The Finest Fly Fishing in North America
The Lodge at Palisades Creek provides our valued guests professional fly fishing guides whom have the highest level of knowledge here on the South Fork of the Snake River. Further, we demand the highest level of professionalism on and off the river to ensure your experience with The Lodge at Palisades Creek is a trip worth remembering for a lifetime.
The morning of your fishing trip you will meet up with your fly fishing guide at our complete Orvis Tackle Shop. The Lodge at Palisades Creek Tackle Shop is operated by a knowledgeable, and courteous fly shop staff. The shop staff will assist you with any equipment you may like to purchase for your day on the river. General recommendations include: Sun Screen, Lip Balm, a hat and potentially a light jacket to keep you warm in the morning and for the outside chance of wind or rain.
Reservations for individual guides must be made in advance of the guest's arrival. There is no guarantee that we can provide you with absolute selection of your guide, however we will do everything in our power to meet your every request through out your stay here.
Guided Fly Fishing Day Trips are also available for non-lodge guests, and can be booked directly with the Lodge in advanced and the morning of in some circumstances.
Jaason was born in Aberdeen, S.D and traveled the world in his adolescence. Living in places like Scotland, Indiana, Chicago, and southern California. He made Swan Valley his permanent home in 1994. His career with the Lodge began the following year at the tender age of 18. Jaason has been a mentor and a leader since then and is currently the Lodge at Palisades Creek's head guide. Jaason has achieved the top guide in the Jackson Hole One Fly for the Idaho section in 2003, as well as The Carmichael Award for outstanding performance as a guide in both Idaho and Wyoming through the Jackson Hole One Fly 2009.
Jaason's favorite fly is called the "J-Slam". A fly he designed to imitate the prolific golden stonefly on our beautiful river. One of his favorite times fishing is with his son, Traason. The look on his son's face and the enthusiasm Traason expresses confirms, he is "a chip off the old block". Jaason's better half, Stephanie, their daughter Kambree and son Traason spend the off season enjoying this special place you have come to visit and they call "Home".
Jaason creates an incredible experience for our guests by matching their goals and abilities with the appropriate guides. He has a complete understanding of the various levels of fishing and the need to provide our guests with a memory of a lifetime. From beginners to family's to the world traveler, he can discuss any special requirements or opportunities with you to make sure your stay with us exceeds your expectations!
I started fishing when I was only five years old. (no fly rod then, just a bobber and worm) from then on I was hooked. My uncle taught me how to use a fly rod when I was about 14 or so. We fished for large mouth bass and other warm water fish. It wasn't until I was about sixteen that I started fishing for trout and that was all I wanted to do after that. At the the age of 23 I decided to leave everything behind and moved to Idaho. After a few months I was hired on at The Lodge at Palisades Creek, and have been there ever since. I am now the Fly shop manager and I guide as many days as I can. It was a very good choice moving out here because I met my wonderful wife, and now have a wonderful son together.
One Fly for the S.F: Hopper dropper...oh wait that's two flies.
Chris Jensen grew up fishing the South Fork with his Grandpa, Dad, and Uncles after his grandparents retired in Swan Valley to be close to great fishing and recreational opportunities. His grandpa always told him that when he was old enough and had a boat he could come live with them and work as a guide. His parents got him a used boat as a high-school graduation present and the rest is history.
Chris started his guide career at J & J outfitters in Irwin which was purchased by Hyde Outfitters. Chris spent several years guiding at Hyde Outfitters on the South Fork, Henry's Fork and the Teton rivers before joining the Lodge at Palisades Creek full time in 1999. He has spent time fishing and guiding in Venezuela, The Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, Chile, and Argentina. When Chris isn't guiding you might find him at the car wash he owns and operates in Victor or selling real estate for Countrywide Properties. He and his wife Jenny live in Driggs with their son Grady.
Most memorable day on the river.
"Several years ago I had the opportunity to take an Italian couple down the canyon, they spoke almost no English and I don't speak any Italian but the river was fishing well and the international language of fly fishing took over. We ended up fishing several Italian CDC flies that they had tied that I didn't think would work, but they hammered the fish. There were a lot of high fives, smiles, laughing, and pictures. The river and the fish did all the communication we required for a great day on the river."
My favorite fly on the South Fork - a size 2 neon orange Midge Emerger
My most memorable day on the South Fork - during an intense caddis hatch in the Canyon in 2003, my clients caught 60 whitefish on 51 casts using double rigged size 2 neon orange Midge Emergers.
Boots Allen is a third generation fishing guide whose family has significantly contributed to the development of the fly fishing industry in Wyoming since the 1920s. He began guiding for his father and uncle while still in high school and recently completed his 19th season of guiding on the streams of western Wyoming and eastern Idaho. Boots has penned a variety of articles for national fly fishing magazines, including Fly Tyer, Fly Fishing and Tying Journal, Sports Afield, The Drake, and has been a featured personality in regional and national television programs. He is the author of the Snake River Fly Fishing: Through the Eyes of an Angler (2010).
