Finishing 9 Days Fly Fishing the Henry’s Fork

We’re back on the Madison River after finishing 9 days fly fishing the Henry’s Fork. I hope you read last week’s post about Fly Fishing the Henry’s Fork Brown and Green Drake Hatches. To say we had a great time is an understatement!

As I mentioned in last week’s post, we haven’t fished the Henry’s Fork very much. I’m very happy my wife said we needed to go check it out. We met several people while fly fishing. A few friendly locals provided the landmarks for us…

The Billboard – the billboard is just upstream from Trouthunters Fly Shop in Last Chance, ID. I’m taking the picture looking downstream.

Here’s what it looks like across and down from the billboard.

If you look closely, there are many more gulls than fly fishers. I think they are Franklin Gulls and they swept over the river eating Green Drakes floating on the surface. One even picked up my fly! Perhaps that’s why we did better with emerger fly patterns than our normal Sparkle Dun.

This is a shot of the water we fished above the billboard.

The Mailbox – it’s located on the main highway and marks the one mile dirt road we walked to get to the river. It’s one way to get to the lower end of the Railroad Ranch.

The water – it’s slow-moving, more like fishing a lake. We searched for fish rising to Green Drakes.

Waiting for rising fish

…and it worked!

The Overlook – it’s at the upper end of the Harrriman Ranch, just downstream from Last Chance. Across the river is the “log jam”, another landmark.

Those were the major landmarks we learned about in the section of river we concentrated on.

The fish on the Henry’s Fork are amazing. I was surprised where they layed and how willing they were to rise for our flies…at times. We found them in very shallow water. Much of the river around the billboard is shallow. Many anglers easily waded across to fish the other side.

Here is Karen playing a beautiful Rainbow Trout.

We were lucky to land some very nice fish.

I’d like to share a quick story of a fish I ended up landing.

I was casting during a strong wind and waded out to a run I hoped to catch some fish. I did land a fish or two and moved others to my fly.

As I headed back to shore, I placed a few casts in likely holding lies. While doing this, I heard a large splash close to me. I thought, “what was that?” I looked just below where I was standing and to my astonishment, here was a trout less than two feet away. Aren’t trout wary of anglers? Not this one!

What should I do? You’re right, see if I could catch it.

I lifted my rod with only the leader emerging from the tip, but the wind was blowing so hard, the fly landed 7 or 8 feet away. What else could I do?

Yup, grab the leader and dab it in the water. That’s exactly what I did and in fact, the fish rose to my fly. I set the hook with leader in hand and let go to see if the fish was still attached while I tried to take the slack out of my line.

The fish ran, taking line from my reel.

But I ended up landing the fish! Not the best fish image, but I managed to take a quick snap before this fat 18 inch Rainbow Trout slipped out of my hand.

I’ll remember this fish for some time!

How about some bugs…you know I enjoy taking closeups?

Brown Drakes

Green Drakes

And a female Green Drake with an egg sac…first I’ve seen.

Another small mayfly spinner.

This was the most-used way we saw of fly fishers getting to a section on the Ranch.

Rather unique, isn’t it?

And the scenery was spectacular…

We found beautiful sunsets.

A pelican

Working hard on the river, making notes for this post.

Lastly, here are a few notes I’ll be sure to check the next time I plan to fish the Henry’s Fork.

Water levels changed dramatically.

Flies we used with success

Sparkle Dun Green Drake

Green Drake CDC Loop Wing Emerger

Compara Spinner

The fish seem willing to rise, but a drag-free drift is imperative. We used 4X tippet while fishing the Henry’s Fork.

If you are looking for a Zen fly fishing experience, this isn’t a place to fish. See the crowd image above.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!