LCO Reports: Late Summer Trout Fishing in Idaho

Owen Murray's Idaho Trip: August 9th-12th

Late summer in Idaho can be one of my favorite trout fishing opportunities — big foam flies imitating hoppers or mutant stones, streamers thrown against shallow rocks, and caddis hatches at sunset are all hard to beat. On the South Fork of the Snake, anglers get the chance to experience all of those subgenres of trout fishing in one day. 

Even though striped bass fishing at home had been heating up, I traveled to Idaho to scratch the trout fishing itch and see some good buddies on August 9th. We first floated the Teton to find some cutthroat eating caddis and small PMDs during the last few hours of sunset. Long casts with delicate presentations proved to be the ticket, and in just a few hours of floating we landed some solid fish. The fly of the night was the brown CDC Bubble Back Caddis in size 16.

The following day, we floated Section 1 of the South Fork. Streamer fishing and hopper dropper rigs with a pink size 8 Morrish Hopper and a 14 Duracell yielded fish during the mid-morning and afternoon. Once the sun started getting lower, we focused our efforts on fishing riffles with small caddis emergers and PMD dries. The Hackle Stacker PMD in size 16 worked best for our group, and it claimed a few nice cutts. 

The grand finale of my time in Idaho was the Canyon Section of the South Fork. On our final day, we put the boat in at sunrise to capitalize on a mutant stone hatch and some low-light streamer fishing. I fished some of my articulated streamers in the morning and moved some big, wary brown trout out from under rocks. Unfortunately, those fish spooked at the boat. They are still occupying real estate in my mind. 

While I streamer fished or rowed, my buddies fished everything from a size 8 Chubby to similarly-sized golden and mutant stones. He caught quite a few large cutts on top and broke a big brown off. As the sun got higher, we transitioned to indicator nymphing Pat's Rubber Legs with size 16 Duracells, and that worked great.

In terms of rods, reels, and line, I primarily fished my 10 foot 4 weight Sage R8 paired with a Galvan Torque 5 and a WF5F Rio Gold. This proved to be a great riffle rod for small dries, and when I threw my WF5F Rio Single Hand Spey line on it, the setup was phenomenal for indicator nymphing with long drifts and big mends.  

For the heavy duty applications, I gravitated to a 6 and 7 weight. The 6 fished hopper dropper rigs well with a Rio Grand, and the 7 worked great for bigger streamers. If you are gearing up for some late summer trout fishing, make sure to give us a call — we'd love to help you out.