Idaho Report

[Amish Ed]

Idaho, 7/17-23/2005

My X-factor and I left for Idaho at 3pm on Sun. afternoon and arrived at my friend's house at 12:30pm on Mon. afternoon. I stayed w/ my old fishing partner, formerly SteveB was his old board name, and his wife Lisa. They live in Arco Idaho, which just happens to be surrounded by many top quality fishing opportunities, from stream fishing for native Brookies to Small Mouth fishing on the Snake river. Not to mention a chance at a big Salmon, Brown, or Rainbow on the Salmon River.

After getting my fishing license we headed out for Carry Reservoir looking for some smallies. Carry it turns out is a network of tully lined channels and ponds. Depth averaged about 8' with tons and tons of moss and duckweed choking much of the water. In fact, Steve and Lisa had quite a time getting their 12' aluminum boat rowed out to the clearer main channel. This was such a fishing place, but with 100º weather the smallies were buried in the tullies with about 6' of moss between them and the clear water. So, I spent evening mostly working weightles and weedless Assalt Salt Stix along the moss lines. Ended up with 2 large mouth. Lisa and Steve ended up getting tons of slab perch and bluegill.
Tues. morning Steve, Lisa with their friends Butch, JoAnn and Myself headed into the mountains to fish the Salmon from the banks. It was HOT (100º at 7,000' is brutal), windy and the fish were uncooperative. Except for the Squawfish (remind me of a freshwater mullet), they were chewing the 3" Big Hammer. Scenery was awesome though, and we had a fun time. We decided to head to the spillway of the Mackay Reservoir and try for some fish there. This is a place that last year was kicking out fish like a fish farm. This time it did that for Steve, but the rest of us pretty much watched him. He was tossing this goofball 2" jerkbait he had picked up on a whim. What a whim. I think he got 28 rainbows in about 2hrs. Butch switched to the little jerk and got on a few himself too. Fun day fishing, catching could've definitely been better.

Wed. I slept in and then Steve, Lisa and I headed up to Mackay Reservoir to fish the flooded tullies and brush that were supposed to be holding some big rainbows and a few cokeney(sp?) salmon. We got there before the wind was up and backed right up to the water. On a side note, I gotta say Idaho is so kayak fishing friendly. Shore access is plentiful and free almost everywhere. Anyways, the water was an amazing blue and the surrounding mountain peaks explode out of ground seemingly straight up 1,000's of feet. As we launched, 2 Bald Eagles circled the area we were going to fish. We got back to the tullies (and the eagles) just in time for the wind to start cranking. Steve and Lisa went back into the main channel, myself, I was getting blown all over the place. At one point I took 2, maybe 3 stokes of my paddle and had a bow wake and actually sustained that speed for quite a while. I worked a zigzag pattern across the lake, making my way back to the trucks and a snack. Oh yeah, I picked off a few fish on the way. As I was snacking on the beach I hear my phone ringing in my truck. It's Lisa and she's telling me to get me arse back into the channel where they are. Being a Mensa member, I asked if they were catching fish. Needless to say, I was paddling out in a jiffy. Got back to them and Steve told me they weren't keeping fish under 2.5lbs. They were biting. I was on them immediately, but off course the monsters left when I got there. We did keep a good pick going though and stayed on the spot for another hour or so. I think I got 12 in that time, biggest going about 2lbs. We trolled our way back and I picked off a 3lber and lost a monster. Most of my fish came on either Panther Martin's or C-rigged Big Hammer Perch Grubs. We left 'em biting.

Thurs. morning Steve, Butch and I headed for American Falls Reservoir (part of the Snake River) in search of some smallies. We found a small cove called Sea Gull Bay Recreation Area and ended up launching there as it lucked as fishy as one can hope for. Docks, weed piles both on and off the shore, a few well defined points a long the shore; very fishy. Steve got 3 smallies with one over 3lbs in the first 1/2hr and we thought we were going to wack'em. We didn't. Turned out a really intense low was moving into the area and the fish were pretty much done eating after the morning bite. I did get 2 smallies; one about 1.5lbs and the other about 3lbs. The second one fought good and took me on a few spins while taking drag quite a few times. But, about 5 hrs fishing these 5 fish were the only ones we got. I got my fish on a C-rigged 6" straight-tail Roboworm in a color called Aja.

Fri. morning before I headed home we hit Sea Gull Bay again figuring the new front would either have the fish chewing like mad or totally locked up. Three hours and 1 bite for 3 people later answered that question. So, I called it a early session and was on the road home by 9:30am.

The drive home turned out to get rather exciting as that low pressure system was churning up some weather from mid-Utah all the way to Lake Elsinore. Thunder storms and howling wind were the norm for most of the drive and one of the thunder storms sparked off a good sized forest fire near Zion.

Steve and I are thinking of meeting up at Powell and spend a week fishing there for striper, smallies and large mouth. If we could get enough guys together, it'd be fun to get a house boa and drag the yaks back into some of the less pressured areas.