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I won't be back that way until July but have a blast!Quote:
Originally Posted by Phall
One thing to consider is bringing an 8 weight and floating Ora to Vernon while tossing mouse patterns in the dark. Those browns gotta love mammal flesh!
Also, we caught quite a few fish in the middle of the river, FWIW.
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Good tips. Thanks rev. 8wt is packed for potential rainy streamer action. Being that I’ve only rowed half a dozen times, a float in the dark may not be the best idea!
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Wifes family issues have taken me to the mid west for a few weeks right in the middle of prime Henrys Fork action. Enjoy Phall, it should be awesome!
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Been that way for nearly two decades. Too many boats running the banks just hazes the big fish back into the middle of the river. The sad truth of that hatch on the lower Henry's is you can substantially out fish the folks pounding the bank with big flies by nymphing in the green water.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater
My other june HF tip is to do something else during gentleman's hours. Eat an early dinner and plan to fish hard from 6pm until dark. All the guided anglers are gone by the time the best dry fly action starts. This is especially true during the upcoming mayfly hatches because the guides will camp on the riffle drop offs for hours during the day.
Had something come up tomorrow otherwise I'd be camping up there tonight. Going to head up to the ranch late Saturday or first thing Sunday morning and plan to fish any spinner fall in the AM, fuck off midday, and get back at it in the evening. Probably get home around midnight Sunday, woo.
Drakes were poppin yesterday
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FIFYQuote:
Originally Posted by teleee
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Dude if there was any way to escape the domestic hell of Iowa and assisted living homes I would be at your doorstep in a heartbeat!Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
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Yeah, we did the 6pm float and had a blast with nearly no other boats. Got into good PMD action in the froggy water by Chester. We always try to squeeze one in every HF weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
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Thinking of heading up to island park next weekend for a camping/fishing trip. Anyone know of good campgrounds in the area on or near HF that will be open next weekend
What kind of campground are you looking for? Do you need hookups? If not there is a shit ton of BLM land, some literally right on the river, to camp on.Quote:
Originally Posted by schindlerpiste
The gravel pits is the spot traditionally used by folks who are in RVs. It's on scenic route 47, not far from the junction with hwy 20. Can't miss it really, see googleearth, appx 1 mile downstream of Osborne bridge.
If its tent camping, be advised that all of island park is grizzly country and there are bears conditioned to elk hunting season, aka right now. Bear conflicts in the fall are an annual event in island park. Choose tent sites accordingly.
We're tent people; no hook-ups. I don't even need a toilet or running water.
It's the lack of toilets that keeps gravel pits mostly RVs, I think. Its got decent enough sites for tents and fire rings. it's free camping right next to the RR Ranch, featured in many a magazine and book. It's a place you'll encounter fellow pilgrims.Quote:
Originally Posted by schindlerpiste
Theres developed sites on the river at riverside, box canyon, mccrae bridge and coffee pot; those are all fee sites.
Pretty much every gravel road off of hwy 47 is in the national forest. It's all fair game. Pole Bridge campground is over on the upper warm river, about 15 minutes from the RR Ranch.
If the fishing sucks, a fun side trip is sawtelle peak road. It's the only place around here where you can drive up to the top of a big mountain, 10,000ft. There's places to camp about half way up to the top.
We were just flogging around on the RR ranch earlier this week. That rain from last weekend had a ton of shit floating downstream, would have been better equipped with a stripping basket.
Managed a couple small-medium sized fish on mahoganies. Fished to some true giants in skinny water but couldn’t hook up. Typical fare for up there.
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Need to go thru and read all the posts but, we have a group headed to Ashton (Renting one of those big houses) in mid May 24. Planning on floating most every day. Intel from Mike Lawson's shop suggested lower down on the river should produce the salmon flies by then? Any other intel we need? There'll be 9-10 of us, 3 rafts.
Salmonflies start when the water gets to 54. Some years that's May 15 and other years that's june 1. Snowpack plays a role but there isn't a lot of high elevation ground draining directly into the Henry's. The bigger factor is how warm and sunny the weather is in May. A string of hot days and unusuallly warm nights can bring it off early. Conversely, a week of rainy days and frosty nights can push it back to around memorial day.
