A Tale of Many Creeks Part 1 & 2 Aug 7-19

[cpierce]

A Tale of Two Creeks Part 1 Aug 10
Well, actually I visited more than two, but I only really liked (aka did well at) two out of four creeks. The other two were ok but were smaller, mud challenged, and the fish were few and small. Plus I had already gotten spoiled at the first stream. All of the creeks were ones I have visited before, but it is such great fun to renew acquaintanceship with old friends. Besides this spring drug out the runoff for so long I didn’t think I would ever get up into the higher creeks. Anticipation is an appetite builder, and I always want what isn’t available right now!

I had such a great time fishing these that my biggest challenge has been choosing what pictures to use, so forgive me for bombarding you all with a mess of fish! I think I am developing a real love affair with wild cutthroat trout! Yes, I am addicted and cannot stop on my own. Where are the 12 steps when you need them??? Anyone else in the group need councling???


The first creek was one I visited on Aug 10th and it was a fun stream, but there were more people around than I expected. As it turns out The Bug was one of those other fishers. The fish were willing and plentiful, and I spent the day exploring a ways both up and downstream. It looks like the system is healthy as I caught a variety of sizes of wild cutts. Plenty of dinks and a few hogs that I missed or spooked.
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The fish were both Yellowstone fine spotted and large spotted cutthroats. They were willing and eager to grab dries off the surface. I think I caught most on a small green elk hair caddis. I had several to start with, but by the end of the day I only had hooks with a few wisps of green and broken pieces of elk hair attached. A good epitaph for the demise of a fly is some pictures of the killers.








This one shows how very well these fish blend in to the stream.




The colors on these were so amazing. I am dened that much of it doesn’t really show in the snapshots.









This one was shy and did not want his secret identity known!











This was a great creek and I still want to explore more of it. I left because there were more people there than I expected, and more campfires than I could deal with. So I went to a different little stream in the same drainage. It had a lot of moss lower down and more mud sides and bottom in the meadow section higher up. I am probably doing this stream an injustice because I didn’t really explore further up than I did. I was definitely spoiled by the first creek. So I camped for the night and fished a little that evening and the next morning, but I only took a picture or two. It was good that I decided to check a different stream out as I really had a ball at the next stop.
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[X2FSH]

Cool report...man, am I hot to do the creek and stream thing...just got my 3wt delivered today...I don't want you to tell me where you were..but are you in the south eastern part of the state...I'm in I.F. and not sure which direction to head in.
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[windriver]

Great report. I love your pictures. I due have the high mountian cutthroat disease, but I'm not in need of a cure.

Windriver
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[cpierce]

I am sorry that I never answered you. I have been gone for a week or so and just got back this morning. I hope you got out and broke that rod in on some fish.

From Idaho Falls you can go just about any direction and do well. A good suggestion may be Birch Creek as it is a bit more in the open and the fish are willing.

On that west side also are a lot of tributaries of the Big and Little Lost Rivers. Most of them would be good. I haven't been up into that area this year, but they should be good.

North of you there are many streams on the Island Park Plateau ie Warm R., Buffalo R, and lots of small ones that contain both cutts and brookies.

South there are the tributaries of the Blackfoot R.

Then there is also the tributaries of the South Fork of the Snake.


Any of them are good. Some are brushier than others! If you don't like one drive around and do a little hiking, and you should be able to find some gems.
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[cpierce]

I hope to get part two of this posted before winter comes!!
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[X2FSH]

Cool...thanks cpierce...haven't had a day off since that post but will be off for 5 here starting Sunday and will be out somewhere...I look forward to your next outing update.
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[Untangler]

Great report. Those are some nice fish for a small stream. I've been fishing creeks as well for the past three weeks and am heading up again next week for four days of more adventure. My favorite part is exploring new waters. I'll bet I've fished twenty new streams this year. I don't know what it is like over there but up here in the Central Idaho area, there are a lot of streams that are almost unfishable because of the brush and steep terrain. Of course, those are the ones that I like the most because a 10 incher is a real trophy for some of those waters and are more challenging to catch on a dry fly than any steelhead I've caught. Plus, I never see another soul. I found one two weeks ago where I caught two legit 18 inchers and it is likely I will keep that spot secret for a long time. Most of the fish I've been catching, however, are smaller than what you are getting. Thanks for sharing CP and I want you to come over and fish the Big Wood with me in the fall or winter.
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[cpierce]

