mrchunk
Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2007
- Messages
- 245
Finally getting around to posting a little report about my summer swing through the Jackson Hole/Pinedale/Victor Idaho region. I was blessed with perfect weather, water levels and hatches for the 5 day trip.
Monday 7/27 -South Fork of the Snake - we started off the trip with a full day float down the South Fork. Flows were good and were in the 8,000 CFS range which is just about ideal for this water. I started off hitting the banks with large golden stone foam patterns and my buddy was throwing big streamers. We had hoped to get big cutts sitting under the undercuts. The sun was really strong but we did manage a few fish between us. The best was a 19 inch brown that took the streamer. I managed a few cutts over 15 inches on the stone. We had a short PMD hatch mid day in some riffles which we parked to fish and managed a few. I dropped a rubberleg stone off the dry and managed a half dozen whities in a 30 minute period with a few smaller trout mixed in. All in all, it was a good start to the trip.
The next 2 days were spent on the Green around Pinedale in the park area. There are 12 campgrounds in this stretch that provide easy access for both boats and waders alike. Since we did not have a guide, we fished site 8 and 9 during these 2 days. We decided to stick with the Green due to the flows and the quality of the hatches we observed. There were heavy hatches of Green and Grey Drakes as well as PMDs throughout the day. The fish were keyed into the mayflies and completely ignored the caddis and yellow sallies that were also coming off. The Green is well known for it's Browns and that is primarily what was caught. We managed more than 4 18 inch plus browns between us and caught many more from 14 to 18. Both of us caught fish pushing 20 as our best. All were taken on dries. The most effective patterns were drake and pmd spinners but duns were also taking fish. I also managed a 15 inch bow on a BHPT during a lull in the hatch. We caught juvenile bows and brookies along the banks and most of the bigger fish were caught in fast pocket water in the rock fields on dries.
Thursday the 30th saw us back on the Greem with our good buddy Trey who guides for Jack Dennis.. Trey took us back to the Green for a long 8 mile float which he deemed a headhunting expedition. Similar hatches again although we got into really slow water during the second half of the day where we were fighting the prarie winds to pitch dries against the banks looking for big fish rise forms. Ants and Parachute Adams were the order of the day and both of us targeted several bigs and each landed one 20+ inch brown using this technique.
We rounded out the trip on Friday the 31st with a mile long hike down into ***** Creek canyon and then fished back up for the famous ***** Creek cutts. The cutts were eager to take the parachute adams as well as Caddis in EZ and Elk Hair imitiations. Both of us caught probably 20 to 30 cutts in a 4 hour period before the rain came. My best was taken as I stood on a boulder probably 12 feet above a massive plunge pool dapping dries. I managed a good drift by a large submerged rock in softer water and watched a 16 inch beauty come from 6 feet deep to slam the fly. The first pass, the fish absolutely annihalated the caddis I had as the dropper to the adams and ripped it right off. I tied on a slightly larger caddis and boom! He slammed it again from the same spot and he was had.
I did take a few pics and will try to post them a little later. For now, here is the ***** creek cutt....
Monday 7/27 -South Fork of the Snake - we started off the trip with a full day float down the South Fork. Flows were good and were in the 8,000 CFS range which is just about ideal for this water. I started off hitting the banks with large golden stone foam patterns and my buddy was throwing big streamers. We had hoped to get big cutts sitting under the undercuts. The sun was really strong but we did manage a few fish between us. The best was a 19 inch brown that took the streamer. I managed a few cutts over 15 inches on the stone. We had a short PMD hatch mid day in some riffles which we parked to fish and managed a few. I dropped a rubberleg stone off the dry and managed a half dozen whities in a 30 minute period with a few smaller trout mixed in. All in all, it was a good start to the trip.
The next 2 days were spent on the Green around Pinedale in the park area. There are 12 campgrounds in this stretch that provide easy access for both boats and waders alike. Since we did not have a guide, we fished site 8 and 9 during these 2 days. We decided to stick with the Green due to the flows and the quality of the hatches we observed. There were heavy hatches of Green and Grey Drakes as well as PMDs throughout the day. The fish were keyed into the mayflies and completely ignored the caddis and yellow sallies that were also coming off. The Green is well known for it's Browns and that is primarily what was caught. We managed more than 4 18 inch plus browns between us and caught many more from 14 to 18. Both of us caught fish pushing 20 as our best. All were taken on dries. The most effective patterns were drake and pmd spinners but duns were also taking fish. I also managed a 15 inch bow on a BHPT during a lull in the hatch. We caught juvenile bows and brookies along the banks and most of the bigger fish were caught in fast pocket water in the rock fields on dries.
Thursday the 30th saw us back on the Greem with our good buddy Trey who guides for Jack Dennis.. Trey took us back to the Green for a long 8 mile float which he deemed a headhunting expedition. Similar hatches again although we got into really slow water during the second half of the day where we were fighting the prarie winds to pitch dries against the banks looking for big fish rise forms. Ants and Parachute Adams were the order of the day and both of us targeted several bigs and each landed one 20+ inch brown using this technique.
We rounded out the trip on Friday the 31st with a mile long hike down into ***** Creek canyon and then fished back up for the famous ***** Creek cutts. The cutts were eager to take the parachute adams as well as Caddis in EZ and Elk Hair imitiations. Both of us caught probably 20 to 30 cutts in a 4 hour period before the rain came. My best was taken as I stood on a boulder probably 12 feet above a massive plunge pool dapping dries. I managed a good drift by a large submerged rock in softer water and watched a 16 inch beauty come from 6 feet deep to slam the fly. The first pass, the fish absolutely annihalated the caddis I had as the dropper to the adams and ripped it right off. I tied on a slightly larger caddis and boom! He slammed it again from the same spot and he was had.
I did take a few pics and will try to post them a little later. For now, here is the ***** creek cutt....
