Brook Trout -  Moose Creek Idaho
A beautiful wild brook trout from Moose Creek, one of Idaho's formerly secret waters (photo: Chris Hunt).

Sitting on a beach in Mexico after a fine day of bonefishing, it's hard to listen to Trout Unlimited's National Communications Director and Hatch Magazine contributor Chris Hunt's good-hearted lamentation regarding the long travels involved in getting from his home in the Rocky Mountain west to good bonefishing waters. As a resident of the smog, traffic and people-choked east coast, I'm in a perpetual state of jealousy towards those who call the preposterously trouty waters of the mountain west home. After all, they get to call some of the nation's best trout streams their home waters, streams the rest of us get to fish a few days each year, if we're even that lucky.

Thankfully, most of those folks -- Chris included -- are imprudently loose-lipped about their nearby rivers and streams, regardless of how counter-intuitive being so might seem. They share them with us through photographs, articles, even books that go into great detail about where to find them and how to fish them. While this is most likely because they've never seen opening day on Pennsylvania Approved Trout Waters, we can continue to absorb and subsequently leverage the knowledge these folks share until they wise up.

Hunt's latest foray into foolhardy sharing isn't about the mighty Snake which flows not far from where his head hits his pillow, or about the storied waters of Yellowstone which lay just a short car ride away, but instead about the many hidden gems that course through his home state of Idaho -- itself a hidden gem amongst the west's more notorious trout fishing states like Montana and Wyoming. That's right, not just another naive westerner offering up new or alternative information on the spots we already knew we should head out to help crowd this summer, but instead calling our attention to all the secret spots we've been missing.

About Fly Fishing Idaho's Secret Waters, Hunt notes, “This book could be viewed as a guidebook, but what I really hope to accomplish with it is to get anglers to crack the atlas and really see for themselves how much water is out there to be fished. With a little effort, the reader will be able to find his or her own secret waters, just by taking a look at the streams I’ve profiled and maybe doing some exploring on their own by following some of those blue lines on the map and seeing what’s in them.”

“I’m pretty lucky to be able to fish all over the country,” Hunt said, “but when I actually get to take the time and spend it in my home state, I’m never disappointed. Idaho is an amazing place, and for anglers, it’s probably the best-kept secret in the Lower 48.”

Well, at least it was.

Get your hands on this thing before someone smartens up and pulls it.

Comments

I can't wait to get my copy. Thanks for sharing the secret! =)

Given that you're in Idaho, you've got no excuse not to have that copy signed. :)

Even more so that I personally know Chris, and have fished with him before. I think he should have just handed me the book himself. lol

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