After a good full day of hiking for backcountry fishing there’s nothing better than getting behind the oars with a cooler of food and a couple beers with friends. Today I took Steve and Lisa on the Rizzo River with hopes of finding a few nice cutthroats and some moose. I should have been a guide – I found them all.
As mentioned yesterday, my schedule is pedal to the medal so I must keep this short. It was a hot day in Idaho with a few scattered clouds when we launched my blue boat. There were at least 50 other people at the boat ramp ranging from more anglers, paddle boards, kayaks, inner tubes, and I swear there were few people literally floating in only a lifejacket. It felt more like the start of a new edition “Jaws” movie than fishing on the Rizzo.
Miraculously, despite all the chaos, the nice trout were up. They’ve learned to live with crowds of people. They know most of us aren’t a threat. But we were menace however, and the first three trout I put Lisa on came up and ate her fly. She hooked each one and this was the smaller of the handsome cutthroats she caught.
A good little storm rolled in on us around 2 PM. In fact, we had two. 20 minutes of heavy rain came with, the kind where the raindrops were ginormous and felt icy cold. We had the Simms gear but still, when the short lived storms passed by it cooled us down big time.
Cool is what the moose needed however and as the rain and the temperature drop set in, the moose came out. It was a dream to have great fishing followed by impressive wildlife in the same round. If only the rain wasn’t so intense I’d of got a picture of the BIG moose. But this is just a button bull we found as the storm started before I hid my phone in my Simms dry bag.
We’re having a great time with our friends from AZ. Unfortunately, I think we’re shifting from fishing to a hike or bike ride for their last day tomorrow. I’ll live. There’s three days of fishing coming Wednesday through Friday with my friends from Scientific Anglers.
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