Henrys Fork, Idaho: 4th Of July Weekend 2011

Date / Time: 7/2/2011-7/4/2011 Location: Henrys Fork Mostly Lower Ashton Area, One Evening Ranch The Characters: Kory Kapaloski, Tammy Stevenson, Mike Langford, Megan Correnti Weather: Mostly sunny and occasional breeze Water Temp: 50-55 (guess) Water Level / Tide: Moderate 2,200 or so (dropped the day before we got there from about 2800) Water Clarity/Quality: Greenish tint, but pretty clear Moon Phase: New moon day before we arrived Fishing: Tammy and I drove up evening of the 1st and got there with about 30 minutes of last light and checked out fun farm bridge, i didnt know area so just looked around and didn’t fish. Saw a rise or two and a bunch of boats were taking out and hitting the last of the light. Regretted stopping at Senor Iguanas in Pocatello for dinner since i could have fished an hour.We were staying with Mike and his fiance who we hadn’t met at a huge vacation home on the banks of the fall river Day #1: Woke saturday morning a little late after bsing the night before. Mike was having trouble getting his hitch in and i helped him by pushing it really hard since it was hitting his tire and i tweaked my back, but fished anyway. We went down and put on the Chester backwater above the dam since he heard the drakes were falling mid morning there. We launched above the dam and rowed up all of us in one boat. Fish were up very well and we stuck a bunch trading off working our way up the slow water trying to lead the fish. We got them on a hackle wing gray drake spinner i had tied. Eventually we got up to the moving water at the top and stalked a bank feeder that was picking out golden stones. Couldn’t get him. Mikey wadered up and worked upstream. My back prevented me from doing much, but I rowed out and fished a bigger fish that was up that i couldn’t reach and stuck and landed it, taped 22”. Mikey got a pig brown up higher and broke his rod in process and had to hand line. Ended up landing it, a super sweet fish. We took off as the girls were getting tired of sitting in a crowded boat and headed for dinner at Trout Hunter. After Dinner, we had planned on hitting the brown drake spinner fall down in the channels above Osborn. Dinner took too long so we had to just hit it right in front of ranch access. There were good number of fish up but a shitload of people, probably a hundred. Ended up getting 2 or 3 smallish fish. Only saw one or two bigger and not even sure if they were that big. Lots of bugs though mostly pmd spinners but the fish ate the same bigger spinner i had. Day #2: Got on late again since my back was killing me. Floated Chester dam to fun farm bridge. Mike and Megan got a few on drakes on a seam coming off the first island and I got one brown there. Tam and I pulled over and fish were up all over in heavy water but being selective. Ended up finally getting a few on green drake hackle wing smaller fish. Tam fished a stone on the drift after for nada. Then she rowed and i threw a streamer just to see. Turned a big fish and missed another decent one then hooked and landed a 16” brown. Missed one more, but nothing special. Got to the fun farm and fish were starting to go good on the spinnerfall. We were going to have an early dinner and go back out but it was too late. We sent the girls to get the other car, shop and clean up while we fished. Dave Malone was on way up so met us on water. Fish went ballistic on the spinner fall, think it was brown drakes and gray drakes. At first they were very picky, but then as light got lower they got easy and I banged a bunch of mid size and one pretty big bow around 20”. Mike was in his boat separately and got one big brown and a bunch of other decent fish including some on the Wullf. Toward the end, I threw the BDE green drake just so i could see it and they chowed it confidently. Tammy and girls got lost and couldn’t turn around with trailers so we cut it a little short and Dave and Mike went to get them. I figured i might as well head back out and banged three more quickly all mid size fish. Great evening! Day #3: 4th of July partied late the night before since we got off late and didn’t get to bed until almost 3. Got up and packed up and hit breakfast with Dave and Jade. Mike and Megan headed home, but there was light cloud cover with no wind and I couldn’t resist. We launched again on Chester backwater around noon and it was on fire. Both Brown Drake spinners and Gray Drakes and fish were up all over the place. I had a large hen wing, rust colored body pattern I snagged from Dave’s box and tammy rowed me up stalking risers. Banged one fat 17-18” fish and another bigger one about 20” They were rising everywhere but it was hard to predict their direction. If you could get it front of them on the right rhythm they would eat. Got up to the moving water and thought it would be easier but actually only got one more to eat and then Tammy was getting antsy so we headed out with fish still rising around 3 pm. Would have been epic for hours, but good to hit what we did. Great trip. Back was totally ruined after the three days and my leg was excrutiatingly painful. Found out I may have a herniated disk, and we will see how that goes…price you pay for good fishing I guess.