August 26, 2011
I've just returned from an adventure in the Idaho backcountry which was one the most spectacular weeks I've ever spent.
Myself, my son Eric, and my long-time friend Mark Soward, all went to Nevada mule deer hunting in August last year. We had a blast, Eric killed his first archery deer and we had a great time. But it was three years in a row on this trip for Mark and I, which brought up a discussion of doing something different this year, like fishing. I told them that night, "I know the place."
I went to grad school in Idaho back in the mid 80's and was always drawn to the hundreds of miles of rugged mountains that make up all of central Idaho. The crown jewel of this endless sea of mountains is the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness Area. It basically encompasses the entire watershed of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. It is 2.5 million acres in size just by itself. Considering it borders the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness Area, another 1.4 million acres in size, there is almost 4 million acres of contiguous wilderness!
I've
hunted and fished the Frank Church Wilderness on and off the past 25
years, but I had never made it to the actual Middle Fork of the
Salmon River which flows through the middle of the wilderness. The
main hurdle had always been the 25-mile (one way) back pack part of
the trip. Well, this time we went with the pros, Middle Fork
Wilderness Outfitters (MFWO), owned by Erik and Jan Snell.
The Middle Fork is one of the longest Wild and Scenic rivers in the country. It has been managed as a Catch and Release Fishery since the '70's, meaning you must use artificial baits with single, barbless hooks and release all trout caught. The result is a river with literally thousands of native cutthroat and rainbow trout. You have to see it to believe it.
The trip itinerary is to fly into a remote landing strip, float the river for over 80 miles and emerge on the Main Salmon River to the takeout point over 6 days. I reserved 2 private fishing boats to take advantage of the fishing. Brad LaBounty was originally planning on making the trip and a foursome, but he didn't feel comfortable doing the trip so close to his first season as outfitter. So we had an empty seat in one of the 2-man fishing boats each day which several people were happy to sit in.
Besides the 3 of us. there were 10 other guests on the float trip and 7 guides. You'll get to know the people through the pictures, but it was a great group to be on the river.
I took over 200 pictures on the trip and weeded them down to 80 or so to show you. Due to the large number of pictures, which are all shown in chronological order, I'm going to do this presentation as more of a pictorial than a story.
Day 1
We
had to catch a single-engine plane at the Stanley, ID airport for a
short backcountry flight to the Indian Creek airstrip. We met up
with one of the guides, Scooter Carling of Hailey, ID, who was
flying in with us. If we had had one more thing with us, something
was not getting flown in as we were packed in the plane.
Note the picture of Eric in the back seat.
The approach into the landing strip at Indian Creek. "Landing strip" is an old Indian word for "short dirt road". We met the remainder of the crew and fellow guests, loaded up the boats and hit the river.
The first day, I shared a boat with Eric and guide, Patrick Kohnke. Immediately, we started getting into fish. I literally caught the first one as we were leaving the launch site. It was a good sign.
We beached for the night and the watched the amazing process of 7 guides putting up a camp. Realize, these guys (MFWO) set up and down break down an entire camp EVERYDAY! The efficiency is unbelievable.
My bud, Mark and son Eric.
One of the families on the river just so happened to have a senator on the trip. Elliot Werk, from Boise, ID is a democratic senator in Idaho and was on the trip with his wife Nancy, and daughter Hattie.
Mark and Elliot were caught in deep discussion. Whether it was about politics or not, is hard to say.
We had a good day fishing on the river with Mark and I both catching around 15 trout apiece. I had fished a bumblebee jig successfully on some of the higher tributaries of the Middle Fork and planned to start with it. It produced, but we were still feeling the river out.
Mark, Eric, and I had never fly fished to much degree but as the trip progressed, and at the coaxing of the guides, we all took our turn with the dry fly. It was a huge turn in the trip. More on that later.
Day 2
Mark was manning the front of one of the boats, and Elliot fished from the back of the boat. This is your first introduction to the man rowing the boat, owner Erik Snell.
