Spent three days in the Idaho Mountains with my son chasing Cutthroat Trout. What an awesome trip.
On the long ride in, We passed an old mining town that still has an old dredge from the early 1900’s in tack and open as a mining museum. This made the drive in even more exciting.
As we began our decent into the valley we would be fishing, the skinny water that made up the headwaters of our river system seemed extremely small and slow.
With each passing mile, the river began to take shape into the body of water that I had remembered. Even from the vehicle, one could pick out rocks and eddys that you knew held hungry trout.
We finally reached camp, set up the tent fast as could be and made our way to the river. This trip was for my son to catch trout, I did pack a rod, but my intent was to help him get into fish. After only a few minutes on the water, I soon realized that my aid was not needed nearly as much as I suspected it may be. Camden consistently dropped his fly in the best holding water. It was not long before he had his first fish of the trip, a decent sized Cutthroat.
We moved down river and actually ran into a couple of young guys fishing…. It is rare to see others on these waters as we are so far out. After a brief meet & greet, we moved into water they just left. Second cast into great looking water, a large cutthroat came up for his dry and refused at the very last minute. I told Camden about the “Dry / Dropper” rig. We tied on a small emerger, first drift through the same water, Big Cutty tight on the line. This was a great lesson for Cam to learn. A quick fly change or a subtle change of casting locating can make all the difference in connecting on a missed fish.
Nighttime came quick and we spent a great evening eating steak and beans cooked over the open flames. I am often impressed with just how good food taste while eating riverside…. With evening, the rain came, but this did not damping our mood. We climbed into our bags and drifted off to sleep, morning would come quick.
We awoke to cold wet ground and an early morning fog…. Putting wet/cold boots and wading socks on this early in the morning was a wake-up call for my son. Because the sun had not yet peeked above the ridgeline, I decided to keep Cam out of the water until the temps raised a bit. This means, I would have to put him on my back and cross the slow moving current to get into the best casting locations. I am thankful this backpacking my son did not need to last long as the sun finally came out in all of her glory. We caught fish at every hole we stopped at. Some stops, we netted 5-6 fish, other stops we worked for only one hookup and then left. There we spawning Salmon in the river system with us. Every once in a while, we would scare a salmon in the shallows and he/she would make her presence known. These encounters created great teachable moments of salmon and their amazing life cycle.
After moving down river a few miles to one of my favorite fishing holes, we were both exhausted. Between my son and myself, I think we landed approx. 12 fish from this one spot. Even a few small bull trout were netted.
I was and still am amazed at my sons eagerness and no quit
attitude. While hiking back to camp, he
was dragging. He was simply
exhausted. Did I push him too much,
I felt horrible. I decided I would carry him out on my
shoulders for a bit. After only about
¼ mile I stopped to look into the river below us. We are now approx.. 50 feet above the river,
but I could see a Huge Bull Trout moving downriver in the shallows. I
just about dropped my son off my shoulders.
He could not see the fish as his glasses were not polarized. I quickly removed my sun-glasses and put them
on him… He screamed in excitement. Dad, you have to go after him. After surveying the decent down into the
river and setting my son on a perch high above the river bottom to watch the
hunt unfold before his eyes, I slowly moved towards to direction of the
water. I had been packing my 7 wt rod
and very large articulated streamers for this very fish. I knew they lived in these waters, but before
today, had yet to see such a large Bull Trout.
I finally reach casting distance to where I think the fish is held. I actually left my son with my polarized
glasses so he could watch the excitement from above. I allowed the large white streamer to swing
down infront of a large down tree. I
would make a couple of cast and then move a few feet across the river and swing
the fly again. If the bull was hanging
out in these waters, he was sure to hit my fly.
I would make a couple of cast and then look up at my son sitting on a
log. I felt bad about leaving him (only
50 feet away), but the pull of that Bull had me throwing more cast’s. This was a fish of a life time and my son
was here to possibly share in the excitement.
After many more cast’s and a few changes of position, I made the
difficult call and decided it was time to continue on with our hike back to
camp. I literally had the battle going
on in my mind (good angel and bad angel on each shoulder). {bad} You will never see another bull trout
like this in your lifetime…, {good} your son is tired and has been such a
trooper, you owe him. {bad}, just one
more cast, what harm could one more cast do?
{good}, you now know where he lives, just make the 4 hour trip here next
week. I finally decide to hike up to my
son. He is bummed I did not hook the
fish, but glad to be heading back to camp.
This fish invigorated him. He had
a new zest in the step, no more sitting on dad’s shoulders.
Another great dinner, and night in the tent and we awoke to
the river being high and muddy. Last
night the mountains received more rain, we did not get any, but the higher
elevations sure did. We had to pack up
camp and more to new water. Image below is of Dagger Falls on the
Middlefork of the Salmon River. Just a
bit off color…
We finally found some clear water; we spent the day casting
dry fly’s to small trout. It was a
blast. My son was dropping his fly
inches from the grassy banks. Each cast
brought a strike. Not big fish, but
colorful is an understatement. The day ended with a long car ride home. All in All, a great fishing trip full of fond
memories.
Leaders used were our 50” dry fly leader on my sons rod
(short 7’-6” 4wt TFO). With 4X tippet for the bigger fly’s. I was throwing our 76” Ultimate Dry Fly
leader with loop end for dry’s, and our 36” Streamer leader for throwing the
big articulated stuff. These leaders
make casting big nasty fly’s a breeze.
