So the way I'm interpreting the rules now is best creek is open year round now? Am I missing something?
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If you are talking about the Bear Creek that dumps into Pala
es . You will need a boat to get to it . The road was closed last week . Where you turn off the river road to go to Calamity .
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What you missed is that with the 2013-15 regs IDFG's Upper Snake District stopped closing rivers to protect spawning trout. Now it relies on hopeful thinking to protect spawners and redds, except in the case of the closed sections on the Henry's Fork. The Henry's has such a powerful alliance of wealthy landowners, lodges and local and national level conservationists that IDFG didn't dare rock that boat. Same goes for some cutt spawning creeks of Teton and South Fork. I assume they know that leaving redds open to disturbance isn't a good thing. But other than the hallowed waters and a few creeks, all spawning closures in the Upper Snake District were converted to catch and release in 2013. Generally, access issues, runoff and muddy water will provide some measure of protection. But not for a small spring fed stream like the Warm.
IMHO, in the case of the Warm River, its been a disaster, especially for the brown trout because IDFG now allows harvest of the spawning run until Nov 30. There's nowhere near as many 16+" browns in the river as there were before the reg changes. It's totally over harvested these days. More of the same, just like how when left up to its own devices, IDFG began turning Henry's Lake into a dink factory to satisfy the weenie roast and s'mores crowd's desire for "family friendly" fisheries and full stringers.
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