FYI, the early hatch between Ashton dam and the Fall river is a joke. That's a 5 mile long section and the big fish are concentrated in the green water. There's only 10 holes in that section so it's damn near combat fishing. People anchor up on a riffle drop off and camp on it for hours. Not my cup of tea. The outfitters work it in packs. One guide defends the drop off and the other two work the hole. Then they rotate the boats through the stations for two fucking hours and totally lock it down. I find it to be a frustrating and tedious waste of fishing time. Basically, the reputation was earned 25 years ago and things changed as the population swelled.
I prefer fishing in the Gulch, even if that means fishing nymphs instead of dries. It's a hell of a lot more work, that's fer sure, but it's worth it. There's a short class III (surprise falls) that's the crux of the run. Most people run surprise falls river right and take the pour over instead of rock dodging river left.
Good info! Thanks. What about the Warm? And any intel on location of the "Gulch"? Is that the canyon section up stream by Is Park? I have fished Harriman Ranch and the section just above the bridge before.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
The Gulch is Bear Gulch, so named after the abandoned ski area in the canyon. It's just the local name for the lower section of Cardiac Canyon below Mesa Falls. The access is at the back end of the Grandview campground at lower Mesa Falls. You have to drag the rafts down a hillside for 500 vertical feet. There two class II rock dodgers and surprise falls is an easy class III. The first half mile is continuous class II then you make a hard right and surprise falls is on the other side of a short pool. The next 5 miles is mostly class I. That said, I have seen wrecked rafts in those class II's so it's not for total noobs. Most of it is incredibly beautiful green water. Nice browns in there. It's easy to recconoiter with googleearth, the slide is easy to see as is surprise falls.
The Warm river has a salmonfly hatch. It's usually a week or so before the Henry's hatch. It's mostly 3 or 4 weight fishing but you can run across large fish below the cataract at the railroad tunnel. Above the tunnel, its mostly 10 to 12 inch fish and an occasional nice one. The Warm river has the region's most generous harvest regs, easy ATV access and RV campgrounds so even though it has spring creek numbers of trout, big fish tend to get harvested. It could be one of the area's premiere spring creeks with different regulations, imho, but it's managed as a family friendly fishery.
^^ I think someone posted a TR about this section a few years back.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
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Found it! Thanks so much. If you're in the area you'll have to stop by for a cocktail
Here's JPCM dragging his raft down the home stretch of the slide. Just like a ski pic, its steeper than it looks. Plus it's loose dirt so the real takeaway here is avoid it in the rain and dont do it in sandals. Old felt soles are sketchy too. Surprise Falls is at the base of the big talus field where the river goes out of viewQuote:
Originally Posted by Harry
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FKNAQuote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
I should buy a raft
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That section is dope. We can always rent rafts from the UoU outdoor program.
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It is indeed. If we put a group together hit me up and will gladly drag my raft over.Quote:
Originally Posted by Phall
If anyone really wants some adventure there is another raft slide that is all time. Not throwing it out on the World Wide Web but hit me up if you want to discuss.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teleee
I wouldn't sweat it. Not much you can do that the local lodges haven't done for it already. Not to mention the two dozen youtube videos,...
Its physical rigors and 1he robust population of rattlesnakes are what keeps people away, not secrecy.
Yeah, I know and it bums me out. But in the corner of my tiny little brain I want to feel like I’m not contributing to the overrun. Thank god for the snake gauntlet and the ass kicking required to get down there.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
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That water was made for the Striker
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I'm in...Quote:
Originally Posted by teleee
https://www.trouthunt.com/blog/view/11659
More weeping and gnashing of teeth up at the Ranch. Vanishing hatches, rampant weeds, pompous "regulars", a new crop of aggro guides who only float fish the wader's paradise, rancorous finger pointing, declining fish size, ridiculously low catch rates....take your pick.
Folks should probably remove it from their bucket lists for the time being.
