Eastern ID/western WY

[jamisonace]

Sunday afternoon I arrived with the family in Star Valley Wyoming. This is quite possibly the most convenient place for a fly fisherman to reside for a week. I'm sitting at my brother in laws dining room table looking over Palisades Reservoir. Over my left shoulder is the Salt River, over my right shoulder is the Snake and directly behind me is the Grey's. Spilling out Palisades is the South Fork of the Snake, world famous for plentiful fish and huge salmon fly hatch that is just starting to go off.

Sunday I didn't fish. I enjoyed the evening with family I hadn't seen in a while and enjoyed the views of the Bridger National Forest to the East and the lake to the West while planning my attack on the trout that are seemingly in every direction around me. Monday I was up early, paid a visit to the grocery store in Alpine for licenses and swung by Bananas for some flies and other misc. gear and was off to the Little Greys. Man what a treat. Cast after cast, fish after fish...I would fish out one run and move on to another and it was the same thing. Every rock, every riffle, every pool held Snake River Cutts. And there were some surpisingly decent sized fighters in there. For the most part the fish were between 6 and 8 inches but every once now and then an 11"+ fish would take my dry fly and put up a nice fight.

Last night I grabbed my nephew and we drifted the Salt. Fishing was slow but we managed a few to the boat. I had one big fish on for about 5 seconds before it spit the hook. I sure would have like to have seen that fish.

So today I'm off to the Grey's with a camera to photograph some of these beautiful cutts. This evening it's off to the Snake for a whitewater trip before fishing resumes again in the morning.


My nephew's first fish...the river is full of these little cutts.


Moon rising over the Salt River Range


Primtive launch we almost missed as darkness was setting in. Next possible take out was in the lake about 8 miles downstream.

 

[jamisonace]

Just got back from a couple more hours on the little Greys. Fished about a 500 yard stretch and caught 20+ fish. The largest being a solid 14". Easily 3 times bigger than the next biggest fish. Here are some pics


typical cutt from this stream


I love fishing pocket water and this stream is full of pockets that are stuffed with fish


I put this fish (the 14" cutt) in my hands and it slipped out and broke off my fly on the way down. I'm sick that I wasn't able to get a photo. It is definitely the fish of the trip so far.

 

[Spydeyrch]

Wow!!! :clap: :dance:

Nicely done there Jamison!!! Great pics!! Glad to see that you are enjoying your time there!

-Spydey

 

[brandon4455]

nice!!! that looks like a blast

 

[C_Run]

We had to have passed by you at Palisades on Sunday coming back from Grand Teton. Hope you're enjoying the heat over there. It drizzled here in the Valley this AM. Send more pics.

 

[cowboysfan]

I am envious of people who travel to new places for fish, thank you for the thread and the photo's sounds like a great you had a great time.

 

[steelhead_slayer]

sounds like a good trip. thanks for sharing

 

[jamisonace]

You passed right by us. Just as you turn right at Alpine Junction and follow the lake there is a airport community to the left with huge homes connected to airplane hangars. My brother in law is one of the builders. You may have noticed the 20,000 sq ft monster of a home with a 7000 sq ft hangar next to it.....he is building that one right now. We are in his home just on the other side of the runway from that home. it was crazy hot on Sunday but it's been cooling down nicely since then. Today was very nice.

We had to have passed by you at Palisades on Sunday coming back from Grand Teton. Hope you're enjoying the heat over there. It drizzled here in the Valley this AM. Send more pics.

 

[jamisonace]

Epic day on the Greys this morning. I scouted a new spot this morning that produced the biggest fish of the day that made it to my hand. I moved on to another spot I fished last night with drys to try nymphing. Great idea. I caught fish after fish with one making my reel scream into fast current. When I tried to turn it and pull it back to shore it came unbuttoned. Moved on to another hole that produced a bunch of average sized fish last night but at the very top I saw a number of very large fish rise to my dry and turn back without hitting it. I'm pretty sure I hooked every big fish in that hole this morning on pheasant tails and princes. These fish were pigs but I lost everyone is the strong current of the river. Man it was awesome to feel the power of those fish. I just wish I could have gotten a pic of at least one of them. I'll give it a few days and go back to see I can conquer instead of be conquered

here are some pics from today.

 

[jamisonace]

BTW, Thank You to whoever corrected my spelling in the title!

 

[OnTheFly]

I love that kind of stuff! Thanks for the report!

 

[jamisonace]

So here is my final post regarding my recent trip to Alpine WY. I did 4 wading trips on the greys and little greys, 2 floats on the Salt and 2 floats on the snake. With the exception of my first float on the Salt River, every outing exceeded my expectations. All trips were self guided and I'd never fished those rivers before. I was concerned about fly selection and water conditions but I either got lucky in both regards or the fishing is just so good you can't go wrong.

So I screwed up posting the pics so this might not make a lot of sense but....The put in was sketchy on the salt and we had to go under four bridges. The bridge pictured here was the second lowest. Between my nephew and myself we caught about 30 fine spotted cutts, 5 or so browns and 5 or so whitefish. We floated for about 6 hours before a pounding rain drove us off the river. The take out was more sketchy than the put in.

The next couple floats were with my boys and we pounded the cutts on the snake....me with nymphs and drys and my boys with spinners. The first day it was literally almost every cast. both days I didn't have much time so we only fished a few hours each time and we ended up with at least 40 fish, most of them really nice sized with just a couple smallish fish. Of course the last day I wanted to do a quick morning float and grabbed one nephew and my 8 yr old and my nephew caught a great 18" fish but I forgot my camera!!! Darn.

It was a very memorable trip. Looking forward to do it again soon.