First it was crowds in the thousands for Labor Day, then the power company called for increased stream flows in the Henry’s Fork, all of which led to pretty weak fishing in the river for the last month or two. But temperatures have cooled off, the crowds have gone home, the stream flows are about back to what you’d expect for this time of year and the fishing is really getting good.
And it’s not just the river that’s hot right now. It seems like the fish in the Henry’s Lake are sensing that there’s about to be several feet of ice form, and they’re eating everything you throw at them. That’s especially true for the brookies over by the hatchery, but it’s still good over on the south side by the cliffs as well. Actually, Henry’s is hot no matter where you fish.
Island Park Reservoir is also good right now. Down by Trudes (and the rest of the West end, for that matter) have been really good for both trolling and bait. There have been some lunkers coming out of Island Park Reservoir in the last few weeks so don’t put that boat away just yet.
If you like fishing, this is the time to fish Island Park. No crowds, no overcrowded boat ramps and parking lots, no fly fishermen elbow to elbow in the river. This is the time. So get your gear back out and get up here. Winter’s on the way — no question about that. We’re having snow almost every day. But there’s still plenty of time to catch some late season fish. See you out there!
Wow! Snow at the end of September has to be a good sign if you’re a snowmobiler. It started snowing about 5:00 a.m. today and has continued throughout the morning. We’ll see what happens this afternoon. I had heard earlier that El Nino was blowing in this year, which would normally be the harbinger of a “below average” snow year. But who knows when the first storm comes on the last day of Sept.
The fishing has slowed down quite a bit over the last few days. (Actually the fishing is as good as it ever was, but the catching hasn’t been that hot.) With daytime highs near 80 degrees for a couple of weeks now, and with thousands of people fishing over the holiday weekend, things aren’t what they were a few weeks ago.
I was in the store the other day where a loud and boisterous conversation was going on. These were fishermen. True blue, through and through fishermen, extolling the virtues of the only true method of catching fish — fly fishing. It seems that anyone who might deign to use “worms” (this guy said “worm” like a nine year old little girl who’s been asked to eat one) is somehow inferior to the fishing elite.
Well, the fishing has been great and the fishing has been poor, depending on where you were fishing. Box Canyon is still hot, with the water levels low, it’s better to wade than float, but the fishing is very good there.
I was taking a therapeutic float down the river the other day when I came upon a fisherman. In the time it took to float by, we had a conversation that set me to thinking.
I never knew it was possible to have too much water for fishing. After all, fish live in water. What’s the problem? It seems that the real problem is when water rushes down the river like it did down the South Fork of the Snake River from Palisades to Idaho Falls, it can change the underwater topography forever.
If you come to Island Park for the first time and you act as your own fishing guide, that’s who you are and what you’re doing — the blind leading the blind. There is spectacular fishing to be had in Island Park. Some of the best blue ribbon trout waters in the country flow right through the middle of Island Park. But that doesn’t mean every stretch is blue ribbon — or even that every stretch that is normally good is good this week.
Rain has continued in Island Park at a rate residents cannot believe. In fact, there has been talk around Macks Inn of beginning construction on an ark. We’ll keep you updated on that. But even with unprecedented rain, fishing is good.
Fishing was absolutely fabulous for some and just okay for others. Henry’s has been very hot since the opener, but Island Park reservoir has been a little slower (not super slow, just not as good as Henry’s.) There has been a ton of water coming down the Henry’s Fork, with water cascading over the spillway at Island Park Reservoir, but there has still been some good fishing. There is a salmon fly hatch coming up the river from the valley, and things are hot where the hatch is occurring. As of this past weekend it was hot from Sheep Falls up to about Hatchery Ford.
It was without fanfare or announcement of any kind that the fish stocking truck pulled up to the Landing and Macks Inn with a huge tank of fish. Like most government ops (operations) this man was bound to secrecy by an oath taken upon the heads of his family, friends, and job. He refused to say exactly how many fish were being belched out of the giant tube, but he would agree that it was more than a hundred.
Wildlife biologists at the Henry’s Lake Fish Hatchery say they’ve harvested considerably more eggs than usual this year — on the order of over 4.5 million eggs. There are still fish in the runs waiting to get in an spawn, but biologists say budget constraints won’t allow them to feed any more little fish than they already have. Now there’s some good news.
Purists will tell you there’s nothing like a bamboo fly rod. The action, the feel, the finesse a bamboo rod provides are unmatched by anything synthetic. So why don’t more people use them?
When we think of the many  ”manly” things we men do, tying flies isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for most of us.  I know, I know.  Tying flies is where art meets science.  The fisherman come artist is trying to wrap hair, feathers, string, etc., around a hook and make it look as much like a particular insect as humanly possible.  I know it can be done, because I heard one dedicated fly tier swear that only God made a better mosquito than he did.  So apparently there’s more than a little pride in workmanship involved.