Henry's Fork June 21-23, 2019

Date / Time: 6/21-6/23/2019 noon to dark all three days

Location: Henry’s Fork Idaho. Chester backwater up day 1. Fun Farm Day 2. Fun Farm Day 3

The Characters: Solo day 1&2, with Mike Langford day 3.

Weather: Cold front came through day before arrival and stayed cooler but warming all 3 days. Day 1 partly cloudy mostly cloudy. Day 2 partly cloudy t storm hit me for 30 mins. Day 3 partly cloudy some sprinkles. Highs first day low 50s warming to 60s by third day.

Water Temp: Likely mid 50s not checked

Water Level / Tide: Ashton gauge 2100

Water Clarity/Quality: Good clarity

Moon Phase: Between full and third quarter

Best Flies: Drake cripple, mallard body drake, double hackle grey drake cluster Krystal flash tail.

Fishing: Green drake and flavs solid. Had 3 days solo since Tammy Anna and Anna went to southern Utah for play at tuacahn. Stayed at jolley camper in Ashton. Debated going to green since cicadas were going off but water was in middle of drop and still above 3k and fishing solo plus cold front so decided to go to fork since previous weekend with Brian was just kicking in.

First day I launched pram with trolling motor and motored up from Chester around noon after setting up camp. Fish were up from outset in backwater and I stuck a few good bows right away on way up on the cluster drake. They were up all the way on random spinners but I decided to leave them to head up to the top moving water looking for green drakes since week before had slayed relentless in backwater. Got to top and sporadic drakes showing up. Ultimately got a few but drakes weren’t kicking in and eventually seemed to stop. I waded way up river left looking for fish and got a sweet 18” brown on the drake but there weren’t a ton of fish working. Was texting back and forth with Langford and he said fun farm fish going and I debated leaving. As I was hanging out thinking about it, baetis started pouring off and a few risers started eating those, then slowly started to see more drakes and eventually it opened up and went ballistic. Ended up being thick drakes for hours with fish up all over. Stuck endless fish and just hung out at top of backwater going back and forth. A few hours into that, flavs kicked in fierce and were pouring off but fish were still keyed on the bigger drakes. My pablo cripple crushed as did several other drake patterns. Kept trying to leave to have dinner with Mike and friends, but drakes kept hatching and fish kept rising. As I went down through backwater, giant browns up in all the slough spots and kept stopping and sticking. It was a chillier day and I was wet from periodic showers and dunking hands for fish so was getting cold and ultimately left them rising around 9. Fish were up all the way to the diversion and everywhere between. Tons of boats were around through most of it, some hooking fish many getting schooled. Seriously epic day!

Second day took it easy in am and tied flies. Didn’t get on water until after 11 based on previous day and it was still cooler although warming. Fished up from fun farm in pram and immediately found a pig sipping in the undercut trees of the upper island. Stuck that one to start and day continued to be incredible. Stuck sporadic drake feeders all around in the riffles above with both double grey drake spinner since there were some of them around and green drake patterns. Eventually drakes got going late, but never like day before above. Still fish up all over. Mike showed up with buddies at one point and I hung out with them and tried to get Jesus his partner on a pig we spotted on the bank. Eventually they bailed and I stayed again until dusk. Fish were on drakes for most of the afternoon evening, but eventually got pickier and wanted smaller bugs especially in lower right slow water. I threw the PA at them and every fish ate that easily. Another great day with some solid fish!

Day 3 Mike was able to stay and I was staying the night to drive home early Monday. We grabbed his boat and hit fun farm again. Started out similar, and drakes started to materialize. They never seemed to go really thick, but they were around solid and fish were looking for them. A few hours in late afternoon 3-5, fish were up pretty good all over. I found a killer pod of browns off a rock pile 1/3 way out in river that was highlight. Stuck the first 18-19” solid fish and some dudes went between me and the bank and anchored like assholes. I played that fish and thought the others would be down because of them, but no the heavy water prevented the fish from getting spooked and they were below them! I proceeded to stick 3 more in a row all big browns that ripped while the boat anglers stared and caught nada. Excellent session! Eventually worked down and took pic of a good brown Mike got. We spent several more hours picking on bank feeders and slough feeders which were again quite tough. I hooked a couple of giants that exploded just out of the slow water but lost both. Did land another pig brown though and countless other fish. We eventually bailed a bit earlier as a breeze kicked up and we had crushed around 7:30-8.