South Fork of the Snake River

This weekend was filled with family and fishing! My in-laws invited all of the family up to their cabin in Idaho, and most of us were able to make it. I love getting together with family and catching up on everything that's going on. I also love that when we get together, it turns into a non-stop food-fest! I swear I gain a few pounds every time we get together, and while I enjoy it, my waste-line suffers the consequences.

Their cabin is close to the south fork of the Snake River, so we decided to do a little recon/fishing trip to get a better idea of where some good fishing spots were. There are several places to launch from, and many sections of river to fish. We ended up choosing a section just a few miles away since we only had a few hours to fish. We got our pontoons and gear ready an launched around 7 am.

We floated a few hundred yards before we started fishing. As I was getting my rod out, I looked up to see my Father-in-law hook into a fish on his first cast on his fly rod! He had a quick fight, and soon landed the first fish of the day which was a Whitefish. Talk about the right way to start a trip!

As we continued down the river, it started raining, and the fish didn't seem to want to eat. With having no luck with my fly rod, I switched to my spinning rod and started throwing jigs. They didn't seem to want them either at first. That seemed to change as the rain stopped. I floated onto a promising hole, and no sooner did my jig hit the water, a Brown smacked it! He came to the net quickly, and I snapped a quick shot, and released him. I picked up three more trout in the next hole, including a Snake River cutthroat. My brother-in-law also hooked into one on a fly, but the fish managed to come off before he could get him in. It soon started raining again, and continued for the rest of the trip.

In all, we landed six fish, and had a few get away. That's a successful recon trip in my book any day. We plan to hit several more section throughout the next few months. I'm looking forward to exploring this great river, and figuring out how to unlock the beastly trout that it holds.

 



Setting out on our trip.

First Brown of the day.

Not the best weather, but beautiful just the same.

The one-and-only Snake River Cutthroat of this trip.