Malad River, ID
From little bridge upstream to big bridge
Outing Information
- Date
- Start/End Time
- noon to 5:00pm
- Best Fishing Time
- 2:00pm to 4:30pm
- Rating
- Good
- Classification
- Public
- Water Temp
- 59.0°F
- Water Clarity
- Clear - 5'+ visibility
- Water Level
- low
- User
- Jason Hansen
Pictures
Fish Caught
Rainbow Trout
| Caught | Avg Size | Pattern | Optional Fields |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 11" | #14 Olive Elk Hair Caddis | |
| 3 | 11" | #18 Blue Disco Midge | |
| 3 | 11" | #18 Black Zebra Midge | |
| 4 | 11" | #14 Cased Caddis | |
| 3 | 11" | #16 Ginger Deep Sparkle Pupa | |
| 1 | 11" | #16 Copper John | |
| 2 | 11" | #16 Olive Micro Mayfly Nymph (Mercer) | |
| 24 | 11" |
Weather
| Skies | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny | X | ||
| Precipitation | |||
| None | X | ||
| Wind | |||
| Very Light - <5 knots | X | ||
| Light - 5 to 10 knots | X | ||
| Medium - 10 to 15 knots | X |
- Air Temp High/Low
- 70.0°F / 60.0°F
- Wind Direction
- -
- Weather Front
- -
- Barometer
- -
- Moon Phase
- 81% Full (Waxing gibbous)
Other Patterns Tried
- #14 Yellow Stimulator
- #8 Black Woolly Bugger BH
Hatches
- #14-#16 gray body, speckled wing ? Unidentified Caddisfly Trichoptera unknown
Insect Seining
No seining information for this outing.
Fishing Partners
Karl SlothWaypoints
No waypoints were saved with this outing.
Tides
No tide information was saved with this outing.
Notes
I started off fishing the main hole below the first little bridge upstream from the mouth. There were fish rising occasionally and caddis were all about, but I decided to start nymphing with a BH cased caddis about 2 1/2' down and zebra midgeling another 2' below that, both as droppers off a Stimulator. I got quite a few splashes on the stimulator but no fish. The nymphing was also pretty slow going. I tried changing nymph setups and continued to fish the main hole for quite awhile before deciding to heed my own advice and try to cover a lot of water on small, freestone streams. Little freestone streams seem different than big rivers where you can camp in one spot for quite awhile, so I decided to move quickly up the river and not fish one spot too long.
I switched setups to an Elk Hair Caddis with a 2' dropper to various flies (I switched flies all day trying stuff) and worked my way upstream, spending a few minutes at each little pocket I encountered. It turned out to be a very fun day fishing the Malad. The wind was a pain to deal with and made casting a real chore on such a small river.
One thing I noticed is usually the first several casts I made into a new pocket or small run resulted in strikes or fish. But if I continued to fish the run after that, I would rarely get strikes. I think the combination of pulling a couple fish out of a pocket would scare the rest of the fish, along with my presence, and my continued casting and plopping little nymphs in the same area would spook fish. But the fish were definitely aggressive and most hits were on the elk hair caddis. I did catch a couple fish where the fish splashed the caddis and I went to set the hook and would pull the caddis away, but the dropper line would follow their mouth and the dropper would hook the fish in the mouth.