Sun Valley / Picabo Area Fishing Report - June 15, 2016

A massive hole has been left in the Sun Valley fly fishing community. Dave Faltings from Silver Creek Outfitters passed after a hell of a fight against ALS. Dave will be entered into fishing lore as a true legend. A guy that could bring Steelhead to his dry fly, while the rest of us tried to get a strike any way we could. If Dave met you, he knew you and remembered you each time he saw you. His prowess as a fly angler only being surpassed by his prowess as a kind hearted friend to many. If you knew Dave, take some time this week to catch a fish in his honor then sit quietly and reflect on how we can all be more like him. We may never get there, but people like Dave are rare, and anything we can do to emulate him will make us, and the people around us, better.

Silver Creek was loved dearly by Dave. If you go to fish this week, plan on cooler temperatures bringing the Baetis hatches and Spinner Falls to the forefront. Hot weather bugs like the Green Drake, Callibaetis, and Blue Damsel may come into play, but it will be late afternoon before temps are right for these insects. PMD action should continue to show late in the day and some in the morning. Ants and Beetles are still hot patterns and should remain so for the better part of the summer. Expect the action to move toward the Ant and away from the Beetle as summer progresses.

The Big Wood is dropping in a hurry and the cool temperatures this week should provide us a fishery! Plan on Stimulators with Prince Nymph droppers, or Colorado Green Drakes with Epoxy Back Green Drake droppers. If the water clears and stays clear the Green Drake action should explode with the warm days forecast for Sunday and early next week.

The Upper Lost is following the same path as the Big Wood. Normally the Lost would clear after the Wood, but with the higher elevation and cold nights this week, we can probably plan on some fishing up there by weeks end.

The South Fork of the Boise should be coming on this week. Salmon Flies and Caddis are due on the river and the current Cicada situation looks very good! Midweek fishing will help you avoid the crowds on the weekend. If you have a strong skill set on the oars, start on the lower river. If not, stay up high.

Happy Fishing Everyone!

Brown Drake / Opening Day Update - May, 2016

Hello Anglers! 

It's time! We are hours away from Opening Day on Silver Creek! 

The Brown Drake came off very, very light last night. No one missed anything. IN fact it looks like a replay of last year. A few days of Drakes trickling off and then the big BOOM! With the weather doing what it is doing I would expect Saturday night, Sunday night to be pretty darn good and by next week we should be in full blown Drake mode! 

Upstream the PMD and Baetis went nuts last night on the Conservancy Waters. The weather set off great hatches and spinner falls, and we expect a lot more of the same. 

This is going to be an epic opening weekend. We hope you can join us. 

Don't forget tonight is MYSTERY OF THE CUTTYRAINBROWN TROUT, HOSTED BY HANK PATTERSON. 8:30 p.m. $5 at the door!

Sun Valley Area Fishing Report - October 19, 2015

True Fall came in with the weekend and it looks like it plans to stay until winter takes over. We have heard many an angler frustrated by the lack of consistent hatches, but that should all have changed by now. Not to sound like a broken record, but the Fall Baetis hatches should be significant as we head toward November and Mahogany Duns continue to both frustrate and inspire anglers on a day to day basis.

The angler numbers in the past week have dropped to a season low, meaning you can fish to your hearts content while still experiencing the last hatches and spinner falls of the year. Spawning Brown and Brook Trout are dropping eggs into almost all the river systems, often making Nymphing a better choice than fishing the dry even when the hatches are on! When this happens it becomes an angler’s personal choice if you are going to fish the top or the bottom.

Some great opportunities also exist this week a bit farther from Sun Valley, as low flows make for some exciting fishing and easy access on the Lower Lost River and the South Fork of the Boise. Both are great places to fish Baetis this time of the year, and on a pretty fall day the drive is worth it as much as the fishing.

