JestersHK

Voted, and thats a great pic! Good luck.

Got skunked on the black foot yesterday... Only saw 2 small Cuttys,. Missed a hook up on the drift on a big beetle pattern. We were about 10 miles back into the caribou national forest. Absolutely stunning scenery. And eeriness of the silence was awesome. You could hear the field mice in the brush, that's how quiet it was. This afternoon I took a tip from the guy at the inn we are staying at, and hit up a stretch of the portneuf river. Smaller water but I immediately hooked up with a small brook. Hey was a few feet from me and got tangled in the weeds and broke off on the same beetle pattern. I retied up a prince pattern that my cuz tied for me and second cast fly got destroyed as soon as it hit the water. Actually got this one landed, and mission accomplished for me! Fought really well, and I was without waders and a net... Started raining on me and I was hungry so meet up with my crew for dinner. 2 fish in 45 minutes isn't slaying them, but I was just stoked to finally catch my first Idaho trout. Plan on hitting the water in the am. Hopefully I can get a few more to hand. Here's a few pics, I'll have more when I get some better service.

Man, beautiful country out here... No fishing today, just a flight in to salt lake then a 3 hour drive into Idaho. Tomorrow at 4pm is game time.

Haha, thanks John! No way I'll live up to Mr. and Mrs. BH adventures but I'll try I'm still trying to figure out how to be a stowaway on their next trip! Bags are packed, well at least my day pack which is all that matters!

Thanks Ness and BH. Online licenses are down due to some data breach... Hopefully I can sneak off site at lunch and hit the lone sporting goods store before they roll up the sidewalks LOL. Not a whole lot of anything out there and I'm looking forward to it! Not even McDonald's or any chains these millennial gen kids going with me are going to freak...

Man that sounded like a great trip! Crane is on my list for places I need to get to. Congrats on the PB there, beautiful fish.

Heading out west on Monday for work... Going to the town of Soda Springs real close to the Blackfoot River. Besides all the work I'll be fishing in the evenings with a local guy at our site who has fished this stretch for 20 years. I'm hopeful to land my first cutthroat and brookie. Mr. BilletHead has already given me some great pointers(Thanks Sir!) but wanted to see if anyone else has ever fished it or had advice to share. I'm packing the waders and will be fly fishing only this trip. FMCBrandon my cuz tied me up some great patterns based off BH's advice so hopefully I can get into some. I'll be using this post as a parking spot for some inbound Pics and after action report!

Dang! glad you are alright. That looks like it smarted a bit. I like the honesty, but man you missed a prime opportunity to tell us all about the 24in 10lb smallie you had hooked up who was so ferocious he pulled you off the back deck and when you flipped him into the boat his massive tail smashed your face into the console right before he broke off and flung himself back into the river! Only to be caught successfully moments later by HogWally who then lost consciousness over just how big the fish was! Come on man its ok, you can tell us the truth!

Thanks for the pics and vid! Just really awesome colors in that fish.

Saw a photo floating around on facebook of a huge bow caught at Outlet 2. Beautiful fish and I was hoping there might be some more pics or details to the story?

Have to agree with likinmo on the fog being the biggest challenge. There's been nights although I'd say rare at the trophy area where I was literally engulfed in fog where I had a hard time walking back to shore from wading out a bit. Have to just rely on feeling first with the feet as you could just plain not see inches in front of your face. It does come and go, and only for a few minutes have I ever had it be that thick, but wouldn't want to be trying to navigate in a boat like that. As long as you could sit tight for a bit until it lightened up it could be manageable. Not a boat guy here so hopefully a few others will chime in on being on that water at night.

Nice slam completed! Hopefully the hoppers are still hot in a few weeks when I make it out there... No slam for me as I'll likely only have 1 day to fish ... But your reports have got me fired up to get out there and explore.

Totally agree XP, This particular stretch is just a neat section of water. No monsters by any means, but I've caught a few smallies right at the 14in mark including one fish I caught one friday and then my daughter caught the same fish off the same root wad a week later. Best thing for me is its only 15min away.

