Its hard to put together a three of four day fishing trip with my friends in the middle of summer.  Most of them guide or do some sort of job in the fly fishing industry.  Taking such time off isn’t possible.  That is, unless you plan the time months ahead.  That’s exactly what me and famous three-generation fishing guide Boots Allen did for the second year in a row.

Supposed to be along with us was our pal Tim Brune, but he had to cancel due to tennis elbow.  The trip was to the lower Snake River and you really need a third angler to share rowing in the wind.  When Tim was out we were in trouble.  Being this part of the Snake isn’t far from Boise, I contacted some western Idaho friends.

The first response from most was, “Are you crazy?”.  This included underwater fish photographer, Erick Moncada.  But as Boots and I were about to give up, Erick called me.  Thanks to the help of his wife and family, Erick was able to juggle his schedule and pull off a miracle.  The three of us met on Idaho’s high desert Sunday night and kicked this fishing trip off with some of Erick’s fine camp cooking.

After the scrumptious dinner, the three of us motored across the slow moving lake-like section of the Snake River to investigate a carp flat Boots and I discovered last July.  Carp tails glimmered everywhere as we approached.

When someone makes you an incredible dinner you stick them in the bow with their fly rod.  Erick posed like a heron waiting for his first cast as Boots eased us in the bay with his low-sided drift boat.  When we finally got in range Erick went to work with some fine casts and a dark colored crayfish pattern.  But carp are always selective and spooky.  There was no such thing as quick luck.

On the high desert of Idaho the sun sets late.  So despite being 8 PM, there was plenty of time.  We were lucky to find tail after tail to cast too and soon Erick was posing with his first mirror carp on the fly.  This fish was no slouch either!

Boots hopped to the front of the boat after we released Ericks fish.  He just grabbed Ericks rod and the dark crayfish fly.  It was nearly the first carp he cast too that ate.  Line screamed across the flat and his backing to fly line knot lingered in the guides.  After ten minutes of wild fish fighting rodeo, Boots was grinning and gripping.

It was the last glow of sunshine when I got comfy in the bow.  The sunset was stunning to say the least.  The carp tails glistened almost orange in color.  But it was also DEAD calm and each time my fly landed the carp ran for dear life.  No doubt by now they knew we were here too.  When harassed, carp release pheromones that alert the others of danger.  There was plenty of danger in these waters and it looked like I’d go fishless on the first evening.

We decided to toss poppers for smallmouth bass now that it was almost dark.  This meant a move to a different location.  But along the way I spotted numerous carp backs sticking out patrolling the surface.  After a closer look I could see Hexagenia mayflies emerging.  No doubt the carp were slurping the nymphs as they hatched.  I yelled, “Cut the motor Boots!”

We had a few good nymphs amongst us to try but in low light a black silhouetted fly always stands out best.  Young Erick graciously saved me the trouble of tying on a fly in the dark without my readers and put on a size 10 unweighted black wooly bugger.  In less than a minute I had a rodeo of my own underway that ended with this gorgeous common carp.

That one common carp battle put every other surface patrolling carp down so we returned to the smallmouth plan.  By then it was almost too dark to see anything.  Lucky for me I had a popper already tied on one of my Winston’s and in a 15 minute session into the pitch of dark I landed two smallies.

I went from bust to glory in the last half hour.  We returned to the boat ramp and our evening camp at 10:45 PM for beers and late night baseball on my XM radio.  We’ll be back on the water early tomorrow.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing