Thanks for the entertaining summary
Eric
In a message dated 8/14/01 2:04:10 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
> Subj: Idaho report
> Date: 8/14/01 2:04:10 PM Pacific Daylight Time
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kent Lufkin)
> Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Spent most of last week with non-fishing friends at Smiley Creek,
> about 45 miles northwest of Sun Valley in the upper Salmon River
> basin. Located at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains, it's hard to
> imagine a more spectacular setting.
>
> On a recommendation from a neighbor, I four-wheeled up a mountainside
> to fish alpine Yellow Belly Lake. The lake had a stony bottom and
> seemed devoid of vegetation, bugs or fish, despite the neighbor's
> claims to the contrary. After a couple fruitless hours, I left and
> tried my luck at nearby Perkins Lake, casting to a few swirling
> subsurface fish finally long distance releasing a single taker for
> the day's efforts
>
> Oh well, new territory, I thought, and decided to try the Big Wood
> River across Galena Pass instead.
>
> Although the river flows right through Ketchum, the streamside trophy
> homes and fenced ranches limit access to the lower stretches of the
> Big Wood to parks and bridges. A couple hours spent at three
> different locations above town yielded a single fish on a blue dun,
> also long distance released.
>
> Running out of time and unwilling to pay the $375 3/4 day rate for a
> Silver Creek guide, my last stab at catching an Idaho fish was more
> successful. I had just an hour and a half to try out the Big Wood
> again, but closer to the headwaters of the main fork below Galena
> Lodge.
>
> Although I was fishing at nearly 8000 feet, the low gradient of Big
> Wood makes it a sort of alpine spring creek, meandering across the
> valley floor. Stealthily approaching small pools and cutbanks through
> the brush, I was finally able to coax three fish to hand: one a fat
> 13 inch RB; the others 10-11 inches. Lost three more fish and donated
> several flies as an offering to the fish gods on the convenient brush
> altars.
>
> Thought maybe next trip I'd try skiing instead, but with much more of
> that sort of luck, I'd probably break my leg ;-)
>
> Kent Lufkin
>
>
>
