Malad River, ID
Mouth upstream to first bridge
Outing Information
- Date
- Start/End Time
- 7:30pm to 9:30pm
- Best Fishing Time
- -
- Rating
- Fair
- Classification
- Public
- Water Temp
- -
- Water Clarity
- Clear - 5'+ visibility
- Water Level
- low
- User
- Jason Hansen
Fish Caught
Rainbow Trout
| Caught | Avg Size | Pattern | Optional Fields |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8" | #16 Ginger Emergent Sparkle Pupa | |
| 6 | 8" | #16 Gray Emergent Sparkle Pupa |
Notable Fish: 12" Fish Depth: < 1' Water Depth: 1' - 3' Notes: Fished pupa as dropper behind Elk Hair Caddis |
| 7 | 8" |
Weather
| Skies | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny | X | ||
| Precipitation | |||
| None | X | ||
| Wind | |||
| Medium - 10 to 15 knots | X | ||
| Heavy - 15+ knots | X |
- Air Temp High/Low
- 90.0°F / 85.0°F
- Wind Direction
- -
- Weather Front
- -
- Barometer
- -
- Moon Phase
- 41% Full (Waxing crescent)
Other Patterns Tried
- #16 Pheasant Tail
- Tan Elk Hair Caddis
- #12 Brown Bivisible
Hatches
- #14 brown head, yellow body ? Unidentified Caddisfly Trichoptera unknown
Insect Seining
- #16-#28 Green Rock Worm Trichoptera Rhyacophila
- #14-#16 yellow body, amber shuck, brown ? Unidentified Caddisfly Trichoptera unknown
- #18-#20 dark brown back, tan stomach ? Unidentified Mayfly Ephemeroptera unknown
Fishing Partners
No fishing partners were saved with this outing.
Waypoints
No waypoints were saved with this outing.
Tides
No tide information was saved with this outing.
Notes
I went fishing on the Malad last night. When I got there, I was the only person, so I thought I had the river to myself. I started off by stalking through some tall grass to where some carp were rising - they are big fish and I just wanted to catch one. This wasn't the prime hole, but I wanted to try to catch a big carp before I moved on to the better holes. It was windy as hell with a couple caddis skittering along the top, so I put on a bivisible and had 3 hits on it, one of which was a carp. All 3 got off. One problem with the bivisible is it's hard to get a good hook set with it. I then went to an elk hair caddis and a ginger emergent sparkle pupa and caught one 8" trout on the pupa with a splash or two on the caddis. I was surprised that the adult caddis didn't get more splashes. Then again, trout weren't slashing most of the adults I saw on the water, either. I changed the dropper and put on small nymphs and had no luck. After awhile I put a #18 gray emergent sparkle pupa on and had 3 rises in maybe 4 casts, missing all fish, before getting a good trout on. I was trying to not get into the water, and as a result, the fish was able to run my line under a rock and snapped the dropper off and was free. :( I put on another #16 pupa and caught 3 or so 8" fish out of the hole before it died off. I tried going down to the mouth where it dumps into the Snake and wouldn't you know it, someone was there. So I start fishing/wading upstream to the one big, good hole on this section of river. I was able to pluck the occasional 8-10" fish out of pocket water - almost all of the fish hit the pupa, not the adult caddis. I get up to a little below the big hole and wouldn't you know it, someone is fishing there! Fucker. I waded back downstream back to my original hole and now someone was in that one!!! So I had to climb out of the river and walk upstream a ways to some okay water, but not great. That pissed me off. And by this time, it's very close to dark. I focused on a small section of river and saw a 12" fish splash behind a rock. A few casts later I had the fish on the pupa. I caught a few other smaller fish as well.
So unfortunately, I wasn't able to fish a prime hole as it got dark with the caddis hatch. That saddened me. But I did keep the 12" fish because I wanted to see what he had been eating. I cut open his gullet when I got home and here's what I found, in order of number found:
lots and lots of vegetation packed into the stomach
13 mayfly nymphs - #18-#20 - dark brown backs, tan undersides
10+ green rockworms - #16-#28 (tiny)
5 caddisfly pupa - #14-#16 - yellow bodies, amber to lt brown shucks, brown wings and head
2 caddisfly adult - #14 - yellow bodies, tan wings
1 2" long, 1/32" wide skinny worm, light brown/cream
1 potato bug
What's interesting about the above? First, I was surprised at how much vegetation was packed into the stomach. I imagine this means that trout see occasional small clumps of vegetation in the current and eat them because:
- they need the bulk to push food through their system, or
- they know many small insects are embedded in the vegetation
Second, I was surprised at how many small nymphs were in the stomach. One thing to note, though - the 7 caddisflies had close to, if not more, the same bulk as all of the rockworms and mayflies combined. The trout would have to see them as a much more substantial meal.
One thing I'm trying to figure out now is why I had success with the gray emergent sparkle pupa. I did have a brown and yellow pupa pattern that would have been a better color match, but of course I didn't try it. :) But the gray did substantially better than the ginger when I was starting off, yet there were no gray caddisflies in the stomach. Maybe it was just a closer match than the light-colored fly.