Sun Valley Fly Fishing

Sun Valley Area Fishing Report - April 24, 2018

The fish have been rising on Silver Creek, the Rainbows are coming off of spawn and the days are getting warmer. Time to get ready for Opening Day! Here is a quick list of things you may want to consider before the season goes into full swing.

Check those waders for leaks! Put on those waders and go stand in the water. Then make one of three decisions. You are good to go for the season with nice dry waders. It’s time to fix the small leaks in those waders or it’s time to throw those nasty old, leaky waders in the garbage and start the season warm and dry!

Check your wading boots. Do you need new laces? New soles? New boots? Keep invasive species in mind and consider a rubber sole bottom with cleats. Ditch the felt sole, the new rubber soles are just as good once you make the mental adjustment.

Check your fly line. Is it cracked? Is the tip sinking on your floating line? Is it full of memory coils? If any of these are true, treat yourself and get a new line. It will add joy to your fishing day. We promise!

Check your reel. Do you need to lubricate any of the parts? Are all the screws tight and flush on the reel seat? Is the reel well balanced to the rod? Give your reel the once over every few months and you’ll get a lot more life out of it!

Are your fly boxes organized? Have you got last year’s Callibaetis out of your Baetis box? Are your Hoppers separated from your Stoneflies? This is also a good time to pre-tie dropper rigs for Green Drake the first Green Drake hatches of the year.

If you have a drift boat or a raft, get that thing cleaned out! Last year’s beer cans and water bottles don’t need to be on the floor of that boat any longer! Check your trailer registration, your ropes and lines and your oars. Be sure you have your invasive species sticker in place and ready to go so you aren’t’ scrambling for one the day you want to float.

Get some maps out, turn on Google Earth and start exploring! This is a great time of year to make a plan to see and fish some waters you have never seen or fished before!

Finally, make a plan to join us the night before Opening Day for our big party with Hank Patterson and Hillfolk Noir!

Happy Fishing Everyone!

Second Christmas Comes to Picabo on Saturday!

Opening Day on Silver Creek is May 27th! That is this Saturday! There is nothing better than Opening Day in Picabo, it feels just like Christmas Morning, so why not Second Christmas in Picabo, Idaho! 

Join Picabo Angler for Opening Day, this Saturday for our free BBQ at 11:30 - until it's all gone! There will be art by Ed Anderson and Bern Sundell as well as Fly Casting with our guides, and a whole lot of friends, fun and a celebration of Second Christmas 2017 in Picabo!

WAIT! Let us not forget Second Christmas Eve!!!! That's right, on Friday, May 26th from 5 - 9 we will have special guest Hank Patterson here to speak about his talent and how he has mastered the Creek, we think....! We will also have the brilliant musician Travis Ward from Boise. We will have Art from both Ed Anderson and Bern Sundell. Idaho Angler will also be in attendance to talk all things Owhyee River and Boise River The casting course will be set up as well with our guides on hand!

We will have several great raffles for Reel Recovery and the admission to see Hank is free, with donations gladly accepted!

We are excited to see you! 

Sun Valley Fly Fishing

Fishing Report - May 2, 2017

A special season is about to begin on Silver Creek. Flows have been holding steady at around 226 CFS for nearly a week. There is little fluctuation, so there is no reason to expect any significant drop before the opener! We could start the season at a higher flow than we ever saw all of last season! This means a healthy fisher, healthy fish, and more fish spread throughout the system! So far the hatches have been awesome. The giant size 14 Baetis have been joined by daily PMD occurrences. Expect the Baetis to get smaller at Opening Day approaches, and the PMD action should continue to ramp up as the spring temperatures rise.

The ongoing question about Brown Drakes is anyone’s guess right now! With a return to more normal historic flows, we wonder if we will also see a return to the mid-June event that has occurred at the end of May for the past three seasons. We’ll go kick up some nymphs soon and give you our prediction. Stay tuned!

With Opening Day around the corner, don’t forget our second annual “Evening with Hank Patterson” on Friday night the 26th. Doors and beers will open at 6:00 p.m. with Hank taking over the entertainment at 7:00 p.m. This is a free event to fundraise for the folks at Reel Recovery. We encourage you to attend, lend your support and mostly get a nice long laugh in the night before we all go fishing!

The only other options for opening weekend will be tailwater like the South Fork of the Boise and the Lower Lost River. These areas are flow dependent though. The South Fork of the Boise will be boating water, with major flows, so experienced boaters only!

The Lower Lost River may fish depending on the flows, but at this point we think it would be a long shot to have fishable waters over there once the irrigation starts and the water is needed downstream.

The good news is we are blessed with Silver Creek, and we are blessed with the kindness of the anglers that fish here. Don’t worry about how many people are out and about on the opener. It is a celebration! Not everyone is fishing, many just come to be a part of this wonderful weekend. So plan a trip to Picabo on May 26th for an Evening with Hank Patterson, and again on the 27th for Opening Day! Heck, you may as well camp out!

Happy Fishing Everyone!

Sun Valley Fly Fishing Report or The Importance of Kindness on the Water.

The winter fishing season is all but behind us at this point. Looking back at 2016 and the first part of 2017, we can say with certainty that we had a really good season. Looking forward we can look at the snow pack and we can feel very confident we are about to have an epic season.

We will renew the season on May 27th this year, and with that we begin to renew another facet of fly fishing. That is the facet of kindness and a spirit of helping each other in the Silver Creek Valley. Gone are the days of the uppity angler staring at everyone that walks past. That angler has been replaced by one that says “Hello” and “Good Morning!” and “How’s your day going?”

