Fishing Hemingway Country –
Silver Creek
 By
Jeff Metcalf
(Published January, 2001, Utah Outdoors magazine)
The first time I ever ventured onto one of Idaho’s greatest
stretches of trout water, Silver Creek, I stumbled into Ernest Hemingway. Seriously.
Hemingway rounded the corner just below Sullivan’s Slough, an 8 1/2-foot, 4-weight
cane rod in his hand, wearing his large trademark canvas marlin cap, sweat-stained,
with a collection of hand-tied flies stuck into the side. An empty Coca-Cola
bottle, filled with grasshoppers and plugged at the opening with a piece of
cloth to keep the hoppers from escaping, hung around his neck. He wore a blue
work shirt, and his rubber waders were pulled up high and cinched by a thick
leather belt. Hemingway’s face was suntanned. and his beard was closely trimmed
to his round face. He looked virile and strong. He looked healthy and happy.
We had lunch together: Fat lamb sandwiches piled thick on
peasant bread, Bermuda onions sliced thinly, and a thin spread of hot curried
mustard feathered over goat cheese, washed down with cold beer. It was a great
way to begin a day of trout fishing
Then we fished together and we caught trout. Big fat Silver
Creek trout. It was good to be fishing for trout and better yet to be fishing
with Hemingway. He had a poisonous cast and could make trout sing when they
leapt from the water.
When I woke up from my dream I was disappointed. I was in
my own bed, a Hemingway book splayed open on my chest where it had fallen when
I dropped off the night before. But the dream was so real, and Hemingway so
alive, that I took it as an omen and made preparations to head off to Idaho
and fish in Hemingway’s backyard. Sometimes dreams are just that, dreams. This
was a dream about trout, and it was a dream about Ernest Hemingway. Somewhere
between the dream and the trout there was a lesson. And in my first lesson on
Silver Creek, I was about to learn a very important thing: The slippery, elusive
trout of Idaho’s premier waters are in complete control. Hemingway or no Hemingway,
they hold all the cards in a loaded deck.
The reality
My Hemingway dream goes back 20-plus years, and my first
visit to Silver Creek almost as long ago. But in the real world of trout fishing,
I did not catch big fat Silver Creek trout. I got schooled. I got skunked. I
became a student of trout and hatches. It was a painful lesson, but one I have
never forgotten.
Old Doc Olsen, a local legend and fly shop owner, had given
me directions to Silver Creek, even wrote them down for me on the back of an
invoice and chuckled as I took off for the drive to Idaho. I was full of myself
and fairly confident Id return to his fly shop with a host of great trout stories.
When I returned home, I was out of flies and didn’t have a single good story
to tell. Doc never asked a thing about my trip. He hadnt’ forgotten; it just
wasn’t in his nature to pry. And because of this, I eventually told him of my
plight. I remember watching his face as I told him about the prolific hatches
of PMDs, how the conditions were perfect, how the great expanse of sky would
often cloud over, how radiant the fish were, slurping and gulping naturals all
around my artificial fly, how exceedingly clear the water was, and how, at times,
the water boiled with trout. Afterwards, he asked me a question.
“Did you touch any?”
“Yes,” I answered
him. “I stuck a few noses.”
“Not bad for
a first-timer.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, the key to fishing Silver Creek is patience.”
“I was patient,” I argued.
“Not patient enough,” he replied.
I don’t think I understood it at the time, but it was the
best advice I’ve ever had regarding Silver Creek, or, for that matter, any other
stretch of unfamiliar water.
Silver Creek as myth
Sooner or later, everyone who is serious about dry fly fishing
in the West will find his or her way to Silver Creek. It is, in many ways, a
crafty stretch of water with even craftier trout. Considered by many to be the
pure definition of a perfect spring creek, it snakes its way through private
cattle ranches, pungent sage brush, fertile fields of alfalfa, potatoes, and
barley, and finally opens up onto wonderful stretches of perfectly rich, bubbling
pockets of watercress-stuffed springs delineated by marshy brush-lined banks.
Because the water temperature varies only slightly during the year and the plant
and nutrient life is abundant, it remains a perfect environment for producing
and sustaining plump fat brown, rainbow and brook trout; trout always in search
of a good meal but with a particularly skittish attitude toward fly fishermen.
Notwithstanding dramatic weather changes, hatches on Silver
Creek are, for the most part, extremely predictable and frustrating. Callibaetis
mayflies, PMDs, Tricots, Baetis and emergers are regular fare for picky trout
from opening day to the end of the season. To be fully prepared to do battle,
it is recommended that you carry a full fly box stuffed with all variations
of a theme and ranging in size from #18s to almost-imperceptible #28s.
There are no careless trout on Silver Creek
Unlike many other western waters, where the angler might
hook into a decent-sized reckless trout, Silver Creek phantoms have seen it
all. Long leader, 12 or 14 feet in the 6x and 7x size, is an absolute must.
The water is gin clear and the trout are extremely leader-shy. A 9-foot, 6-weight
rod is a solid choice for almost any trout on Silver Creek, but the use of 4-
and 5-weight rods can provide a wonderful challenge when it comes to turning
larger fish. Paramount in tempting any trout on the creek is the presentation
of a drag-free fly. Be forewarned; sloppy casts or the slightest drag will spook
the fish in unimaginable ways.
One of the greatest frustration on fishing Silver Creek comes
when you are trying to read masking hatches. It is not uncommon to be fishing
a Baetis pattern and find a sudden PMD hatch overlap. Be prepared to change
flies often and take time to experiment with variations on a theme. Quite often
a sudden change in a hatch, although short-lived, produces some of the best
fishing of a day.
