Begin living the dream

[Rick J]

Finally in May/June got medical issues behind me and got retirement back on track and pulled stakes and left California in my full time home, a 32’ Artic Fox trailer for Forks WA. Became a WA resident and quickly left Forks first of July and headed for Picabo ID (Silver Creek) where I am parking my trailer for 2 months. Creek has been sporadic with some awesome days and some really tough days.
My friends Don and Mike came out and joined me for 2 weeks which was a lot of fun.
My plan was to take shorter tent camping excursions and I took a 5 day trip to Red Lodge MT. My brother flew out from Kansas to Billings and we fished 2 days a with a guide friend (Andy) I first met on my Grande Ronde float trips – fished the Yellowstone and the Stillwater plus fishing a very small creek called Rock Creek on our own. Andy is an expert Czech nympher and it was a great deal of fun to try this technique.
Just returned to Picabo from my latest 7 day venture to West Yellowstone to fish Hebgen Lake. Had my pram and float tube – first day was pretty good in the pram but next two days got blown off by 10 AM. Friends told me about a sheltered cove with a camp ground so headed there. Met a couple who own Dry Fly Innovations (Need to check out this website – very cool). He was wade fishing so gave it a try and just stayed here for remainder of the trip except for an afternoon over on the Madison where I caught a nice 16” rainbow. Wade fishing was pretty special – both mornings and evening. Typically callibaetis duns followed by spinners. Fish averaged 19” with several in the 20” range and nothing smaller than 16”
Last evening was epic. Not many callibaetis showing so put a small callibaetis nymph dropper 12 inches behind my dry and in just over an hour I hooked 6 and landed 3. When I first got on the water a few fish were cruising just off the bank in water much less than 12” nymphing – just see their tails periodically – drove me nuts!!! My last fish of the evening was my smallest at 18” but very fat. I saw a subtle rise and cast and made one slow strip and he hammered it – very likely the hottest rainbow I have hooked excluding steelhead and not all of them!! He just took off screaming and got 30+ yards into my backing before finally slowing down
Stopped off at Henrys Fork on both adventures and fished a bit with no success but it does seem to be fishing again after falling way off in the mid 80s. My first time back on the HF Today – first day back on Silver Creek trico spinner fall was epic – barbed a dozen and landed 6
I leave Silver Creek end of August and head to Clarkston WA where I will leave my trailer through mid Nov. Plan to fish the Clearwater, Snake and Grande Ronde. Additional updates to follow

[donkeyhunter007]

livin the dream ! you said it!
cant wait for updates

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Great Rick

I am excited to see how you do over on the steelhead this fall.

[Andrew Guibord]

Hi Rick, nothing like having one's good health. Your off to a great start. Thanks for the report, wish I could join you for some of that steelheading. Have a great adventure.

[Rick J]

reports indicate the lowest steelhead returns to the system since the mid to late 90s which does not bode well for steelhead hookups!!! Lots of casting practice. Last year was best year ever on the GR float that due to retirement I unfortunately will not make this year

[steveg137]

Great report Rick. I had week on silver creek in July , not easy but caught decent fish each day in tubing section. Love that place.

Hope to get to hegben before too long.

Keep the reports coming

Steve

[Idadon]

Hey Rick! Glad to hear the trip's going well. I missed Hebgen this past July. This summer has been bust so far. Spent 5 days up on Henrys Fork in late June. Caught some dinks at Riverside CG but the Ranch was a bust. Moved on up to Henrys Lake for another 4 days of frustration. In 26 years of fishing HL I've never seen it fish this bad! 0 fish 0 grabs. Talked to the fish counter people at the State Park each day and in the 4 days there they only counted 1 fish. Worst ever!

[Rick J]

I would not give up on Hebgen if you can still get up there - pretty great. I saw some big trout each time I fished HF but did not get good shots at them. Think it was spectacular a couple of years ago

Looks like I may need to cut things short - another major fire in Lake Co that took out much of Lower Lake and potentially threatening my house plus mother in law in hospital so plan to head back to CA late this week to help my ex cope. Will drop trailer off in Lewiston and get back for steelhead around mid Sept.

[Idadon]

Bummer about the fire but business comes first. I'm tied up with home remodeling but might try to get back to the Henrys when the hoppers start showing. Good luck with the house and mother in law.

[NVFlyAngler]

I spent a few days in the Ennis area in late July. I didn't take my pram or float tube, so I inquired about wade fishing Hebgen Lake; was told not to bother. Now I wish I would've researched it further!

Thank you for an excellent report!