3 weeks of Idaho and Wyoming adventures 2024

I came back last week after 3 weeks of fishing in Idaho and Wyoming the last week of June and first couple weeks of July. Full disclaimer there are officially no fish in Wyoming, they all migrated to the Madison. . We based ourselves out of Orofino, Idaho the first week. We adventured out and hit different areas every day. We put a lot of miles on the truck and had a lot of fun learning the rivers. I'll post up a few photos now from Idaho and will follow-up throughout the weekend. The cutties in Idaho were beautiful.
















The PMD hatches were fun to fish and I caught a number of trout on some sparkle duns that I had tied up. Elk hair caddis fished well as did the assorted hopper/dropper. I would also like to give a big shout out to Poppy at the Red Shed Fly Shop near Orofino in Peck, Idaho. Poppy is an awesome guy and he has a nicely stocked shop. I was able to pick up a bunch of fly tying stuff that I failed to bring with me.

 

[Brian in OR.]

Sounds like a fun trip. Can’t wait to hear more about it.

 

[Wilderness Medic]

Selway? Was just up there and had a blast. A local guy said the water was about to get too hot and put them to sleep. Is that how it works?

 

[WonkyWapiti]

Yeah we hit the Selway one day, thankfully I brought an axe. I should have had my chain saw with me. We were about 17 miles back and a good storm hit. Trees and boulders came tumbling down the mountain and blocked the road in places. It was humorous watching the three of us taking turns with a hand axe whacking some of the trees blocking the road.

 

[Wilderness Medic]

Yeah we hit the Selway one day, thankfully I brought an axe. I should have had my chain saw with me. We were about 17 miles back and a good storm hit. Trees and boulders came tumbling down the mountain and blocked the road in places. It was humorous watching the three of us taking turns with a hand axe whacking some of the trees blocking the road.

 

[RCF]

Locksa and Selway area is so beautiful. Perfect river and landscape for a beer commercial (or having a beer streamside).

 

[Flymph]

Probably a stupid question but do Steelhead still make up to these rivers?

 

[Old406Kid]

Yeah we hit the Selway one day, thankfully I brought an axe. I should have had my chain saw with me. We were about 17 miles back and a good storm hit. Trees and boulders came tumbling down the mountain and blocked the road in places. It was humorous watching the three of us taking turns with a hand axe whacking some of the trees blocking the road.

I just had this conversation with my grandson yesterday. Add a log chain or cable.

 

[WonkyWapiti]

Probably a stupid question but to Steelhead still make up to these rivers?

The Clearwater is a major steelhead river and the others are tributaries of the Clearwater so I have to believe they are making their way up these other tributaries. I did see a dude catch a monster king salmon on the Lochsa. I also hooked up on a monster on the Selway while swinging a big sculpin pattern but it took me into some submerged logs and I lost it. It would have been awesome to see what it was. But as they say the tug is the drug, it was pretty cool. I'll post up more tomorrow afternoon.

 

[WonkyWapiti]

So after the week in Idaho I moved on to Wyoming and met up with my family for a week and didn't really do any fishing until they left. We drove through Yellowstone on the 4th of July and I wanted so badly to fish but I was being a good tour guide for this part of the trip. I then met up with my other buddies and we hit a few spots around the state.









More photos in the morning.

 

[WonkyWapiti]

My buddy and I hit a local reservoir and I ended up catching a bunch of brookies. I caught them by sight casting since they seemed to be on about a thirty minute cycle where they would feed at the surface then go away. I had more luck with a Royal Wulff and a Purple Haze and some luck using a chironomid with a red body and silver ribbing.



On the way out we came across an unfortunate incident. The occupants of the side by side were already gone when we stopped to check.



For the last weekend of my vacation I travelled to Sheridan to attend the rodeos on Friday and Saturday night. On the way I scouted for fishing locations and came across some bull moose and then a little lake that I just had to drop a fly into.


This guy hit my red with silver wire chironomid dropper.

I'll try and finish up tomorrow.