In Picabo we want to celebrate fly fishing and we want to share fly fishing. We don’t want to fill the river with guides and tell you to buy the flies we tied. We have guides that will go out of their way to help other anglers they think may need a hand, our guides will make room for other anglers and will always ask anglers at access points which direction they intend to fish.

In the fly shop at Picabo Angler, we want our guests to feel at home. We want them to ask all the questions they want without any question being too small or too silly. We know we all had a starting point and we want to honor those that are just getting their feet wet! We want you to learn in a place of calm and a place of peace.

If you are fish obsessed to a point where you cannot manage your manners, or seem to think there is ownership of a river or run, we encourage you to fish the high country! You can have all the space and fish you want. If you want to come to Silver Creek and challenge yourself and find out how good you are at dry fly fishing, by all means please do, but never at the expense of someone else’s good time.

We can all take away a lot from fly fishing, and it doesn’t all have to be about the fish and fishing. When you get home, we hope you will tell your loved ones a story about how you helped someone catch their first fish on Silver Creek, or maybe the story about the person that helped you catch yours!

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!

Spring Weather and the Brown Drake

We received the following question through the interwebs today. We figured it was a very good question and one many anglers are curious about. So everyone thank Thayne, for putting this out there:

"I know we are still several weeks away from talking drakes but I was curious how conditions compare to last year for Drake timing. Has your spring been a little behind compared to last? Thanks again!"

Soooo, Drake timing. The big question! This spring Picabo has been more "normal" than it has been in sometime. We are bouncing back and forth between cold, warm, wet and dry. The saying about wait five minutes and the spring weather will change in the Rocky Mts. is spot on this year. Despite the rapid change, we haven't had any crazy events like heatwaves or weeks of rain. 

The past few seasons the Drake has gone off around May 25. Last season it went on the 23rd, then paused two days, then exploded on the 25th or 26th, just after opening weekend. It did trickle off the Friday night before the season opened!

This year the opener is on the 28th. The Drake is traditionally a June 7 - 12 kick off date when things are normal. We are crossing our fingers that is the case this year.

With that said there is no way in hell I won't have Drake patterns in my box the night of the 28th whether we've seen the bug or not. We will have our full selection out on the opener. 

(Don't forget Friday the 27th, Hank Patterson will be here showing "Mystery of the Cuttyrainbrown Trout." at 8:30 in our airplane hangar. Bring a chair! We will also have our traditional opening day BBQ on Saturday!)

Check back with us frequently. I'll go kick some Drake Nymphs up in the next few days and see how mature they look and how high up in the mud column they are. 

With 100% snow pack and a great season last year, things are looking wonderful for the coming year!

See you at the end of the month!

John Huber

Sun Valley Area Fishing Report - March 3, 2016

Oh March, how we adore thee! The number one month for catch rates in the Sun Valley area is upon us! The Big Wood River during the month of March may be one of the finest fisheries in the West. Massive hatches of Midges coupled with the Little Black Stones make the Wood simply magical! If you are learning to fly fish or know someone you want to get on the water for easy, rewarding fishing, the next few weeks are ideal. The same flies we use all winter are in play, Zebra Midge, Brassies, Griffiths Gnats, and Tie-Down Midges.

With the fish going into a pre-spawn mode, they will begin to eat with a little more recklessness than at any other time of the season. This means you can start bringing Parachute Adams with you and even small, sized 16 and 14 Stimulators with you to the river, especially as we head toward the end of the month.

The Big Lost River should also begin to show some fantastic fishing in the coming days and weeks. Be aware that the Lost River rainbows are a bit ahead of schedule this year. Some spawning activity is already occurring, although there are plenty of fish in the pre-spawn state ready to catch. Please be discerning where you walk and which fish you cast to. Spawning fish are not eating, so putting them through any length of fight is really putting them in a difficult position. Avoid casting to Redds, meaning any fish you see in shallow waters near gravels that have been swept clean. Use the same flies you would take to the Big Wood, although be prepared for Baetis hatches as well. This becomes more and more important as March progresses.

Silver Creek is now closed throughout its entire length for the season. The Creek will reopen the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. If you tie your own flies start cranking out P.M.D., Callibaetis, Midges and Baetis flies for the opener! It will be upon us before you know it!

Other places to fish in the next few weeks include the Little Wood River in the desert stretches near Preachers Bridge as well as the South Fork of the Boise. The Midge Hatches down there should start really ramping up and some spring Baetis is possible as well.

Finally, spring is a wonderful time of year to head on down to the Snake River and chase Carp on the fly!

Happy Fishing Everyone! 

Some thoughts about the Opening Weekend on Silver Creek

Some thoughts about the Opening Weekend on Silver Creek

…Brown Drakes are fickle creatures.

…There doesn’t seem to be a storm big enough to dampen the spirits of anglers here.

…The gentle nature of the Creek seems to translate to the attitudes of the people that fish it.

…Silver Creek remains, and will always be a humbling fishery.

…The farmers and ranchers in this valley care a lot about the Creek and it shows.

…Making friends around a campfire is the best place to make friends.

…Picabo Angler is thankful for all the support we’ve been given and we will always put the angler first.

…Everyone here waves at everyone else when they drive by.

…Big Brown trout are awesome fish that get burned into memory banks for a lifetime.

…Seeing the silver flash of a leaping Rainbow in a lightning filled backdrop will take your breath away.

…Sitting on the banks of the Creek with lifelong friends has meaning beyond words.

…Silver Creek will teach you things about yourself that you never knew before.

…We are all Picabo Angler.