IF you are headed to the South Fork of the Boise and you are an Upland Hunter don’t forget your shotgun and your bird dog as the Chukar population in areas above the river seems to be coming back strong since the fires of a few years ago. This is a great cast and blast opportunity. We like to go early and hunt while it’s cool and once it’s warm enough for the Baetis, normally about 1:00 p.m. we drop to the river corridor and start looking at our favorite runs for rising fish.

Fishing windows are short these days so try to maximize your time by arriving early and staying late. The afternoon and early evenings will be more productive than the mornings as the nighttime temperatures reach the freezing mark in many places. So by early, we mean sometime around 10:00 a.m. and by late we mean fish until sunset.

If things get too cold out there come into Picabo Angler and check out the new fingerless KAST gloves. They are a local Idaho Falls company and are producing some of the finest cold weather gear in the industry! We are proud to sell their gear in our store!

Happy Fishing and Hunting Everyone!

Little Wood Reservoir

We have been in the super well needed rain cycle here and our streams are going up in water volume and the landscape is turning into a marvelous spring-green with loads of wildflowers popping up at mid to lower elevations. Pictured below is the Little Wood Reservoir.

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Little Wood Reservoir. Photo: John Huber

Silver Creek Brown Drakes

We are now less than ten days away from opening day and we thought yesterday would be a perfect time to look for Brown Drake nymphs behind Picabo Angler on Silver Creek. While wading Silver Creek and seining for Brown Drake nymphs there were a bunch of Baetis on the water and a few callibaetis as well. And..., yes, fish were up feeding on the surface.

The water flow on Silver Creek at the time of writing this is 115 cfs. The mean for today is 121 cfs.

Our Brown Drake patterns--along with many others--just arrived and we are fully stocked. It's our guess at Picabo Angler that the Brown Drakes will get started, much like last year, somewhere near the end of May.

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Brown Drake (Ephemera Simulans) Nymphs. Silver Creek. Photo: Nick Price

Silver Creek Access Primer #5

Here's video #5 in our series of Silver Creek access points. This one is on the Nature Conservancy & Float Tube section. Check it out:

Silver Creek Access Primer #3

Below is our 3rd video on Silver Creek access points. This video is on Point of Rocks. Check it out.

Silver Creek Access Primer #2

Below is another short video primer on a Silver Creek access point. This video is on the Picabo Bridge access. This is the farthest downstream public access for Brown Drakes and a great one to know about if you plan on fishing Silver Creek early in the season. The season opens, by the way, on May 23rd and we will be stocked with all of the Brown Drakes, PMD's, Caddis, Beer, Ice, etc that you'll need so come on down.

June 10th Sun Valley Fishing Report

Update: We saw a few things yesterday that we want to update here in the Sun Valley fishing area. First and most important, a very small, size 18 Hopper came bounding through our fly shop office yesterday afternoon. This is significant, in the fact that our door is a few hundred yards from the Creek.  Once the Hopper hatch starts it progresses quickly. With the dry conditions we can also expect to see Hoppers riverside very soon. We have some incredible Baby Hopper patterns in the shop this year. The Hopper hatch is often overlooked, but with the prevailing wind conditions thus far in May and June, expect the Baby Hopper to be a major food source for Silver Creek trout in the next few weeks!

The other thing we saw in the heavy wind last night was a plethora of Miller Moths being blown into the Creek from streamside bushes. The fish were on them quickly when they hit the water. We have some Spruce Moth and big Caddis imitations that should cover this insect. If you are on the Wood or other freestone stream, think about a big Gray Wulff!

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Baby Hopper Patterns

Sun Valley Spring Fishing

While opening day of fishing in Idaho is 12 days away, we are still fishing here with the entire Big Lost River watershed open. Trail Creek Summit opened on May 1st and the water level on the Lower Big Lost is still at a very fishable level of 91 cfs. Look for the flow to drastically increase on this piece of water sometime around Memorial Weekend. The cooler days have been far better with decent Baetis and nymphing using small zebra midges, pheasant tails, rainbow warriors, etc.

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Big Lost River Rainbow. May, 2014.