Among his numerous accomplishments are:
High Score Guide, Jackson Hole One-Fly, 2004, 2005, and 2008. Second Place High Score Guide, Jackson Hole One-Fly, 2007. Carmichael-Cohen Memorial Guide Award, 2007.
Boots is well known for his creative dry flies and streamers and has developed patterns for Umpqua Feather Merchants and the Orvis Company. His passion for fishing and guiding has taken him to some of the furthest reaches that a rod can take an individual. Guiding for 25 lb sea-run brown trout in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, is one thing. But he has also swung tube flies to 30 lb. steelhead in British Columbia, stalked 40 plus-inch Taimen on the streams of Mongolia and Kazakhstan, skirted mouse patterns across Siberian streams in Russia for 30 inch Lenok, and stripped Bucktails in Costa Rica for giant rooster fish.
While not guiding, Boots keeps himself busy as co-producer of documentary films for Jah Trout Productions, a media group whose films focus on fly fishing lifestyle and culture and the link the sport has to the protection of sport fish. Jah Trout's’s films include End of the Road, which explores Taimen in Mongolia and the conservation efforts underway their to protect the specie, and Why We Go: Fishing in the Hole, which examines the Snake River in Wyoming and Idaho and local conservation efforts aimed at protecting native cutthroat. Jah Trout’s most recent film is Where Hope Resides (2009). This film explores the magic of the British Columbia’s Skeena River system, its world class steelhead and salmon fishery, and the threat it faces from commercial fishing and mining in the headwaters.
If you only had one fly on the South Fork: Lawson's PMD Emerger
In 2004 I started guiding in Northern California on the Lower Sacramento, Yuba, and Feather Rivers for rainbows and steelhead. When I started guiding I was working to help put myself through college. Once I graduated in 2006 I decided to pursue this passion of mine full time. The last three years in California has been a time of trial and triumph as I continue to build my business called RJ's Fly Trips. I have been extremely blessed with a great base of clientele. In 2009 I was lucky enough to be on the water 200+ days. Hopefully this business will continue to increase as I push forward into the years ahead.
The winter of 2006 I decided to apply to an array of different outfitters on the South Fork of the Snake. I always had a desire to spend my summers throwing dry flies to rising trout in Idaho. Thankfully the Lodge at Palisades Creek is where I landed up. This is one of the best things that has ever happened to my wife and I. The management, staff, and guides are all great people and we have quickly become friends with most everyone there. Since 2006 I have been coming back every summer and I plan on doing so as long as possible. When you love my job as much as I do then there is no reason to stop.
This spring of 2009 I started a 501©(3) nonprofit organization called Cast Hope. Cast Hope is a fly fishing nonprofit that takes at-risk underprivileged youth and their families fly fishing for the day. The goal of Cast Hope is to create a situation where kids and their mentors can have a bonding experience through fly fishing. Cast Hope is serving the father/son, mother/daughter, grandfather/grandson, and mentor/mentee relationships. We are taking kids and their mentors out on the boat and teaching them how to fly fish, the proper way to cast, how to set the hook, the entomology of the river, and the gentle ecosystem that we have been given. We are showing the fisherman of tomorrow that we have a responsibility to take care of our natural resources. Our organization gives mentors and youth a free day of guided fly fishing on the river. If you want more information then please refer to www.casthope.org. On the website you can find a promotional video, additional information, and ways to help out.
My most memorable day on the river came during June of 2006. I was fishing with fellow guide Pat Kelly on the Byington to Lorenzo drift down in Section 4. It was a wet, rainy, and cold day on the river. But that did not stop the fish from eating. This day was the best day of streamer fishing I have ever had in my life. Pat and I probably hooked 70+ fish between the two of us. Because of this day I am addicted to the grab. Cast that big streamer on the bank. If nothing eats it in the first five strips. Then throw it back up there. Your arm might be sore by the end of the day but when that monster brown moves on your streamer all of that pain is gone in an instance. Strip! Strip! Strip!
http://wwwjoshheileson.blogspot.com/
Josh was born and raised right here in Idaho and was lucky enough to grow up hunting and fishing the region. Josh has been working here at The Lodge at Palisades Creek as a fly fishing guide since the summer of 2008. "I just love to be on the water, mostly fly fishing the south fork. You might find me ice fishing, wading the shallows of a local lake, casting to carp or floating the salmon river in search of steelhead. As long as I am on the water and there are fish involved I am a happy boy."
