Submitted by Brandon Huerta on
Fished the lower river below Eagle and all I can say is I am glad it was a nice day because the fishing was just that fishing not catching. I searched out some water that I had not ran a fly through before in hopes of finding some new glory holes. Can't say that I hit gold but I can say that there is some extremely nice winter holding water and great banks to run nymphs and streamers through. There was nothing happening as far as surface activity. I managed to see one small fish raise his nose above water. There were some midges dancing around but apparently not enough to coax up any decent number of heads. A friend fishing with me managed to bring in few small rainbows nymphing a pheasant tail under a black woolly bugger, but other than that it was just a walk through the water. With all this said the Boise river like many rivers are going to be hit and miss through the winter and the low water season. The best advise for this time of the year is three things, 1st if you find fish up take your time and try to pick some of them off because the main game is sub surface so enjoy these windows of top water activity. 2nd throw streamers with confidence there are plenty of fish eager to eat a big fly. We have all seen the pictures of a 20" fish with a 8" fish hanging halfway out of it's mouth, I don't think your 2"-3" streamer is going to scare it away. 3rd if you are after max potential of catching fish nymph, nymph, and keep nymph. Mix up your bugs until you find the special for the day. Good luck and have fun.