Part 2
A Tale of Two Creeks has changed and expanded to about 10 creeks so I think I will kind of do a smattering coverage of them all together. So here is the travel log:
Since the middle of Idaho has been burning up the last two weeks, I went on “Walk About” to the higher elevations. In about two and a half weeks I have been home a total of one full day and two half days, so the fish have seen a lot more of me than my family has.
I have been to one large river and many small creeks (not in any order): So Frk of the Snake, Pine Cr, Rainy Cr, Palies Cr., Bear Cr., Elk Cr, McCoy Cr, Jackknife Cr, Tincup Cr., Cub R, Upper Logan R, Beaver Cr, St. Charles Cr, Bloomington Cr, Montpelier Cr, additional tributaries of many of them, and one or two others.
Rainy Cr I didn’t fish for very long. I caught a couple of fish, but it is a very brushy creek on a good day, and you have to walk in the creek to get anywhere. It has a lot of fast water in it right now and when you combine that with the nastiest slimy round rocks it has been my misfortune to skate on, then it is an accident waiting to happen. I had forgotten my ice cleats back in the truck and it is a fight through the willows to get either to the creek or back off of it. So I fished for a bit and then called it a day.
Palies, McCoy, and Bear Cr were also higher than I remember from about this time last year, but still very fishable. The Elk Creek Road between McCoy and Bear Cr is an adventure. It is in good shape, but steep and very scenic. I wouldn’t want to meet a lot of vehicles on it. The two or three that I did see were enough to try and get around. It isn’t a drive to rush, but a very pretty one. Road between McCoy and Bear Cr.


Going over the mountain from the Cub River to Egan Basin is a bit of a rough road, but not too bad. I wanted to check out Beaver Cr as it seemed a remote and nice area up there above Bear Lake. I hadn’t been there before and wanted to fish some of the waters up there.
Soon I was cussing myself that in the rush I had forgotten my GPS at home. Well, I missed the turn to Beaver Cr and ended up on the headwaters of the Logan River. It is a nice little stream on the Idaho side, and it was a pretty area, so I fished and explored around it for a bit. I liked the area a lot and the road was in nice shape.
I then drove on down into the Logan Canyon and back up to Beaver Cr from the Utah end. What a mistake! The road was an ugly rock garden, and worse than that, half of Cache Valley was on that road with me. This was not even the weekend yet and there were campers in every nook and cranny. I couldn’t believe some of them had pulled 30 ft trailers up that road. Well, I wouldn’t have believed it myself, if I hadn’t gotten stuck between two of them on the way up… going two miles an hour. I swear there must not be any metal left under the back of the trailer that was in front of me. It put off enough sparks to start twenty forest fires. Finally I got up in there and drove all the way into the upper canyon.
I thought I was far enough up, but in the middle of the night several other outfits went up and I think came back down. It was similar to freeway camping! Then things were pretty peaceful until about 3 am when a group attempted to jockey a camper (another 30 footer), in between the trees just below me. The poor guys worked at it until it was light, and still hadn’t gotten it in there when I left. I told them they could take the area I had been in, but they liked the other side where there were more trees. I wonder if the ever did get it set up?
If I had a camper or atv trailer and I wanted to get into that area, I think I would go up the Logan headwaters to the basin and then come down into Beaver Cr. I was just glad there were other ways out of the area and I wasn’t trying to get around any of them on their way up as I was going down.
Beaver Creek looked like a nice little stream that was running bank-full right now. I think most of its beaverponds got blown out this spring, as I saw dam parts but no ponds. I never did fish it at all. There were too many campers and I couldn’t stay. I think everyone was having an early weekend adventure starting in the middle of the week. Maybe they were squeezing in some off-roading time with the kids before school starts. It was certainly a nice area for that.
The scenery was beautiful everywhere I went. Everything is still very green up there. There was still a tiny bit of snow on a few peaks, and the streams are full, but not in muddy runoff.
McCoy Creek


