It’s not normal for any Rocky Mountain angler to get on the water before sunrise. They wait till things warm up. Until the hatches start. But under the burden of the driest, hottest early summer in Idaho I can remember, starting at the crack of dawn today was one of my best plans of the year. I launched a loaner Hyde drift boat through the swampy reaches of the Baez River in order to catch the first rising fish of the day for the Scientific Anglers (SA) film crew.
Joe Wolthuis, the Marketing Manager for SA and good friend, rowed. Photographer Geoff Shirley prowled the banks of the Baez blazing off photos. Above us, two drones dodged an attacking osprey and a tern, run by the Miller Brothers and directed by Chris Conran and Allen Crater of Stevens / Advertising. Yeah, drones are annoying, but man do they get some amazing film footage. I modeled, casting here, there and everywhere to give them the shots they needed, all the time scanning the water for a trout. It was a gorgeous setting.
Exactly as the sun peeked above the Tetons, I spotted a rise. It was a big fish and the lingering bow wave from the rise erased my focus on modeling. Joe eased me into range and after several long drifts the fish lifted its nose. Fish on! Two minutes later Joe slid the net under an 18” rainbow.
“Holy crap Currier! Its 6 AM! The sun is rising and we have our footage!”, exclaimed Joe. I could hear high fiving going on from the others.
Photo by Geoff Shirley
SA is here to film and photograph me for future advertising, to make instructional clips about fishing and to promote product and etc. I’m a proud SA Ambassador. That was just the beginning of a memorable day. I’d go on to catch seven large rainbows and cutthroats for the cameras. All on small dry flies. It was like my Winston Air2 4-weight was a magic wand.
Photo by Geoff Shirley
I should mention that after about my fifth nice fish, the guys all started fishing. We had our photos and film footage for the day. They deserved some fun. And while most were humbled by the large Baez feeding trout, Joe got the huge cutthroat I promised him in a text a few days back. What a fish. What an incredible day. Its off to the Henry’s Forks Harriman Ranch tomorrow for more. Stay tuned. . ..
Great day! I fished with Joe on CXI back in 2015. Love seeing what he’s doing, great guy!
Joe and the SA crew are all a bunch of really great folks. Pretty fishy too!