Huge Erection Blog
As an experienced angler I have deduced that there are three great parts of fly-fishing: the water in its meditative and healing properties, the physical hardships and topographical landscapes that make each cast a reward, and the mysterious yet sexually euphoric feeling you get when hooking into nice fish. After a weekend with my old man (the Oracle as previously blogged about) in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, I experienced all 3 of these great moments.
Our journey began in SLC Utah where we drove north to Boise. If anybody has a chance to see southern Idaho with their own eyes, don't. The gas is expensive, and the desert is surely the butt hole of the west. I'm not bagging on sage brush fields, as I am a western man myself, but Idaho's sage brush fields are surely the ugliest. Once past Boise the drive just gets sexually explicit in the awe of Mother Nature. Driving next to the Payette River all the way to the gorgeous and friendly town of Cascade Idaho. We reached our final destination through 60 miles of lodge pole pines and aspen where we saw both osprey and eagles. That's right two different birds of prey. We finally arrived in Yellow Pine Idaho which conveniently was having a harmonica and music festival while we were staying there! Okay... Music, fishing, hippy chicks... Is this a blog or an erotica forum? And if you are wondering why I'm spending so much time on the drive up and not the actual fishing, it’s because the journey is just as sacred as the destination.
Now to the fishing. After beers with a local who shall rename nameless, the Oracle and I got the goods on where to fish for "Dolly's" or the Dolly Varden char that swim all the way from the main Salmon River to its tributaries to spawn. I know what you are thinking, there aren’t any Dolly Varden in Idaho, and they are called bull trout. Well I call them Dolly’s because the local fisherman called them Dolly's. Despite what’s scientifically correct, I go by vernacular and in my opinion calling them Dolly's is much more badass. Unlike Salmon, Dolly's don't die once they spawn, they swim back and repeat the cycle 3 or 4 times in their life. The East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River is in Yellow Pine, so that was convenient for us. (I will abbreviate this river by calling it Huge Erection River) Also convenient for us is that the Dolly's are in Huge Erection River on their way up to spawn.
If you are wondering why I'm calling the river Huge Erection it’s because it was HUGE! The fact that there IS an East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River and it has 500 cfs of water in August makes my head spin. The funny part for me is how much water there is in Idaho and the Northwest and how little there is in Utah. In Utah we have the Provo River, if it were in Idaho it would be called Provo Creek. The topography of Huge Erection River would make any angler drool. Long tongue and currents holding westslope cutthroat, little rocks with pocket water holding Redband, and deep pools against rock cliffs where I caught my Dolly. I think Herman Melville once said, "Water and meditation are wedded forever."
Now the part of the blog reserved for me to brag a little. We fished the pool of Huge Erection River that the local fisherman told us to fish. He said he had a 27 inch Dolly on earlier that day. I fished the pool for about 20 minutes with possibly a few bumps before Bam! This creature hit my streamer deep and immediately started for downstream making me fall backwards on my hand. I thought to myself what a cheap shot! Most fish wait for the bell to ring before they start fighting, but this animal gave me little time to react. Without thinking my lower brain told me to get in the water and follow the beast downstream. Normally I wouldn't jump into a 500 CFS, slippery, and free stone flowing river but the adrenaline in my veins gave me no choice. Keeping balance while trying to keep tension on the 1x fluorocarbon leader was impossible to say the least. I followed her downstream 100 yards falling on my butt twice with my 4 weight rod bent into a U. When I finally bagged her she dwarfed my 16 inch net leaving inches of her tail out to reflect in the afternoon sunlight. A 25 inch Bull after a 5 minute fight. Definitely a short fight for such a powerful fish. I'm sure she got so tired because I was chasing her downstream, and giving her little line. I was just as tired as she was though, and trying to lift the net was hard after fighting that fish. I'll never forget the face she gave me when I lifted her out of the net. Her face said I shouldn't have given you a cheap shot before our fight and I put up a good fight for just a kid. Her face was powerful with a slopping forehead, vice jaws and a stocky camouflaged body. An image that makes little redband trout tremble. She is a member of a genus that has been around for thousands of years in that water and I just broke the cycle in the grand scheme of things. That is special.
I've always loved native fish because my family is obsessed with cutthroat. But I think my new favorite fish is the Bull Trout. They are big, bad, and native. They put up a fight that rivals big browns and are much prettier in my opinion. The great part of this trip was sharing the catch with the Oracle because it was the first time he had ever seen a Bull of that size. If you find yourself in Southern Idaho; make a detour to the hidden gem of Yellow Pine because there may be beer, music, and a girl named Dolly waiting for you.
