This is America’s Best Wild River Trip | DIY Idaho | 5 days Fly Fishing Hiking & Backpacking

I'm happy you guys discovered Big Hole to end the trip. It's really something down there.
At either end of your journey, you were not far from what this Idaho boy considers even better water. Just a handful of miles of dirt road past Dagger and the dredge, the real real Idaho awaits.
Congrats, you did an excellent job figuring out one little piece of the best of the best.

Any rainbow 20" and up are considered steelhead in any water that naturally contains steelhead in ID.

Great video. I just thought I might add a little info. From the Wild Salmon Center's research in Kamchatka, they've determined a healthy (rainbow) trout river, that can lead to the ocean, will have some trout that go out and become steelhead, and some will stay resident rainbows. There will be a healthy, genetic diversity. I can assure you 100% that your large trout was a large, resident rainbow. First, check the spots that are all over the fish. In general, an steelhead will have spots only above the lateral line, with some exceptions (central California valley steelhead). Second, the size. To make the trip from Idaho, across 7 dams, and back to Idaho the adult fish must be large, about 7 pounds and above. This just makes sense. There are some rivers (Klamath, Trinity, Rogue), where there are a prevalent number of "half-pounder" steelhead of the 14" to 22" size, and some of these are sexually mature. But This is not the case for any steelhead that would have to make a 900 mile return trip to the ocean. Hope this helps. Thanks again for a great video!

What rod were you using to throw the streamers for the bull trout? Thanks!

Thanks for documenting this trip. What a grind, was awesome to watch and your commentary was a huge addition to af awesome video.

Great footage guys! Love to come back to Idaho as i was there in '92. Would love to have a trip like this before turning to old ;-)❤

Amazing Story! Well told. Interesting and entertaining. Worth every bit of watching for two hours. Thanks,

I’ve hunted and fished this drainage, such a magical area!

You guys should come to southern alberta cutties in the 16 to 20 inch are everywhere

Need to bobber fish it .. with big stones way more productive than streamers

Video great! Fishing greay! YOU... Please shut up!!!!!

Thimbleberry! Also grows in the U.P., trudged through it on the Keweenaw on my way to a remote stretch of Lake Superior shore to two-hand chuck some huge spoons in hope of shore cruising trout. No luck but the scenery was A+

I don’t even know that much about fly fishing but I love being outside and I love the long form way that you’ve document of the trip and I’ve been watching every minute of the video when I have time throughout the day and is bringing me a lot of relaxation and enjoyment

Don't move to Alaska. All we do is work all summer and maybe get a weekend to fish. Seriously in this video you equal my last 3 years of time on the river and Im an avid fisherman. Great video, we call Bull trout Dollys and I can catch them by the truck full here, no Cutts but we have nice Rainbows and Steelhead.

Really a great video. Well done!!!

Nice! I grew up fishing and backpacking in that area. Love it! Im in darby montana now if yall ever need a pad to crash at to fish put of for a night or two.

Great review.

In the Northwest a rainbow trout 20” or longer is considered a steelhead in water that supports steelhead migration.

The worm like parasite that you pulled out of the gills of the cutthroat near the end of the video was a horse-hair worm (Nematomorpha). They are parasitic but not in the way you might think. They actually grow in the gut of a grasshopper and before they mature, release a neurochemical that causes the hopper (or cricket, beetle, etc) to kill itself by drowning. Once in the water, the horse-hair worm bursts from the dead hopper to complete it's life cycle as an aquatic organism. What often happens is that a fish intercepts the hopper before the worm can burst from its host. The worm has evolved to escape the gut of the fish by moving up the esophagus and out the gills or mouth of the fish. This is what you witnessed and captured on camera. The neatest part about this really cool organism is that it is part of a parasite-driven, terrestrial energy supplement into the aquatic food web. As fly anglers, we often think that hoppers are crappy fliers and get blown into the streams to become trout food. Although that is largely true, many of the hoppers the fish are eating were forced to jump into the stream intentionally by a parasite that highjacked their brain. Some studies have shown a statistically significant number of hoppers are infected with these parasites in some areas. Supper cool that you caught part of this process on camera and caught the fish with your own hopper imitation. I witnessed this as a kid on a stream in Idaho as well. These types of experiences led me to a career in aquatic ecology. I currently work at a university in Massachusetts teaching this stuff. Your video reminds me of why I got started in my career in the first place. Thank you!

