Good old Riley Creek

So there is a huge difference between the creek running through the state property and the creek coming in on the federal property. Riley Creek running through the state property is more suited for the spin fishing community where the creek, ponds, and lakes are more conducive to and easily available to that style of fishing. The creek that runs through the federal property is more conducive to the dry fly angler. Here the creek is shallow, filled with biomass making nymphing or worm fishing difficult at best. But it is Riley Creek on the federal property where the joy of dry fly fishing takes place.

During the spring and fall there is a consistent Blue Winged Olive Mayfly and a nice Midge hatch on the creek near the federal hatchery that happens daily on the creek. This section of the creek, where the road to the hatchery crosses the creek, is where I fished Riley Creek for the first time. It was in the spring and after the short drive from Boise I rolled over the bridge crossing Riley Creek and parked. As I got out to stretch my legs, I walked the short distance from my truck to the bridge. What I saw amazed me. There were trout rising all up and down the creek. At that time it was obvious these trout were feeding on Blue Winged Olive Mayflies in a size 20.

Sitting in my camp chair putting on my waders I just stared at the consistency of how these trout were feeding. I tied on a classic BWO dry fly and marched down the creek to get in on the action. My first cast was perfect, landing my dry fly right in the middle of a pod of feeding trout. I watched cast after cast land perfectly, but none rose to my fly. It soon became apparent these trout were not feeding on the adult but were instead eating the emergent BWO as it floated on or just under the surface. The next fly I tied on was a size 20 BWO soft hackle. Using a soft hackle drift my rod quickly bent and a small 10 inch rainbow was captured on my first try with the soft hackle BWO.

I have been using that same fly, a Soft Hackle, for both the Blue Winged Olive hatch and the Midge hatch on Riley Creek ever since. I have tried other flies both emerger and dry patterns from time to time, even recently using a small streamer, but I always start and end using a Soft Hackle anywhere between size 18 and 22 depending on the hatch. I can usually fish the federal section of Riley Creek in about an hour and a half. If I arrive in the morning I will usually end my session there with lunch. If I do not want to move on to the state side I will do another session and just repeat where and how I fished it in the morning.