Written by: Leland Miyawaki
photo by Earl Harper
Many of us have been meeting to fish together for over 30 years. We’ve rendezvoused on the Green, San Juan, and Crowsnest rivers, to the Blackfoot and Crowley Lakes, and now we meet yearly on the Nunya* River in Idaho. Dick Dahlgren, on the far right, built the cabin from three turn-of-the-century abandoned cowboy cabins that he found, photographed, numbered, tore down, and re-assembled as one. He has since built three more outbuildings—the saloon, flophouse, and trappers cabin.
We’ve been meeting here every March, and the river is always the same—low and clear—and only the amount of snow changes. The fishing is relaxed, easygoing and 5X dry. Nobody counts fish because there are so many. Only those fish that have a story matter.
The hatches are always size 18 midges at 11a.m. and size 20 BWOs at 1p.m. By 4PM, we’re sitting around the fire drinking whisky, smoking cigars and catching up with the past year: showing scars from recent operations and discussing new divorces, marriages, children, rehabs, and deaths. Mostly it feels like we’ve never been away.
* Nunya Business
Leland Miyawaki is the former Fishing Manager at Orvis Bellevue.