November South Fork

With a long east coast trip and warm weather behind me, the cold fall in Jackson draws me back to the water.  After some great days fishing for blues in NC and a fantastic trip to Key West, getting out in the cold of autumn would be a drastic change. 

Frigid mornings and dreary weather aside, this time of year offers so many things that summer does not: Fall foliage, hardly any other anglers, and best of all, pissed off browns.  The fall weather truly is an ideal time to chase brown trout.

Out of all the rivers and streams in the area, there are few that can compare (or even have enough water to float) to the South Fork of the Snake this time of year.  Containing Rainbows, Cuttys, and Browns as well as having such ideal habitat, the South Fork can be world class given the right day.  

 So with little hesitation, Dave, Bill, and myself headed to the lower SF the other day and were not disappointed.  An early start yielded few fish in the morning probably due to the extremely low temps.  As the day moved on though, the action got better and better; smaller streamers, larger streamers, even some BWO dries and nymphs seemed to work.  At the end of the day though, we were there to fish streamers to big browns.  
This nice brown ate an articulated black and red streamer pretty early in the day.

Black streamers, white, yellow it didn't really seem to matter.  When the action was on, it was on.  While it wasn't just "stupid" fishing, all fish were quality fish worth casting to.  Slow deep banks and gravel bar inside riffles were the main hot spots.


It was a great day on the water and was exactly the welcome home I needed.  The South Fork, once again, lived up to its reputation.