Idaho Fish Report

I made it to the Metolius one evening this week, and it was slow at first with a burst of glory as the sun went down. I caught one of the prettiest rainbows I’ve ever held from that river in about a foot of water, a foot off the bank and sipping like a 3 inch fry. The rise rings were so tiny I almost didn’t cast to the fish at 1st, thinking it was a tiny fish. But it was in the 17′ range and imagine the brightest orange stripe down the side that you’ve ever seen on a rainbow trout, and you have the fish I caught. That and 2 others were fooled by a Purple Comparadun and Rusty Spinners. It was very special to hold such a beautiful fish. Not the biggest by any means, but truly one I’ll remember for a long time. 

I heard from some great friends that are good, regular Metolius anglers that they had some good afternoon PMD hatches this week in the Middle River. That is great, and I expect this trend to continue with better and more frequent hatches coming as we move into Mid-August. 

Besides PMD’s, BWO’s are hatching later in the afternoon. Caddis have been on the light side. Very soon we shall see huge emergences of yellow micro caddis mixed with better hatches of our typical size #14-18 tan and grey caddis. 

We are already seeing some big october caddis which happens in August, and will be stronger with more and more emerging as we get to fall. It wouldn’t hurt to fish a pupa pattern below the Bridge 99 area now. An Orange Bird of Prey is my favorite for that. 

The Upper River report was also good this week with friends doing well on Clark’s Stones in the upper river. PMD’s, Hoppers and Caddis are good too. Also, Mahogany Duns will be coming off any day now around the Gorge to Camp Sherman run.

Bull Trout were tough according to a couple of my employees who targeted them yesterday. Plenty of the big Char in the river now, but the fish were not on the feed. Tomorrow is a new day and this behavior for Bull Trout is not uncommon. They feed like crazy one day and take a couple of days off. They are certainly keyed to eat fish now, so big streamers are your best option.