South Fork of the Snake

by Dennis G. Bitton

The South Fork of the Snake River, in southeastern Idaho, is probably one of the premier trout fishing rivers in the world. Popularity is changing past conditions into new ones. Hopefully, those who care will be able to manage with skill and wisdom.

Telling the world about your favorite fly fishing river is not something one does casually. You have to have a good reason for doing it, or you won't.

Back in the mid-1980's, a bunch of us had reason to talk about the South Fork of the Snake; she was in peril. Real estate developers had convinced a farmer that what he needed on his land on the banks of the South Fork was a 200 unit summer home project.

The details of the ensuing battle are not pertinent now, but the feeling many of us had, knowing that the only way we could save the river was by introducing her to a national audience, lingers on. Some say we did too good a job, that the river is now over run with visitors. But a few of us know that it was the out of state popularity of the river that saved her from irrepealable harm, and may continue to do so in the future.

The fishing is as good as it ever was, but it's not easy fishing. My personal experience on the South Fork tells me that the average size of the trout brought to hand has increased every year for at least the last half dozen years. We used to catch a lot of 12-14 inch fish. Now we catch a lot of 16-18 inch trout; cutthroats, browns and rainbows.

There are two native sub species, or strains, of cutthroat in the South Fork of the Snake River--fine spotted and large spotted. There are also plenty of brown trout in the 50 plus miles of the South Fork, and some people consider them to be the trophy trout of the river. Brown trout weighing three to five pounds are caught regularly, and every year someone hauls one out that weighs 20 pounds or more.

But for natives like me, we consider the native trout to be the prize. They used to be gullible. Now they're not. When I first fished this river over 40 years ago, we could take fish with Sandy Mites, Lady Mites, Grey Hackle Peacocks, Grey Hackle Yellows and Ginger Quill patterns.

My attitude was: If they won't hit a Renegade, they can stay in the creek!

Even 10 to 15 years ago, my pattern of choice on the South Fork was the dry fly Renegade. My attitude was: If they won't hit a Renegade, they can stay in the creek!" I have been forced to change my attitude and my fly patterns. To some extent, it's by my own doing, because I'm guilty of having written magazine articles about "my" river for over 10 years now. It was important to get some things said. It is again.

The reasons are simple; increased pressure has brought new problems. Lots of new fishermen isn't the problem some local residents believe it to be. They think guides and "dudes" take too many fish from them. The truth is that guided trips have almost zero kill rates. Local residents kill far more trout than visitors.

Increased pressure does make the fish wary, but so do fluctuating flows downstream from a Bureau of Reclamation Dam. "B of wreck" (my terminology) is nothing more than a service agency to Idaho farmers. The Bureau is bound by law as to what it can and cannot do. The farmers' control is absolute. Fishermen can and will fight, but Idaho irrigators "own" the water (or so they think) and they dewater the entire Snake River midway across southern Idaho. However, the South Fork of the Snake River is full of water all summer long--because it runs through a deep canyon, upstream from irrigation diversion canals.

I've seen lots of articles talking about how "good" a trout river is by giving a count of fish per mile. Idaho Fish & Game has some figures for the South Fork, but they'd rather not talk about them. They'd rather talk about the number of fish per hectare. I'd rather not talk about either one.

Lots of fishermen I know have 30 fish days regularly, and sometimes they're first time visitors.

What I'd like to say is that I've had days on the South Fork when three people caught and released 40 trout apiece. Lots of fishermen I know have 30 fish days regularly, and sometimes they're first time visitors.

I remember telling a writer friend before he came out from the east coast that he might catch 20 to 30 cutthroats a day. He said he'd done that and wasn't much impressed. Cutthroats were dumb, he said.

He came and we put on the river in my boat. For two or three hours, he couldn't beg, borrow or catch a fish. They were everywhere, but at the end of his tippet. We came to a wide, shallow gravel bar where you could see 14 to 16 inch cutts sucking in drifting May flies. He got out of the boat, put on a matching pattern, positioned himself well and proceeded to catch fish. I started counting.

When he'd brought 10 or 12 to hand, I asked him if he wanted to move on, since it was such dull fishing and all. He turned around and said, "Are you crazy!" He went on to catch over 20, and he didn't act bored, or say anything about the fish being dumb.

Morale: when the South Fork of the Snake River fishes well, she fishes very well, but that's not all the time.

The increased pressure has made the fish more wary. The required size of artificial patterns has decreased. The need for realistic imitations has increased. A few years ago, a Light Cahill would work for the light colored May flies we have on the river. Now, you have to use Pale Morning Dun patterns, or yellow-bodied, white-winged May fly patterns, or pink-bodied Cahills. Bead-heads are in; metal ones on big wet fly patterns like nymphs and sculpins, small glass beads on emerger patterns, down to size 18's and 20's.