More like some private parking and then a walk in LOL. I'll tentatively book the weekend after labor day

Browns already moving up? Man can't wait for this fall. Have a feeling its going to be a good one, and hopefully I can finally get into a big one this year.

HAHA, Pretty sure I know that stretch too thanks to you Eric82! A very productive little stretch of water if thats the same one. We still need to sync up and hit the bigger portion of that a bit farther down. I have permission to put in a bit further upstream from one of my buddies.

Once again BH I am envious of your amazing trips! Great photos and great report! Thank you for sharing.

So lately I have been fishing quite a bit at night down on Taney since first trying it out 2 years ago, but primarily using ultralights. I know you want to Fly fish and my advice there from what I have learned from others is go big and go dark. Big streamers, or giant wooly buggers and get them out as far as possible and then strip them back in quick. Tie up some really big sculpins too. We had Rainbows and browns both hit full size rappalas when we were targeting the walleye back in June. Some nights the fog is going to really challenge using any type of indicator. I watched a gentleman one night go out on the point just to the right in between outlet 1 and the cable. He would wade out as far as he dared and then cast way out up stream. He'd let his streamer sink in the current until it was straight out in front of him then strip it back through the current with pretty good success. Our success has come farther out and working the main channel which can also be difficult getting out there depending on flow. I'd say bring a traditional rod with 6lb test and throw a med size stick crank too. I'm fond of the baby trout pattern rappalas, but anything shiny seems to work best. For fish health I do crush my barbs as the trebles can be hard on the fish and the fingers. I know its not fly fishing, but can tell you I've never been skunked at night on that setup, and it might help break things up if the fly rod is slow. Outlet 2 I've also drifted with the glow in the dark indicators when we had plenty of moonlight and the fog let up. I've always had good luck using BIG san juan worms. and big shiny bead heads on midges. Good luck, and be safe! Hopefully you can bring a buddy, if not I usually come down a few weekends in October too!

That's a great one cast! Poor Ryan I thought you had the trifecta for sure. Tough crowd out there lol

Man looks like you guys had an awesome time! Did a bang up job catching all those species too. John thats a beaut of a smallie! If you guys ever need a pack mule to carry all your gear and maybe show a guy a thing or 2 about fishing on the current let me know!

Awesome story and an amazing fish.

Glad you could make it down Phil. As he said fishing was slow... For me it was all about missed hookups and not getting them to the net lol Had a nice rainbow right up to me and he popped off right as I was reaching for him. Had one hooked up and pulling drag which also popped off, and missed some really hard bumps which I'm still kicking myself for. I was down to my last little Rappala and we were down out in front of outlet 1. My stick bait got crushed and fish headed down stream. I got 2 or 3 good pulls on him, he had some weight to him then pop and he was gone. Line was cut clean so I'm guessing it was a walleye. I fish with a red lens on my headlamp, and you can see the eyes of them a ways out. I had seen a pretty large set of eyes the night before so there's a big one out there somewhere... Back home now, another great night trip in the books! Was allot slower than the last time, but still caught some quality fish. It's a different kind of fishing, all off the rod tip, using big stick baits on trout, but when they slam it it gets the heart pumping.

Heading down for the last night. Had to make it an early trip in last night around 1:30. Managed to catch a decent brown though, and caught pretty consistently, but there were a bunch of smaller stockers mixed in there. Hoping to find some bigger ones tonight.

Yeah staying pretty true to what the core site says. It's wadeable, just have to be careful. We were using stick baits and jigs. Shallow divers and cranking them real slow through the current. The more reflective or shiny the better.

I finally turned in at 5 this morning to get some sleep lol. Caught more numbers last night into this morning and caught a small walleye too. Today it was off to the pool with the kiddos. Brandon stayed and fished and did pretty good today, he can fill us in. I'm suiting up now for night 3! Brandon's got us off to a great start!