STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATE DALY
With water levels dropping on local rivers and creeks, it’s getting easier to wade in the Wood River Valley these days, which could mean more anglers competing to find enough room to catch fish.
“The Big Wood River is increasingly popular and increasingly crowded,” longtime Silver Creek Outfitters owner Terry Ring told Eye on Sun Valley.
But abide by some simple fishing etiquette and rules, and everyone can have a good time, he added.
“If you see two to three cars at an access point, you may want to go to a different place,” he suggests.
That said, at peak times there may be people fishing at all the access points, and private homeowners may be fishing, too. That’s when a conversation should happen among anglers, he said: “Respect others the way you’d like to be treated. Respect their space.”
We share our ski runs and hiking trails increasingly, he said, and waterways should be handled in a similar fashion: “Be courteous and proactive and willing to share.”
Ring notes that the Big Wood is a series of ripples and pools where it’s sometimes necessary to cover a large swath to find optimal conditions.
“But no hole hopping somebody; give them plenty of space,” he adds.
Ring credits county commissioners for having the foresight years ago to make access a priority: “When private land along the Big Wood River in particular was being developed, they sought to preserve equestrian, pedestrian and fishing access.”
Most public access points are clearly marked with signs. Access maps are available at local fishing shops and are posted online. The maps show and explain where the dozens of public access points and easements are located in the Wood River Valley and also provide some guidelines.
Idaho Fish and Game publishes reminders on what is permissible when passing through private property. Online the agency defines a navigable stream “in its natural high-water condition, will float logs or any other… floatable commodity” including small craft. Navigable streams are considered public transportation corridors, where the public has the right of way to access and exit at certain points but can also travel through private property by keeping below the high-water mark on the banks. If manmade obstacles, such as a fence, dam or bridge block the way, it’s okay to take the shortest path around them.
In Idaho the trespass law states “the burden is on the individual to know where the private property is; it does not have to be posted.”
Fish and Game patrols to check if anglers have fishing licenses and to enforce the rules. For example, what’s permitted on the Big Wood River between the SNRA Visitor Center and Greenhorn Bridge on Highway 75 is catch and release with the use of artificial flies and lures and single barbless hooks. No bait fishing is allowed.
South of that down to the Glendale Bridge in Bellevue, bait fishing is allowed, and there is a two trout catch limit except for fish measuring between 12 and 16 inches. Those must be released.
Ring calls the Big Wood a remarkably resilient river considering how much fishing it hosts and the amount of development along the river. Drought years and heat have had a huge impact on the size of the fish, he says, but the river recovers well.
“We’re catching a lot of smaller fish. The big ones are harder to come by, may be a lower population,” he notes.
Still, he’s optimistic for the future because floods make rivers healthy, and this year the smaller fish indicate good recruitment.
“It’s a class,” he says.