If fishing Silver Creek for the first time, you may want
to enlist the services of a guide. Both Lost River Outfitters and Silver Creek
Outfitters, located in Ketchum, 30 miles north of Silver Creek, have a cadre
of well-trained guides whose sole purpose it is to know and understand the hatches
as well as the personality of Silver Creek. By all means, if hiring a guide
is not within your budget, stop into a local shop and find out when specific
hatches occur and purchase the appropriate flies. There is no substitute for
local knowledge regarding daily hatch activity. Anything short of serious preparation
to do battle with the browns, rainbows and brooks of Silver Creek will leave
an angler exploring new expletives.
The two sides of Silver Creek
Most anglers think of Silver Creek as being divided into
two sections: Silver Creek of the Nature Conservancy and Silver Creek outside
the conservancy. For all intents and purposes, Silver Creek begins east of the
intersection between Highway 75 and U.S. Highway 20 and meanders for approximately
a mile through the Silver Creek Preserve until it hits the falls just before
intersecting with U.S. Highway 20.
Before stepping into the water of the Silver Creek Preserve,
registration is required at preserve headquarters. Situated atop a sage-covered
hill, it has a breathtaking, panoramic view of Silver Creek. During the season
it is manned by volunteers who are well-versed in the plant, animal and bird
life that surrounds the conservancy. All fishing in this stretch of Silver Creek
is catch-and-release only.
Although most fly fishing aficionados prefer to fish within
the bounds of the preserve, one should not overlook the second section of Silver
Creek, which begins just the other side of U.S. Highway 20. This stretch is
often ignored by fly fishermen because it is shared with bait and spin fishermen.
During the peak season, however, when the 1-mile stretch inside the preserve
can become very crowded, this is a good card to have up your sleeve, and the
water, which very much emulates that of the preserve, can produce some very
hearty rainbows and browns. There is a slot limit of two fish, under 12 inches
and over 16 inches if one is inclined to keep a trout.
Good advice is good advice
The fundamental element to unlocking the secret mystery of
Silver Creek is rooted in this chant: Patience, patience and more patience.
To begin to understand the water, learn the feeding patterns of the trout and
discover the best access points into Silver Creek requires a commitment of at
least a couple of days. Anything short of this is almost a guaranteed exercise
in futility. But these browns, rainbows and brooks can be caught, and once a
fly fisherman hooks into a large brown and lands it on a tiny dry fly without
snapping off the 7x tippet, the world takes on a different look and all seems
right.
The majestic trout of Silver Creek share the same needs as
trout on any other stretch of water in the country. They need to eat, they prefer
sufficient cover from predators to wide-open expanses of unprotected water,
and they love a constant food source. It is a simple equation in the life cycle
of fish, but one that is a bit more complicated due to Silver Creek’s physical
structure. The famous hatches that offer plentiful delicacies to the trout,
along with marshy banks that are often difficult to climb, can tax even the
most skilled fly fisherman.
Be prepared during the heaviest part of the season
to encounter a fair share of likeminded fly fishermen. It is imperative to arrive
early, locate a good spot and plan to stay put for the hatches. Unlike other
trout water, where one can wander up and down the bank looking for likely feeding
spots, Silver Creek Preserve is a rather short stretch of water. When the hatch
commences and thousands of fish begin rising to the fly, it is best to put on
the blinders and headhunt to a particular fish. It is not uncommon to see a
novice casting in all directions, responding to the slap and slurp of feeding
trout. Tempting as it might be, and as seductive as the large ka-thump of a
trout cannonballing out of the water is, this whirling dervish approach does
little to heighten the success of landing a trout.
While in this neck of the woods
To be in Sun Valley and Ketchum and not give the Big Wood
River a try is almost unpardonable. Often forsaken for its more famous fly water,
Silver Creek, the Big Wood has developed its own solid reputation for plentiful
‘bows, browns and a smaller population of brook trout.
There are a number of good locations for entering the Big
Wood that make it a truly convenient stretch of water to fly fish. And the upper
end of the Big Wood River, from Ketchum to the North Fork, holds plenty of frisky
trout.
Even during peak fishing season, the Big Wood provides ample
opportunity for fly fishermen to test the trout. Following spring run-offs in
mid- to late July, the fishing can be exceptional, with wonderful hatches and
aggressive trout. Most stretches are wadeable, and the river sports a series
of classic trout runs and deep pools. When dry fly activity dies down on the
Big Wood, the old basics (prince nymphs, bead-head hare’s ears, and flashback
pheasant tails) can be pulled out of the fly box and tested with a great deal
of success.
Regardless of whether fly fishing is the driving force behind
an expedition to the great trout waters surrounding Ketchum and Sun Valley,
a trip into this area of the West is, by all means, a worthy and rewarding family
affair. Between shopping in the quaint and unique shops along Ketchum’s boarded
walkways, taking in brunch at the Sun Valley Lodge, biking, golfing or skating
along the scenic bike path beside the Big Wood River, there is plenty to do
for the entire family.
And although I never did get a chance to fish and have lunch
with Ernest Hemingway, I wouldn’t mind playing a set of tennis with his son
Jack (who almost singlehandedly created the funding to purchase the land on
the Silver Creek Preserve), and if the opportunity presented itself, maybe wet
a line together. Ill admit it is a dream, but I’m a fly fisherman, and great
dreams are part of what always takes us to the mystery of water and the promise
of great trout.
For more information on fishing in the Sun Valley area, contact
any of these outfitters: Lost Rivers Outfitters, Ketchum, (208) 726-1706; Sun
Valley Outfitters, Sun Valley, (208) 622-3400; or Silver Creek Outfitters, Ketchum,
(208) 726-5282.
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