As an experienced angler I have deduced that there are three great parts of fly-fishing: the water in its meditative and healing properties, the physical hardships and topographical landscapes that make each cast a reward, and the mysterious yet sexually euphoric feeling you get when hooking into nice fish. After a weekend with my old man (the Oracle as previously blogged about) in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, I experienced all 3 of these great moments.
Our journey began in SLC Utah where we drove north to Boise. If anybody has a chance to see southern Idaho with their own eyes, don't. The gas is expensive, and the desert is surely the butt hole of the west. I'm not bagging on sage brush fields, as I am a western man myself, but Idaho's sage brush fields are surely the ugliest. Once past Boise the drive just gets sexually explicit in the awe of Mother Nature. Driving next to the Payette River all the way to the gorgeous and friendly town of Cascade Idaho. We reached our final destination through 60 miles of lodge pole pines and aspen where we saw both osprey and eagles. That's right two different birds of prey. We finally arrived in Yellow Pine Idaho which conveniently was having a harmonica and music festival while we were staying there! Okay... Music, fishing, hippy chicks... Is this a blog or an erotica forum? And if you are wondering why I'm spending so much time on the drive up and not the actual fishing, it’s because the journey is just as sacred as the destination.
Now to the fishing. After beers with a local who shall rename nameless, the Oracle and I got the goods on where to fish for "Dolly's" or the Dolly Varden char that swim all the way from the main Salmon River to its tributaries to spawn. I know what you are thinking, there aren’t any Dolly Varden in Idaho, and they are called bull trout. Well I call them Dolly’s because the local fisherman called them Dolly's. Despite what’s scientifically correct, I go by vernacular and in my opinion calling them Dolly's is much more badass. Unlike Salmon, Dolly's don't die once they spawn, they swim back and repeat the cycle 3 or 4 times in their life. The East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River is in Yellow Pine, so that was convenient for us. (I will abbreviate this river by calling it Huge Erection River) Also convenient for us is that the Dolly's are in Huge Erection River on their way up to spawn.
If you are wondering why I'm calling the river Huge Erection it’s because it was HUGE! The fact that there IS an East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River and it has 500 cfs of water in August makes my head spin. The funny part for me is how much water there is in Idaho and the Northwest and how little there is in Utah. In Utah we have the Provo River, if it were in Idaho it would be called Provo Creek. The topography of Huge Erection River would make any angler drool. Long tongue and currents holding westslope cutthroat, little rocks with pocket water holding Redband, and deep pools against rock cliffs where I caught my Dolly. I think Herman Melville once said, "Water and meditation are wedded forever."
Now the part of the blog reserved for me to brag a little. We fished the pool of Huge Erection River that the local fisherman told us to fish. He said he had a 27 inch Dolly on earlier that day. I fished the pool for about 20 minutes with possibly a few bumps before Bam! This creature hit my streamer deep and immediately started for downstream making me fall backwards on my hand. I thought to myself what a cheap shot! Most fish wait for the bell to ring before they start fighting, but this animal gave me little time to react. Without thinking my lower brain told me to get in the water and follow the beast downstream. Normally I wouldn't jump into a 500 CFS, slippery, and free stone flowing river but the adrenaline in my veins gave me no choice. Keeping balance while trying to keep tension on the 1x fluorocarbon leader was impossible to say the least. I followed her downstream 100 yards falling on my butt twice with my 4 weight rod bent into a U. When I finally bagged her she dwarfed my 16 inch net leaving inches of her tail out to reflect in the afternoon sunlight. A 25 inch Bull after a 5 minute fight. Definitely a short fight for such a powerful fish. I'm sure she got so tired because I was chasing her downstream, and giving her little line. I was just as tired as she was though, and trying to lift the net was hard after fighting that fish. I'll never forget the face she gave me when I lifted her out of the net. Her face said I shouldn't have given you a cheap shot before our fight and I put up a good fight for just a kid. Her face was powerful with a slopping forehead, vice jaws and a stocky camouflaged body. An image that makes little redband trout tremble. She is a member of a genus that has been around for thousands of years in that water and I just broke the cycle in the grand scheme of things. That is special.
I've always loved native fish because my family is obsessed with cutthroat. But I think my new favorite fish is the Bull Trout. They are big, bad, and native. They put up a fight that rivals big browns and are much prettier in my opinion. The great part of this trip was sharing the catch with the Oracle because it was the first time he had ever seen a Bull of that size. If you find yourself in Southern Idaho; make a detour to the hidden gem of Yellow Pine because there may be beer, music, and a girl named Dolly waiting for you.
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