about 30 years. We're all itching for sight fishing, but there's still lots of ice and the trout fishing's been keeping us occupied.

I just checked and there are already 74 fish in the Pahsimeroi hatchery and the Sawtooth hatchery doesn't open until this weekend. There have been fish lined up below the Sawtooth hatchery since December though, so I'm expecting great things.

Paddy's first Steelhead trip is this weekend and I hope to head up on Monday.

The tug is the drug.

Idaho is for Spawners

This morning Paddy and I went to a fundraising breakfast for Idaho River United. I was not stoked, to say the least, since it started at 7 am, but it was definitely an eye-opening experience.

The average Wood River Land Trust donor is probably 65 and a second homeowner who votes to the right of right. The crowd this morning, was significantly younger, hipper, and actually cared about our rivers and our anadromous fish...to the point of tears. IRU is a real go-get-em organization with guts and the willpower to get things done.

Having a new administration is a great opportunity to push for the removal of the four Lower Snake River Dams as well as try to get the historic salmon and steelhead runs to return to Nevada. Can you imagine seeing anadromous fish in Nevada?! It could happen in our lifetime if we respect the water and fight for the return of historic populations.

You can find out how to support IRU at the link to the right. I recommend you do--our fish will thank you.



The photo of the sticker and someone I don't know is from here.

Prada Goes Fishing

I think all of the fall fashions weeks are now over and through the NY Times reviews I was most attracted to "Prada Goes Fishing," of course. Thigh-high red leather waders...hmmm. Read the article here.

Blaine County Water Use

A water study was recently released by Jim Bartolino, our agency water dude, on water use in Blaine County. He originally found that Blaine County residents used 767 gallons of water a day, person, which was shocking, as you could imagine. After some refiguring, he came to between 500 and 600 gallons of water a DAY!!!! YEAR ROUND!

The Idaho average is 263 gallons per day and the national average is 179 gallons. We're about three times above the national average because people like John and Teresa Heinz Kerry, the largest water users in the county, water their ginormous yards all day every day.

I want you to think about our fish the next time you go out to turn on the sprinklers. They probably wouldn't approve.

Working Hard or Hardly Working

This week I lots of unexpected work so I only fished one afternoon, but I did also get to guide yesterday.

On Wednesday, I got to go out after work and was on the river shortly after 4. I wasn't planning on catching anything since it was so late in the day--just scouting for some upcoming trips. I gawked at the Heinz/Kerry, Fayed, and Wynn households while pretending to fish. So big and hideous. I was talking on the phone (fishing hard, I know) when I saw something weird drift by. It turned out to be a Fishpond Piopod, which was kinda cool, but it doesn't fit on my Fishpond pack straps--kinda useless, but so was fishing that afternoon. At least I got out.



Paddy and I guided two nice couples from Huntsville, Alabama on Thursday. They had never fished before and we caught some fish nymphing before the midges made their appearance at 1.30. One of the ladies even caught a trophy whitefish--my fav! We all tag teamed a midge pool and they heckled each other. Everyone caught a few nice fish. It was a nice day and then we went to a slide show on Patagonian fishing at Silver Creek, but they were just selling trips so we left pretty quickly.

I hope I get to fish more next week, but the parents are coming so I have to clean the house--I'm going to try to get up Steelheading again--we'll see.

Dear President Obama,

Please take a moment to follow the link and let your public officials know how you feel about Northwest Salmon and Steelhead here.