Erik was a gracious host and a top fishing guide. He is a tough man doing a tough job, and always with a smile on his face. You'll hear more ravings about Erik before we're done.
My Eric struggled on day 1 with my jig rig, but caught some good fish on the second day with it.
I continued with the bumble bee rig and ended up catching around 20 fish for the day. Mark ended up catching roughly the same.
Mark tried the dry fly route today and really liked it. It was actually producing better than the jig and spinning combo. Another good day on the water fishing, but we're already thinking about what else to try. The guides are saying the best fishing was in front of us.
Guide Scooter Carling doing a bang-up job at releasing fish with a nifty dehooker he has. You never have to remove the fish from the water or touch them to be able to release them from the barbless hooks.
Scooter was very protective of the fish. First time I reached down and tried to grab a fish, Scooter quickly barked, "Wet your hand first!" You know what? I didn't do that again! Didn't have to with Scooter's sweet dehooker.
Scooter did a great job as our day 2 guide. The man knows this river and has a deep respect for it. That is precious anymore.
Scooter and Eric posing for the camera.
Still in the upper reaches of the Middle Fork.
Most of the MFWO crew. Left to right, Willie Overgaard, Patrick Kohnke, Tyler Lambert, Erik Snell, Jan Snell, and Cecil Wilcom. The only one missing is Scooter. Hmm?
These guys produce the most amazing camp and food for such a mobile outfit. I cannot lie, I ate three huge meals a day the entire trip. I gained 7 pounds!
Day started with dutch-oven goodies, eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit and more.
Midday saw us on shore lunch. Our hosts would pull off tables and set up all kinds of vegetables, fruits, sandwiches, homemade salads which varied everyday, and the workings. We would stuff ourselves again and then continue down the river.
Evening meals? Terrible if you hate being fed like kings. For Pete's sake, we had root beer floats on the third night of the trip. We had ice cream! Here!
Day 3
Each morning the same ritual is observed. They stuff us with good food, and we try to stay out of their way as they break camp and load the boats. We tried briefly in the beginning to help with loading/unloading on the boats. Guide Willie Overgaard would have no part of it. Orders were to go relax and enjoy yourself. So we did it very well.
Later, when we got to know the guides better, they explained how guests were just in the way more than we were helping. They had a system and routine that we didn't know. They do have a perfect team system worked out, I have to admit. A bunch of tourists stumbling around in the rocks in their way is just sand in the gears.
We tried to stay out of the way...
Eric Snell rigging fly rods for us neophytes to scare fish with.
Erik has owned MFWO for 6 years. He grew up rafting the river and showed his love for it by ultimately buying an outfitting operation on the Middle Fork.
Erik runs a tight operation. Everything is organized, planned, and executed perfectly. But in my opinion, the chemistry within the 7 guides is what brings it all together. You have a wonderful staff.
Thank you Erik for teaching my Eric the ropes on fly fishing. You doubled his fish take in doing so.
Shore lunch. Stuffed again.
Today's fishing was good in the morning, but after the shore lunch, we had 3 hours of fishing that was possibly the best of my life.
Mark and I went with Scooter on one boat while Eric and Elliot Werk went with Erik on his boat.
Eric was going to try the fly rod in the front of the boat. Erik Snell showed him the ropes and had my Eric quadrupling what he had been catching on spinning gear.
Meanwhile, Mark decided to fish with the grasshopper on a fly rod from the front of the boat and I had spinning gear in the back. After two days, I finally figured out a big black and silver rooster tail cast behind the boat and retrieved faster than the current was hot. Mark and I were catching the same amount of fish and up to this time, the fly rod had been out-producing spinning gear.
It was always hard getting good photos of the fish, mainly because I was so busy fishing myself. But I have a few.
Most of the fish we were catching were in the 11 to 15-inch range. But they were thick for their size. They literally looked like fish footballs. Good fighters. Great fishing on ultralight gear.
