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Tips & Tactics

A Stillwater Primer for the Wood River Valley

by John Huber

April and May many a fly angler finds themselves stumped on where to go fishing. With this years high water we are going to find most of June an unfishable month in many or our area rivers as well. This will in effect push more anglers to Silver Creek and unfortunately crowd us all in together. Do not worry though, “Tips and Tactics” is going to focus on where else to go fishing and how to go about it.

The focus here is on our most underutilized, yet fantastic fisheries; our area reservoirs. Before you stop reading this and swear you’ll never fish in stillwater, consider a few things:

Rainbow Trout

1) The biggest and strongest fish in our area live in our local reservoirs, and they are not difficult to catch.

2) Our local stillwaters hold Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Large Mouth Bass and Small Mouth Bass, Crappie, Carp and Perch.

3) The evening rise when it is calm on our reservoirs can look like raindrops on the water and presents a serious dry-fly opportunity to those that need their sight fishing fix.

4) Big reservoir fish will attack balls of baitfish, just like they do in the saltwater and the action can prove just as frantic when it happens.

5) The tight-line strike of one of these big fish, will have you coming back for more and more and more.

6) Endless amounts of room to fish. Just fish from the bank, in float tube, pontoon boat or fishing boat, and the reservoir is your oyster.

7) Within an hour of Sun Valley an angler can fish Magic Reservoir, Little Wood Reservoir, Carey Lake and just a little farther out are Mackay Reservoir, Mormon Reservoir, Anderson Ranch Reservoir and all the Snake River Reservoirs.

Now let’s quickly run through our list one by one.

1) Big Fish / Easy to Catch: Reservoir fish grow fast and grow strong because their energy from the food they consume can go into their size, rather than energy to fight flowing water all day. These fish have an abundant food source and consume copious quantities of freshwater shrimp (Scuds) and baitfish. Where a big 18 inch river fish may have a 9 inch girth, a big 18 inch reservoir fish may have a 12 inch girth.

Fishing for these fish is simple. Use an intermediate sinking line matched to your rod weight (4 through 6 weights are perfect). If you don’t want to invest in a sinking line use your floater with a long leader that runs to about 15 feet and ends with a 3X tippet. Use a short stout leader on sinking lines, perhaps 6 - 8 feet, tapered to 3X for subsurface fishing. If the fish are rising than fish 10 feet of leader – tapered to 5X . Concentrate your fishing on shallow banks in about 8 to 20 feet of water. If you are in deeper water focus tight along the bank, concentrating on points and structure like submerged willows or any small inlets. During the day, strip buggers, or your favorite nymph patterns. Simply vary your speed and depth until your first hook up and then continue to fish in this pattern. A red hot day on a reservoir can sometimes mean 20+ fish days.

2) A Variety of Species: Our local reservoirs hold a plethora of species and the surprise factor is always a fun addition to any fishing trip. Was the bump you just felt on the end of your line an 8 inch perch, or an 8 pound rainbow?

3) The Evening Rise: The evening rise on the reservoir can be spectacular. Many an angler may miss this as the desert winds in our area blow hard most of the spring, sending anglers home before the show starts. There is though, an exception right at dusk, when the mountains and the desert call a truce and the wind finally settles for awhile. When this happens and the midges burst in clouds, the fish go crazy. It can often be very productive, but it can also be a very technical fishery – rivaling any hatch on Silver Creek for precision, fly choice and sheer skill.

4) Bait Crashers: As spring moves slowly to summer and juvenile fish begin to show up in bigger numbers in our Stillwater, big trout take full advantage and often chase these minnows to the surface and begin to crash through them eating as many as they can. This often happens at high noon when trout can silhouette their prey against the surface light. Anglers in a boat can often spot this action from afar and slowly position themselves for a shot. If your lucky enough to find yourself in this position, cast across the bait, and strip a fly rapidly back and hang on tight. Any bright colored bugger will due.

5) Tight Line Strike: Not much to say here. If you have felt a big trout hit a stripped fly while your rod tip is touching the water’s surface and the only resistance to the fly is the line in your hand, and whatever you were thinking is jolted from your mind, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t felt that - go get some!

6) Room to Fish: Solitude can be found on these enormous bodies of water. A little exploration and you will have a collection of honey holes that will fish well year in and year out. Boats, tubes, desert roads and your feet can put you in a world of your own out there where big desert fish lurk.

7) Numerous Reservoirs: Get your map out and start scanning the bodies of water south of Sun Valley. You will see most of them reside at the same elevation and in the same sparse desert world as Silver Creek does! Big fish grow at the edge of the mountains for a reason. It is their perfect world of water and dinner.

If you’re down on the Creek and you hear too much chatter this spring, or the hatches just won’t cooperate, go exploring. The journey into the Idaho wilds of our southland reservoir country is worth every minute of your time, and if a few nice fish get caught along the way, even better.