Ranch

Despite it's chronic decline, the river still holds some fish.  Not many, but as I told some regulars again, if there's only one or two left on the whole Ranch, I'll go looking.  There's talk that Idaho Fish and Game is going to plant roughly 500 rainbows from the South Fork next month, fish large enough to survive the winter.  Not sure how I feel about that, but they're not hatchery fish and they're born from roughly the same drainage.  Apparently they used to plant here in the 70's, so it's not unprecedented.

For now, the water has cleared from the horrible turbidity of summer.  For the first time all season, I look down from the bluff over Millionaires and can see several nice fish.  There's hope.  One is even rising to little bwo's. I fish through the deeper lower end of the run in the evening and take a couple.  Next morning I start higher up on the shallow flat and finish a hundred yards below the bluff. I never see another angler.  Five toads make the big net. (Hey, I'm an old bass fisherman from way back, and that's what we called 'em😂)

I later manage a decent one up at Last Chance with a short swing through the log jam at sunset.  I don't see alot of fish, but at this point I'll take what she gives me.  There's hardly anyone here, just a couple of pairs/groups in and out of LC.

I haven't thrown at a rising fish. The very light baetis hatch gives reason to hunt, scan, and just keep an eye out. I try to analyze every little ring of the rise.  There's no targets other than some little guys and the one I saw rising on arrival at noon from the bluff.  I've got more mahoganies in my fly box than I've seen on the water.  Rob says the trout changed their feeding habits due to the dirty water this summer. Who really knows?  Fewer fish and none rising refreshes the memory of what the bamboo guy showed me a few years ago on the same bluff in late September. "You're not supposed to do this here, but sometimes ya just gotta do it."

So I go from microscopic bugs, 6x, and mostly small creek fish to 3x and a swimming leech/sculpin over an inch long.  It's a sigh of relief really. Long crisp casts that clear the weeds, and let 'er swing.  Harder on the casting arm, but easier on the eyes and mind.  The steelhead guys have described this in volumes.  It's different, and mesmerizing in its own way.

I fish 6 hours on the last day as the morning starts out with some clouds.  I hunt heads from the bluff, pelican island, and both sides all in between.  No bugs besides some morning baetis, no good risers, two on the leech coming home.  So I end up catching about 10 large fish in 2 1/2 days and turn a few others.  

Adrenaline still races with the wake and the take from a big boy.  We're connected like a bolt of lightning between the cloud and the sky, both feeling the charge on each end. When they head for the weeds, I can pull 'em out.  Long, fat Millionaires rainbows that I'll otherwise not hook in this in-between season under bright sunny skies. The confirmation that they remain soothes the sting of the grim bigger picture. I need this going into winter.  

Still some pigs living here.

Setting a little more south 

Sometimes ya gotta . . . 

Picture doesn't do this one justice.  Biggest Ranch fish I've netted.  My hands didn't come close to holding it.  Tried to balance it on my palm, but it was off to the races.

This bend used to have a pod every fall.  Not this year.

A tank here that cooperated for a few seconds.