3 more days til we arrive!! :smile: OR, two and a wakeup to make it seem closer. ;)
Looks like that website is currently broken...Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
Maybe it crashed from all the hits looking for info on the salmonfly hatch.
It's the trouthunter site so probably be back soon. The tldr: some inside baseball. Waders vs floaters is becoming a thing. Some wading guides and ranch regulars want the park to ban boats for a variety of reasons. The outfitter from across the street came into the comments and basically said fuck off it's not happening and its you pompous schmucks who beat the fishery down more than my guides. Drama. All is not well in paradise.
There's also some increasing frustrations being expressed that the HF Foundation has become toothless and maybe needs to do a bit less science and a bit more advocacy/litigating.
Article link is working again. Its a good read and I appreciate the time and detail McDaniel put into writing that up. Interesting take in comments from the outfitter across the street… I remember popping into that shop a few years ago and the guys saying they don’t run float trips on the Ranch section. I guess things have changed
I spend a good bit of time in the area, but over the years have only dedicated a handful of days to the Ranch. It’s a very unique fishery. While walking around head hunting isn’t my normal jam, I’ve had some stellar opportunities up there throwing dries to big fish. Most of which I properly fucked up. It’s pretty cool to find one of those big bows sipping mayflies. Sure would suck to have a bunch of boats floating through there constantly putting your fish down. But my guess is the low water years and poor flow management are probably the biggest factor in the decrease in insect volume/size Mcdaniels has observed.
I’ll be up in the area Memorial Day weekend if anyone wants to connect for a float.
IDK. Can't be helping, that's for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by jpcm
The collapse of the mayfly hatches has been noticeable here for about 10 years, by my estimates. That includes wet periods too, so its probably not directly related to droughts. We had bad droughts in the past and never saw anything as catastrophic as what's happening now. Its happening over here too so it's not just about shit going wrong in IP reservoir or some silty canals. Its happening on the freestone tribs too.If I had to guess, I'd estimate the mayfly hatches on the Teton are about 10% of what they were 15 years ago. I can barely remember what a carpet hatch of bwos looks like.
The last time I was genuinely excited about a bwo hatch on the Teton, the Cubs were in game 1 of the world series and I was torn between a river boiling with fish and seeing the most important Cubs game in a century. That was 7 and a half years ago. Ain't seen a bwo hatch worth remembering since then.
It is apparent on the South Fork as well, the dry fly fishing is nothing like it was 10 years ago - and I don’t think that can be attributed to low flows.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
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Can’t be attributed to low flows as in flows have been consistently good over that span or because low flows don’t impact hatches? Cause low flows definitely impact hatches.Quote:
Originally Posted by teleee
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I haven't lived here long enough to put together any objective observations on the weather/climate, but I bet the hard data exists for those who really wanna dive into it. I'd start with looking at average daily temps - is there a trend of rising/falling temps for certain seasonal periods (let's say April thru June, July-August, Sept thru Nov), are historic seasonal/transition periods lengthening/shortening, etc.
Because it is a controlled tailwater and the flows have been more or less the same from year to year for the last 25 years I have been fishing here.Quote:
Originally Posted by stealurface831
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I agree with bugs: “Ain’t what they used to be.”
I’m gonna try to find it, but there was just an article I read about a study that was done because people were noticing that if you did a cross country trip years ago, your windshield was covered with bugs, and now it isn’t anymore. They literally took the license plate as the control square inch area and analyzed data and found that it in fact there are just less bugs than there used to be. It’s not just aquatic insects.
Anecdotally, I remember fishing the Missouri near Craig 15 or so years ago and I could not see out of the windshield from the PMD and and caddis coating the windshield.
Across the midwest, night baseball games near streams used to have massive hexagenia hatches swarming the lights every summer and suddenly it stopped over the last few years.
Personally, I think we're well into a new "silent spring" scenario. Big Ag has saturated the environment with neonicotinoids and there's also a proliferation of forever chems in everything. There's so much forever chems in our lives that human shit is now toxic. Some geniuses recently started cooking down American human waste to make cheap biosolids fertilizer and the result was disaster. It's a farm poisoning sludge full of concentrated forever chems and micro plastic.