Bear Cr Guard Station



Palies Res -- Calamity Arm



TinCup Creek




Sunrise above Bear Lake



St Charles Creek



Near Bloomington Lakes



Bloomington Creek



After fishing Montpelier Cr for awhile I stopped by the Montpelier Rearing Pond and played with the finless wonders in there. What a great kids’ pond. I missed a zillion and one strikes because I was really watching a bunch of little kids across the pond. There were a couple of families and all the kids were from about 3 to 7 years old. What a hoot! They were having a blast watching their bobbers and reeling in fish. It was great entertainment even though I donate two pints of blood to the mosquitoes there!
The rest of the wildlife was out in full force too, including some semi-domestic ones (cows). The deer of course were everywhere. I sat and watched a doe with two little fawns for awhile, but I didn’t get any pictures of them as I didn’t have my camera in reach and I didn’t want to scare them away. The fawns were smaller than I thought they would be by this time of year. I think spring was indeed late for more than just the rivers.
On the less pleasant side: a skunk snooped around the truck most of the night on McCoy Cr. A moose spooked me out of the willows on Bear Cr. A bull decided I was a threat to his cows on Tin Cup Cr. And I came close to breaking my leg when I waded into an unexpectedly deep and narrow crevasse between some rocks on St Charles Creek. I broke my shoe getting my foot back out of there.
Some of the fish – not in any order
There were Brook Trout




And Rainbows




And Cutthroats of several species…. Some of the nice ones


















And some of the nicer ones Several of these were a real fight to get in. I was using a 3wt some of the time and a 4wt rod at other times, but with either rod my tippet was a 6x which is fairly light (3 lb test) since I had inadvertently run out of any heavier tippet. I did loose quite a few flies to both fish and flora. Of course anytime a fish breaks you off it is the hog that got away. Even if it was only 10 inches!








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This one I only got a picture of his back. What shoulders! He made a run for it and took my fly with him.

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A lot of different flies worked well and I went through a bunch of them. Earlier in the day smaller pale morning duns and adams worked well. Later on humpies, hoppers, ants, beetles, and caddis were on the menu, as well as attractors like royal wulffs and stimulators. Besides the flies that I lost to fish and trees there were a lot that just got chewed to death! Time to change this fly I think it was a yellow or green humpy. I am not really sure. It has given its all….




Much as I love the high country, I am glad to be home!
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[TheOldSarge]

Great post! Loved the pictures!

Thanks!!
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[X2FSH]

One of the best and in depth reports I've seen on here...thanks cpierce!!
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[windriver]

What an adventure. Wonderful pics. I need to figure out my camera it is not working well. You really caught some awesome fish.

We have fished some mutual creeks this year.

Windriver
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[eagleflyfshr]

Absolutely wonderful report! I am completely green with envy. Life......as it was meant to be! Thanks for your write up, at least we can enjoy your fishing by proxy!
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[flyfishingfool]

Awesome report! I finally got some creek fishing of my own done a couple days ago. Its addicting for sure!
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[cpierce]

It was sure a blast. The creeks and fish are in great shape up in that area. Seems like most of the creeks have some extra water in them, but they are fishing good. I love Aug fishing on the streams. It is warm enough and the water is down enough to wet wade, and best of all the fish are after large bugs on the surface. They just slam hoppers and stimulators in the afternoon, then they go nuts running and jumping all over the place. I was amazed at how many fish jumped clear out of the water to get my fly. Some of them even jumped high enough to hit it on the way back down!
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[gstott]

That's an awesome report. A lot of those creeks were ones I've been wondering about. I'm especially glad I didn't waste my time going up to Beaver Creek as I've been thinking about trying it. I think I'll pass. Those cutts are huge. I just hope I can find the time to go up there and find some for myself.
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[drowning_flys]

Great pics and report, beautiful fish [cool]
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