I hit my favorite small creek here in Central Idaho yesterday, Bear Valley Creek, to see if the fish would cooperate. It was a blustery day with high clouds and just a little sun. The bugs didn’t seem to like the wind, and I didn’t see a single fish rise all day. I saw a few Blue Winged Olives and Yellow Sallies flying around so I went surface with representative nymphs. In between the 12 or 14 whitefish I caught, I managed to pick up a few nice 15″ cutthroats. Here are a few photos from my day:
Bear Valley Creek, Idaho
A #14 Tungsten Yellow Sally Nymph and a #18 Psycho Mayfly Nymph.
A beautiful Bear Valley Creek Cutthroat
I was up there last week and caught nothing but dozens of the tiniest of trout, many of which would take my fly before it even hit the surface of the river. A beautiful place nonetheless. The first pic looks a lot like the area where the grasslands turn to the canyon above Fir Creek but of course could be anywhere on BVC.
Hi Dylan,
Yes, that was the area above Fir Creek Campground. The larger cutthroats are there, but you have to work a little to find them. I’ve found that small dry flies usually attract the small fish…there are a lot of small salmon smolts in the river. So, I usually use larger dry flies or small nymphs.
Dave