We use the bead heads below a dry fly as a dropper and watch for the dry fly to skit sideways across the current. So far, my brain still hesitates a full second while watching a dry fly move cross-current. It just doesn't register immediately (like when I see a dry fly go under), to quickly raise the rod tip. Old dogs learn new tricks, but slowly. Give me another year or two.

So where is the South Fork, how do you get there, how do you fish it and with whom? The best answer is to have a friend who lives in or near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Short of that, your best bet is to call the state's association of outfitters and guides (1-800-632-5999) and ask for a listing of the outfitters legally allowed to put guides on the river. Idaho limits the number of outfitters per river, and each outfitter can only have so many guides on each stretch of water per day.

Please, if you use a guide, make sure he or she is legal. We have some folks from Wyoming, Utah, Montana and some from Idaho, guiding illegally all the time. If you get caught fishing with them, it will cost you lots of money.

"A river ain't worth squat unless it's big enough to drown a man."

One of the most common questions I'm asked is: "Where can I just go wade the South Fork?" My usual curt reply, especially to friends, is: "You can't." It's not an entirely honest answer, because there are some wadeable sections around Ririe and Heise, but the South Fork's summer flows are always in the neighborhood of 10,000 cubic feet per second. And, as one of my farmer relatives once told me: "A river ain't worth squat unless it's big enough to drown a man."

We loose a few people every summer in the South Fork. Sometimes they're local residents who just act stupid. Sometimes they are out of state visitors who arrive and die ignorant of this big river's ways. You have to show her respect.

The Madison River, for comparison purposes, never runs more than 1,500 cfs during the summer, and is often closer to 1,000 cfs. I'm no hydrologist, but I do understand that 10 is a bigger number than 1. You drown faster in 10,000 cfs flows. My advice: Don't freelance with a dangerous river, especially on your first visit.

Also, I advise all fishermen to us a McKenzie River drift boat on the South Fork. With a good oarsman, you're safe, comfortable and highly mobile. You don't have to fish from the boat all day. You don't have to fish from the boat at all, if you don't want to. You can simply use it as a safe means of moving downstream from one shallow gravel bar to the next.

A major variable to successful fishing on the South Fork is flow fluctuations. Since the South Fork is born at the bottom of a reservoir (Palisades), the daily flows fluctuate way too much for easy fishing. Because of this, to realistically hope for a representative day's fishing, I think all visiting fishermen should plan on fishing the South Fork two or three days.

Idaho Falls is just a 45 minute drive from the most productive parts of the river, and there are public and private camp grounds, motels, Bed and Breakfasts etc. available in Idaho Falls and Swan Valley. (Check with the local fly shop, All Seasons Angler, at (208) 524-7160 for current conditions and updates.) Jackson, Wyoming and West Yellowstone, Montana are less than two hours away. (Get a map!) Plan a loose agenda. Book ahead for guides. Best time of year is from mid July to mid October, if it doesn't snow.

Regulations on the South Fork allow for the taking of just two trout per day, and all cutthroats between 8 and 16 inches long must be returned to the river. The same "slot reg" applies to brown trout and rainbows in the South Fork.

Catching a 16 inch cutt, brown and rainbow in the same day is a definite possibility.

And, there are quite a few big rainbow trout showing up the last few years. They've benefitted from the two fish a day limit. They're very feisty in the South Fork, and to have one come leaping three feet out of the water, after you've watched a number of cutts do the "South Fork wallow" on the surface, can be quite startling. Catching a 16 inch cutt, brown and rainbow in the same day is a definite possibility.

I feel no need to defend my idle claims to greatness for "my river". Ask around. The South Fork of the Snake is no secret any more. Many articles have been written about her. Many editors of fly fishing magazines have visited her. Fly fishermen from all over the world have fished her, many in my boat with me at the oars.

Conclusion? She's a nice river, one of the best. Give her three days minimum between July and November, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

And for all my "friends" who are going to bitch about "another damn article about the South Fork!", . . . go to hell. You don't understand that fishing pressure is not the big challenge of the South Fork, it's managing the increased number of people. That is our challenge with or without this article, because fly fishermen will always go where the fishing is good. It's going to be good on the South Fork for many years to come, thanks to the work done by some of my other friends, over the past dozen years.

Oh yeah. I still use Renegades, wet and dry, but that's another story.

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DENNIS BITTON is a freelance writer in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He writes on a number of topics and has spent some time in peacock bass fishing lodges each of the past two winters. He and his wife Linda have been married 29 years. They're the parents of six and grandparents of seven.