Awesome video! Thank you. I currently live is Massachusetts but grew up in central Idaho. That video took me back home and put a smile on my face. Beautiful area, incredible river and fish. Very well done!

Just a point of clarification, those little rainbows are not yet steelhead smolts. The smoltification process includes physiological and morphological changes necessary for these young fish to survive in the ocean. The process occurs in out-migrating juveniles in the spring as they start migrating toward the ocean. Smolts look much different than their resident counterparts. The little rainbows you were catching may indeed migrate to the ocean as outgoing steelhead smolts some day but some of them may stay as resident fluvial rainbows. Either way, calling them a rainbow is absolutely correct, since that is what they are at any life stage.

Again, awesome video! Well done!

Great show love it 💕

Mike, best one yet. Remember when you were going to school in Wisc and would sneak away to the Driftless. Glad to see you are still dreaming and making it happen when life allows

Awesome video!!! As a mexican who grew up fishing for rainbow trout in Central Mexico. And right after migrating to the USA staring learning fly fishing and going on road trips around the west! I remember my first time traveling to eastern Sierra in California for Golden trout then up to Oregon and Washington for steelhead and later going to Montana and Idaho for westlope Cutthroat. But driving throughout Central Idaho and seeing these Chinook salmon spawning at the head waters of the Salmon River is something just mind blowing. Especially if you have driven from the coast all the way to the Sawtooth mountains. You just can't but admire these beautiful anodromuos fish!

I am 72 and I lived in Idaho for 65 years. I fished most of the water you showed, loved seeing it again, especially Marsh Creek and it's stellar westslope!
Nice job, thanks!

Excellent video. I watched the whole video in one setting and that says a lot of how it kept my interest to keep watching. Great work on the video capturing, editing and narration. You both did a great job and tight lines to you.

What a brilliant film, thank you.

Looks like the entire state have burned down

Great camera work with your tripod set up. I really enjoy seeing the large vistas when you film the two of you fishing.

I just got here. Dude the vocabulary usage is top notch. I love it. Art in itself.

Nice video, and quite entertaining.

Bull trout spawn in early fall, and have usually left the main stem for the tribs by late August. That probably explains why you only found small bulls.

The wife and I watched the full video last evening. Very nice adventure. Cheers.

Great video - thanks for making it. …What happened with that bear attack?!

You have a fantastic talent for narration, and I enjoy watching all your videos. Fishing is only apart of the entire outdoor experience and natural beauty of the chronicles you create. Wonderful

Awesome guys . You have to follow your passions in life . Only way to live .

Thanks for taking us on your adventure. Beautiful scenery and trout.

Awesome video! That was definitely a resident rainbow and not a steelhead. Steelhead don’t have spots below the lateral line 👍

new sub....and I'm really enjoying what you call nerdiness, but your love of fish and explaining the salmon and how important seeing them return that far from the ocean is really amazing, so awesome, thank you for the great content!!

In 1965 this Chicago kid drove to Idaho on summer break to my summer job with the Forest Service as a surveyor. Our station was on the North Fork of the Clearwater. A novice fly fisher at that time, I honed my skills on the native cutthroat. Then in 1990 I took a trip with my wife and we went back to our old station. The cabin was long gone, but the trout were still there and willing to take a fly.

Definitely a rainbow. Not a steelhead. They are much bigger

Your videos are so boring if your older in age you've seen this 1million times nothing new to learn to even give guidance on please come uo with newer better stuff for the fishing world

Spent a couple of months in the Payette National Park... Gorgeous country

This was dope af. Very informative

This is epicccc.. side note.. do you use a solar portable charger for your phone on these trips?

Gratuliere zu diesen tollen Abenteuer! Klasse Fische und grandiose Natur. 👏👏👏👍👍👍

Wonderful editing, very enjoyable to watch. Casting those huge articulated streamers must've been difficult.

this was amazing, well done man

I’ve fished this spot since I was 14 and was there 2 weeks before this video was made!
Now my kids are enjoying what I call my second backyard. We also met Mr. Bear!

Best way to keep my mindset on fishing while waiting for the snow to melt here in Southeast Idaho!