If I had to pick one fly on South Fork, it would be The Rusty Emerger
As many “natives” will attest, I visited this area in the early 1990s to experience the vast and wonderful fly fishing in area rivers and lakes. I was so totally blown away that I moved here and have not looked back. As many of my compatriots, I denied myself a real job to become a fishing guide. That was years ago and now I find myself, again, rowing the South Fork of the Snake River as I feel it is the single best fishery in the Rockies.
I have met the richest people in the world and rowed them down the sparkling Snake. On many occasions, they say that “I have the life!” I agree. There is a fine line between love and work while guiding. I am truly blessed to be a part of the Lodge at Palisades Creek and be able to follow the lead of the ever-changing and world class South Fork of the Snake River.
If I had to fish one fly I couldn't do it, but I would pick a Clouser Minnow, or a Parachute Hopper for a dry fly.
Rollin has been in Idaho going on 15 years and prefers to soak Streamers deep into dark homes of big trout. The stretch of river between Wolf and Heise on the South Fork of the Snake River is one of his favorite stretches of river...no doubt because of the dark pocket banks.
I will never forget king salmon fishing in Alaska with my Dad and catching such a large fish in fast water on my fly rod.
If I had to pick one fly to fish for the South Fork: Chernobyl Ant. In my opinion it is one of the most versatile flies out there, easy and fun to fish, and just plain works sometimes when nothing else does.
I grew up fishing the South Fork, and after fishing in a lot of other places I can honestly say that it still stands as the best. I can also say that the Lodge at Palisades Creek is the best outfitter on the river. Everyone who works at the Lodge is always very positive and is genuinely concerned with making sure that the clients have the best day on the river possible. All of our guides are very knowledgeable and are always excited to spend a day on the river, even if they aren’t the ones who are going to be fishing that day.
The Lodge is a great place to work. Last summer was my rookie season and I could not have asked for a better experience.
One of the best days I have had on the river was with a client last summer. We were fishing the upper section of the river and it was rather slow, and it didn’t help that he was a novice fisherman. Towards the end of the day he started to become more comfortable with the rod and started to hook a few fish. At the end of the day we stopped on a riffle that was absolutely going off with a hatch of PMD’s. We stopped and he must have gotten into at least 7 or 8 trout, several of which were quite large. Watching the excitement of someone who is new to fishing catch that many fish was one of my best moments on the river. We ended up getting back to the lodge an hour later than planned that evening, but neither of us seemed to care much.
Brad Sutton came to there area nearly 35 years ago. Armed with a culinary degree from the Johnson and Whales Culinary Institute, he has used his education to maintain a career on the water and in the kitchen. Brad initially showed many of the areas top guides how to string up their first fly rod and how to row unify a boat. Over the years Brad has fished and cooked all over the world. He has an incredible personality a undisputed knowledge of the river. Brad has a unquenchable desire to please his guests. He is a great source of local knowledge and his undying drive to fish in all conditions often lands him and his clients large Cutthroat, Brow unifyn and Rainbow Trout.
I have been an angler for as long as I can remember, coming from a fishing family I have fished all over the Western United States and the Canadian West coast. I picked up a fly rod at age 11 and from that moment on fly fishing as helped define my life. The art of fly casting is a spiritual experience and I love to share that process with my clients. I try to define fly casting as a process, not a result. I spend my summers on the rivers in the west including Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Canada. One of my true loves is to fish streamers in the fall, and Spey cast for Steelhead on any river with a run.
I am a registered nurse specializing in Cardiac and am pursuing my Masters Degree in nursing, after graduation I will hold a FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner). I am married to my incredibly tolerant wife Kathlene and have two daughters Madison age 7, and Trinity age 6. We live in Idaho Falls 50 miles to the west of the Lodge and enjoy the area immensely.
I come from Minneapolis, MN After graduating Catholic military high school in 1986 I took a position cooking at the Old Faithful lodge in Yellowstone National Park. The hook was set. Soon after my mother purchased an ice cream shop in Jackson Hole and I helped run the shop in the summers while I continued college in pursuit of a Hotel/Restaurant Management degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout . After obtaining my degree I took a job at Spring Creek Ranch in Jackson Hole as a chef of the Rising Sage Cafe in the National Museum of Wildlife Art. I began guiding for the lodge the summer of 1998. I found my true passion. I was able to supplement my new seasonal career with an opportunity to provide Teton Valley, Id. with a new restaurant concept called the Warbird's Cafe located in the Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport. After 5 years of full time restaurant commitment, the river called again. I have been guiding full time for the last 5 years. I also work for a credit card processor supplying machines, rates and support for business' that take credit cards. The dream all came to fruition when Marshall Geller asked me to take over as General Manager the spring of 2010. An opportunity of a life time! I currently look forward to providing the best guest experience with the finest establishment and staff this area has to offer. I look forward to meeting all of you one day, soon.