IDAHO WHITEFISH

WHITEFISH OF IDAHO

A DELICACY

Another fish tale this time by Horace Sutton, of the Field Syndicate,

Macray, Idaho. Telling of his experience with ' whitefish' his only

face to face meeting was with one which was lying in state in a deli

window for $4.97 a pound and included he bones.

This was before he met up with William Mason, who when he can't find

trout will take you to whitefish.

Mason, a tie-flyer extraordinaire, a real fish finder, and one of four

top fly fishing guides in the country who Horace joins one day

going north along Trail Creek, then NE along Summit Creek, then

south along Wild Horse Creek, where a sheep shepherd with a great

herd of 'mutton' stopped us dead in our tracks until he and his dogs

worked the flock around our vehicle, a feat worthy of the hour wait.

Next we forsook White horse Creek and followed the East Fork of

the Big Lost River.

We stopped and Mason announced, “this is the place”. Here we got our

gear together, next into the “seen better days” rubber chest high wading

boots, the “seen better days rubber” does not give off the odor of new

yellow rubber” and scare the whitefish off for a day or so. Yes, next, with

all the gear and the rubber boots we needed to get over an old rusty barbed

wire fence.

Resting up a bit from 'getting there' you are now ready to fish, so to

speak. A 'sip' of Black Label Jack Dainiels is a big help. Mason now

opens his jacket to get to his vest. His vest, never you mind, has hanging

more doodads, scissors, clippers, and a thermometer . Yes, a thermometer,

the water needs to be between 63 and 67 degree for the trout to be real

hungry. I don't know what we do if the water is too cool or too warm. Sip

on the Jack Daniels I guess.

A most important item of our equipment is the battered aluminum box

with six drawers . Called a FRY Box it holds assorted flies.

We are fishing with Masons caddles tupa, looks like a caddisfly

in its underwater stage of life. The fly that looks like the caddisfly in adult

stage is called a buck caddis.

Dry fly fishing calls for a chemical spray that makes flies float

on water.

In our 'seen better days” rubber we attempt to ford the river, slippery

rocks and all, by 'hanging on” to each other, a real circus. Now in mid

stream we cast into the dark corners for trout,, which are off today, but,

we do have whitefish, 8 of them, six are keepers, all day from early

morning, time out for a lunch, and a sip of Jack. Market price worth

$47.00 but Mr Mason gets $75 for his counsel, transportation, and all

salami sandwiches and cold wine one can comsume.

Mason teaches fly fishing in Ketchum and Sun Valley with his sidekick

Jack Hemingway, another eminent fly fisherman. Yes, Jack is the son of

Ernest and father of Margaux , the million dollar model.

Jack likes to tell everyone he was someones son for 50 years and now is

someone father. Mason says the fish have no favorites but seem to like

Jack as himself.

ABSTRACT: 21 October 2018 by Harrison H of Sunday New Journal of

October 19 1975 written by Horace Sutton.