Another great year in the books! This year I focused my efforts mostly on fly fishing for trout, the same many years previous. In 2024 I succeeded in establishing a good rhythm of what water to fish and when.
Early in the year I joined a few friends on the lower Salmon River to chase steelhead for the first time. Over three separate day trips I caught 4 steelhead, all between around 24 and 28 inches. Two of the fish were wild (which I found to be incredible) and two were hatcheries (which I found to be delicious).
In early spring, I found myself on the Madison for a four day weekend, running into a little bit more snow than I anticipated. Before runoff started I had regular success on the local Boise River by euro nymphing and occasionally running into some Blue Wing Olive hatches. Check out my most popular Youtube video this year that recounts one fantastic March day on the Boise.
Early in the summer I caught my first brown drake hatch on Silver Creek, the number of flies in the air lived up to the hype, even if it was combat fishing for the first hour. Unfortunately I don’t have photo evidence of the few solid but not excessively big brown trout I caught that night, I was locked in fishing for the big one that never quiet panned out.
Later in June I would throw salmon flies from a boat for the first time. In the process I also broke two of my fly rods for the first time. I managed to land some respectable fish including a beautiful bull trout on the fourth of July.
July was by far my favorite month for fishing this year, just as it was last year. Post-runoff is my favorite time to get into the mountains and chase cutthroat on freestone rivers. Nothing beats the painfully slow rise of a big cutty for a Chubby Chernobyl way out in the back country.
In late summer, my dad finally made the move out to Idaho, and while I guided him to some great trout fishing, we also added two new species to the 2024 net.
In the fall we traded out our rods for shotguns, having some notable success with waterfowl even though we were limited by our gear. My parents and I were able to post two three-man-limits this year, a feat that is not easily achieved when hunting from the bank with just two dozen decoys, no dog, and no boat. I give a lot of credit to my mom with her new Beretta autoloader that dramatically increased the number of ducks on our strap.
Otherwise we had a few good duck hunts and a few poor ones all depending on how responsive the birds were feeling that day. Unfortunately we neglected chasing upland birds much this year, only counting about half a dozen grouse, a dozen quail, and four pheasants. I ate tag soup for elk and mule deer, only getting up to my unit for one three day weekend this year.
All in all 2024 was a great year, I am happy to have my parents join me out in here in Idaho and I am looking forward to 2025. This next year I expect I will spend a substantial amount of time training my new bird dog and learning how to hunt devil birds.
Until next time,
- Fisher
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