Category: Riffle and Rise Blog

Had a very fun trip up at Taylor River Lodge (with Irwin Guides) today with Dick. He landed rainbows, browns, cutthroat, and a brookie for the grand slam. This fish here was a beast!

We always look forward to the first few days of the Green Drake hatch, and it’s especially fun helping beginning anglers catch trout on large dry flies. Donna had a really good day today picking off fish with Green Drakes and PMDs, and there were enough that got away to keep her coming back.

Had another trip up at Taylor River Lodge (with Irwin Guides) today with Dick and John. It fished really well, and the brothers did great with nymph rigs and streamers!

Spent a half-day on the Taylor River at Taylor River Lodge (with Irwin Guides) today. The high water has made it difficult to fish, but there are some nice fish in the eddies near the banks. Joe and Barry did well chucking streamers and also getting some fish to take a dry fly.

I’ve been scouting small creeks and beaver pond areas for a while now, getting ready for upcoming client trips. I’ve seen six huge bull moose, some incredible mountain scenery, and some of the biggest fish to ever come out of a small creek. This brown trout below taped out at 20 inches. It was in a run in between two beaver ponds where the creek was about 10 feet wide. An amazing fish.

With the incredibly big water we have now, client trips will be limited to smaller creeks for a while. Tom and his daughter, Parker, hiked through saturated meadows and beaver ponds to stalk fish in the Upper Taylor River. The water was very cold early on and the fishing was slow, but they both did well on the Taylor and also on a private stretch of a smaller creek in the afternoon. It was mostly small browns and brook trout throughout the day, but Parker’s first fish was this really nice brown trout from the Upper Taylor. She did a great job playing the fish out of the strong current and into the net. Very nice!

Our rivers and creeks are really raging now and still on the rise. Some of the smaller creeks are no longer fishable. If you head up higher and look for beaver dams along the smaller creeks, you can still find some water to fish. And sometimes you can find some really nice wild trout. This 18-inch brown trout came from a run in between two beaver dams. You could tell this guy had been there a while. A nice chunky male with a good jaw. Thanks to Dave for the photos.

I love fishing streamers on the small streams in spring. You can do very well, and it’s a good time to find some of the larger fish. I caught this nice brown trout on Spring Creek the other day. It’s one of the bigger wild fish I’ve seen up there in recent years.

I caught a very nice rainbow today up at the Taylor River C&R stretch that measured just over 25 inches. It was a lot of fun landing it with a bamboo rod.

With the big rivers in run-off, June can be a great time to get out and fish small creeks. Yesterday I saw antelope, a bear,  and some pretty wild trout.