We saw much bigger trout in the water than what we caught. But big trout have lived a long time and seen enough lures and flies in a Catch and Release fishery to make themselves tough to catch.
I mentioned earlier about the afternoon fishing Mark and I experienced... In about 3 hours, we caught at least 30 trout apiece. The grasshopper was hopping and the black spinner was spinning.
Guide Tyler Lambert jockeys the raft into upper Tappan Falls.
Tyler gets them through the Falls
By the way, notice those inflatable kayaks tied on the back of the raft. These are called "Duckies" and were used everyday when we were not going through Tappan Falls. The teenagers on the trip made them look easy. They weren't. There's a story later...
Captain Erik rumbling through the Falls.
Note Eric in the front with a white-knuckle grip.
Talking about a wall of rock.
More whitewater today than we've seen yet.
Elliot, Captain Erik and Eric with another white knuckle grip..
Mark bending a pole on a fish while Scooter watches.
Jan Snell. This wonderful lady is the reason we booked with MFWO. After reading 5 or 6 websites on Middle Fork trips, I found her page www.idahorapids.com. The website stood out in that it was clearly written by someone with writing ability that had lots of experience on the river.
So, I called them and got Jan on the horn. After talking with her for 5 minutes, I knew we had found our guys.
After getting to know her and see her in action, it became very apparent that she was an indispensible gear in the system. Jan saw that everyone in the group wanted for nothing.
The service-oriented approach with Jan was a nice welcome after eating freeze-dried foods on our last three deer-hunting excursions. We lived like kings. We really did.
30-miles from any road, and an acrobat shows up and walks a tightrope... Not really, this young lady is Bethany Blitz from Centennial CO.
Mark, Eric and I were sitting around having a cold one when she walked up between a couple of big pine trees and starts putting up this rope that looked like it would make a mule picket line. Of course curiosity got the better of us, so we walked over with the old "What are you doin'?" question.
We then learned she was going to walk down it. We all looked at each other and finally said, "OK, We're ready to watch this."
She walked up and down this nylon strap, turned around and did it again. It was awesome to watch her balance.
Did I mention she was good? She made it look easy enough we, yes Mark, Eric and I, agreed to try it. Great thing for 50-year old men to be trying 30 miles from the nearest road. Eric was young enough to bounce higher.
I'm sad to report I didn't get one picture of the demonstration we put on. The only way any of us could come close to even standing on it was with another person on each side so that you could hold their shoulders. We kind of looked like an injured football player being helped to the sidelines by the guys on each side.
Gained a lot more respect for Bethany's abilities after seeing just how unstable that rope is. You were awesome Bethany!
Try this one at home...
Guides, Scooter Carling and Patrick Kohnke unloading the sweep and enjoying life.
Riverside bar.
From left to right, Eric Hughes, Ann Welsh, Tom Welsh, Maddie Welsh, Scott Blitz, Davis Welsh, Hattie Werk, Bethany Blitz, Elliot Werk and Mark Soward.
Hattie Werk and her dad, senator Elliot Werk waiting on our third huge meal as we ate our homemade chowder. Everybody ate two bowls of chowder by the way, not just me.
I mentioned that third huge meal we were waiting on? It was the special, Middle Fork fried chicken! And I wonder why I gained 7 pounds in 6 days!?
Patrick Kohnke (left) was the main fry chef, but Erik Snell (center) and Willie Overgaard (right) provided excellent support.
Day 4
Once the daily break-down/pack-up was done, Mark and I commenced to fishing again for the morning float. Eric wanted to ride the "Duckie" or inflatable kayak that day. Mark and I wanted to do it, but it was too chilly in the morning to get us in the water.
Our plan was to fish to shore lunch and and ride the Duckies to camp.
Mark and I went with Erik Snell today. Again, Mark was fishing fly in the front of the boat and I had a spinner in the back. We switched off some and I did get to fish the fly rod today. It was sweet. Fishing dry flies is better (easier) than fishing wet flies which is all I had ever tried..
Mark caught a whopper right after I took the previous picture.
