Finally made it to the South Fork

[nhancock]

I have an aunt who lives in Idaho Falls. I have been visiting her 3 - 4 times per year for as long as I can remember, but for some reason I have never fished in Idaho. This past week we had the opportunity to camp on the South Fork of the Snake River, just below the Palisades Dam. What an experience. During the 2 days my father and I fished we caught countless fish, some on fly rods, some on spinning rods, all on flies. In one day we were able to catch at least one of the following species: Yellowstone Cutthroat, Rainbow, Brown, and White Fish. We also caught several Cutt-bows which was fun. The highlight of the trip was an 18 inch rainbow I caught on my spinning rod (fly behind a bubble). I hooked it about 200 feet down stream at the beginning of my retreave. On a light action spinning rod that was quite a fight. We caught several Cuttthroat that were in the 13-16 inch range and they were fun. Suprisingly the White Fish we caught were strong fighters (though ugly fish).

We only fished a few spots and hopefull we will fish more next time. All in all it was a great first trip to the South Fork and hopefully the first of many.

[Crosby]

I could be wrong- I think it was the Snake River cutt in the South Fork.
But yes it is a wonderful area and there is a lot more there than the SF .

[nhancock]

I had been told by nearly everyone in the area that it was the Yellowstone Cutthroat. I was confused and I knew very little about the area, so I did a little research.

The first thing I found was that there is almost no difference between the 2 sub-species. In fact, until recently, researchers could not even determine a difference in DNA, although the fish have distinctly different markings.

The research I found states, the Snake River Cutthroat is found in the South Fork of the Snake River throughout the Jackson Hole area. Below Palisades Dam, however, the native species of Cutthroat is the YellowStone Cutthroat, which is found throughout Idaho, Montana and parts of Wyoming.

In any case they were some pretty amazing fish. I have never felt such fight in a fish.