Teaching Fly Fishing Techniques

After a long day in the Grand Teton National Park, we all needed an easy day so that meant fly fishing. The problem was that hunting season was in full swing and so we did not want to go up the Grays River or to McDougal Gap. Instead, we headed to Salt Creek and then later to the Salt River. Jen is learning to fly fish and so the main goal was to teach her how to fish small streams and how to lay out line, (a description on how a good fly fisherperson can make long casts with their flyfishing rod and reel), and read water. It can best be described as looking for edges, or current breaks. That’s where the fish often lie in wait. Hoping to find a few Bonneville Cutthroat Trout we first went to Salt Creek. The stream was low and clear and while we did see several catchable sized cuts, they were really spooky and impossible to catch. There were quite a few fingerlings and they readily hit our flies, but they couldn’t get the fly in their mouth. Still Jen did a good job of Imitating Renita and was soon making good casts, (she had already learned how to roll cast and now had another tool in her creel. We never did catch any fish, so we loaded up and drove to the Salt River. Both of the streams have populations of Mountain Whitefish. That’s a sign of a high quality western stream.

We fished by a diversion dam, constructed for irrigation, and the water was clear. It was flowing over the dam, which is higher than normal for this time of year. As we watched a guide dropped his clients on shore before rowing through the spillway. He then picked them up and continued downstream. Meanwhile I was tying on different dry flies and nymphs, all to no avail. I did have one large cut make a pass at my dry fly, but it never hooked up. Jen had given up on dries and tied on a strike indicator with a gold beaded black marabou nymph. It was weighted and as it bounced along the bottom a fish picked it up. It was probably a mountain whitefish as it did not jump. A little later she hooked and lost a nice cutthroat, but it also shook off the hook, (trout jump). At least she was getting bites, which was more than I was. We ended the day back at the ranch and talked about the next day’s adventure. It was a good day on the water and Jen is doing a good job! It wont’ be long before she starts landing the fish! Clear skies Mountain whitefish have a very tiny mouth and so the hook often pulls free