Our success continued with another 20 to 25 fish apiece just on the morning float.
The grasshopper was hot! Mark lands another one.
Note the foot bridge in the background. It is one of only three foot bridges that span the Middle Fork in over 80 miles of stream. There is somewhat of a trail system along the river, but crossings are scarce.
Bighorn ewe wondering what the tourists (us) are doing.
Another shot. She is maybe 75 yards from us.
Mark showing a decent fish. I wonder if his hands were wet?
After catching another passel of trout that morning, we saddled up the Duckies. Let me explain how they work. Eric and Davis had scarfed the two Duckies with good backrests. The ones Mark and I took did not have the back support to lean back against like the other two. Basically you are sitting with feet forward and no footstrap. My feet would be two feet above my head in the rapids.
I was unable to get any pictures of us in the Duckies this afternoon due to the odds of dunking my camera. But we did have a wild ride. Neither Mark, Eric or I came unsaddled, but we all had some close calls. I provided Mattie endless entertainment she claimed.
Mark almost dunked when he ran up on a big rock in one of the rapids. Then I got caught in a backwash against a bluff that took me two tries to get out of. I almost lost it both attempts.
Guide, Cecil Wilcom on the left prepares a delicious dutch-oven dessert while Willie Overgaard waits patiently with the whipped cream.
After dinner, Eric and I took a short hike out of the canyon thanks to a recommendation from guide, Patrick Kohnke.
Day 5
Guide, Tyler Lambert of McCall, Idaho starting the morning ritual of loading the boats.
Shelby, Jan and Erik's dog, rides the sweep down each day with most of the gear. Each day a different guide would take the sweep down ahead of the group and have all the tents and most of the gear setup before any of us arrive. A lot of work for one person. At least they had Shelby there as the security officer.
Day 5 had us back in fishing mode with the butt-kicking we took at the hands of the Duckies, the day before.
Eric and I went with guide, Tyler Lambert for the day. Eric was using flies in the front and I was still trailing spinners I had so much success with the past couple of days.
It was another bumper day on the Middle Fork. I caught over 40 fish for the day. Eric took another 25 or so. And we caught some nice fish as well. Overall, it was our best collective day. Tyler did an excellent job manning the boat just like the other guides we fished with. Thanks for a good day Tyler. The day is going into my mental hall of fame. I will never forget it.
A good memory of my day was catching three trout on a brief stint with the fly rod. A better memory was catching my biggest cutthroat of the week on a hopper placed a foot from shore. He was at least 15" and probably closer to 16" and looked like a football. I had witnesses too!
Mark rode his front fly rod position on Erik's boat with Tom Welsh of Shoreline, WA joining him for the day. Tom chose the fly rod also.
Mark had another banner day on the river. He caught 40+ fish for the day with numerous ones in the 14" - 16" range. Probably his best collective day as well.
At camp that night, Mark claimed to have had three fish on that were absolute hogs but they broke his line each time due to the light tippet. Sorry Mark, cough cough, I might need a confirmation from Captain Erik on that one before I completely swallow this fish tale!
Tom was successful on the fly rod as well but I never heard an estimated tally.
Another pretty shot of the river.
River otters! Tyler spotted this mom and youngster along the water edge.
When she had enough of us, she grabbed the young one by the scruff of the neck and commenced to dragging it into the water.
Eric bringing one in while Tyler waits with Scooter's dehooker.
Getting it closer...
Note how fat that fish is in Tyler's hand. They're chunks.
Finished product.
Shore lunch time. Eric and I waiting to stuff ourselves again.
Cousins, Bethany Blitz (left) of Centennial CO and Maddie Welsh (right) of Shoreline, WA hamming it up.
Found a pod of tadpoles in an isolated pool. Some were starting to get their front legs.
Davis Welsh of Shoreline, WA or at least what's left of him.
Hanging water fall. It looks like the water is being squeezed out of the bottom of the tree.
The canyon is narrowing up.
I was just glad I wasn't in the Duckie for this one!
Tyler and Eric taking in the day.
We stopped along the river today and looked at some Indian pictographs. It was quite evident that this was a picture of a bighorn sheep. Considering the pictograph was made by the Sheepeater Indians, it seems perfectly natural.
Not sure exactly what this pictograph depicts.
Mary Kohnke of Boise, ID riding the Duckie down the river. Mary is the mother of guide, Patrick Kohnke. This trip was her 13th on the Middle Fork.
We took a 10-minute hike off the river to see a "grotto", which was a new term to me. Basically it was a box canyon that formed a bowl in the upper end. It had a small waterfall cascading down to accent it.
Tom Welsh lands a trout while Mark tries to figure out how he let that one slip by.
Our final camp site. It was an evening on the beach.
Our final camp was called Cliffside and this view of the rocks on the opposite side of the river give us a clue on how it got it's name.
The final night's appetizer was lettuce wraps. Never done that before, but it was quite tasty!
From left to right, Eric Hughes, Elliot Werk, Maddie Welsh, Ann Welsh, Davis Welsh, Tom Welsh, Mary Kohnke, Scott Blitz, Maddie Werk, Nancy Werk, and Bethany Blitz.
This picture was the most important one I took all week. The MFWO crew. These 7 people took such great care of us for the week, it's impossible to adequately describe. They worked as a true team and not one person in camp wanted for anything.
From left to right, Willie Overgaard from Weiser, ID, Tyler Lambert from McCall, ID, Jan Snell from Boise, ID, Erik Snell from Boise, ID, Scooter Carling from Hailey, ID, Cecil Wilcom from Eugene, OR and Patrick Kohnke from Boise, ID.
Thank you guys for everything you did. You are all true professionals, but after a week together, I consider you all friends.
Guide, Willie Overgaard provided us entertainment around the camp fire a couple of nights. Although Willie's main repertoire of music was primarily country, he won me totally over with his rendition of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page".
Note Willie's retro shorts from the '70's. We all had fun with him on that.
Day 6
Our entire cast (minus me taking the picture) before we departed on our last day on the river.
Front Row (left to right): Nancy Werk, Cecil Wilcom, Willie Overgaard, Tyler Lambert, Scooter Carling, Bethany Blitz, Patrick Kohnke and Scott Blitz.
Back Row (left to right): Ann Welsh, Mary Kohnke, Hattie Werk, Elliot Werk, Eric Hughes, Mark Soward, Tom Welsh, Erik Snell, Jan Snell, Maddie Welsh and Davis Welsh.
The last day would see us traversing the "Impassable Canyon" portion of the trip. Because the narrow canyon is trending north-south, the river was still in the deep shade when we were departing. Mark, Eric and I noticed a lot of people donning rain gear before we left. "Are we missing something here?" we wondered.
The deal was the rapids on this part of the trip were bigger than in days past and getting wet was going to be an almost sure thing. The fact the canyon bottom was still going to be in the shade for much of the morning made the idea of getting soaked even less appealing.
We rooted out our rain gear and it WAS needed!
Even though we had our fishing rods at the ready, neither Mark, Eric or I ever cast a line today. We had caught oodles of fish this week and we were all content to just ride the river and enjoy looking up at the grand scenery of the canyon.
Guide, Patrick Kohnke steering the sweep down the river.
Riding the rapids.
Boats emerging from the rapids.
In the last mile...
Patrick Kohnke, Mary Kohnke and Jan Snell on the sweep. Shelby the dog is there, but refused to get out and pose for the picture.
That concluded the show. I can't thank our hosts enough for providing such a great trip. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. If anyone is interested in partaking on a tour of the Middle Fork, Erik, Jan and their wonderful crew are the guys to go with. Their website is www.idahorapids.com.
We hope to return to the Middle Fork summer after next and do it again and if there are any of the Elite family of hunters and friends that would be interested, stay in touch. It would be awesome to share this experience with you.
Hunting season is just around the corner. Time for some big bulls to hit the ground!