The Ranch Trip

There is a lot more to fishing than just catching fish. If you can't enjoy fishing without catching then usually you will quickly loose interest in the sport. After fishing trips I sometimes tell my wife that "the fishing was great, but the catching wasn't". It is definitely better when you can have a great day on the water and catch lots of fish, but the overall fishing experience is what counts. The experience of being on the road at dawn and anticipating the day of fishing is always invigorating. Not to mention that the best trout fishing areas in the world are oftentimes smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful country God has created. Add to all of this great company and a good old fishin' trip can't be beat.

My wife's family has a house on a small plot of land up in the Teton Valley in Idaho that they call "The Ranch". The first day was not great fishing weather (although any weather is technically good fishing weather) and we ended up not wetting a line the first day there. The next day was going to be the much anticipated trip to Henry's Lake with Jim, David, and Greg (my wife's father and two of her brothers). We woke up early the second day to a breathtaking view.

We were on the road before six o' clock and about a half hour into our trip I realized that I had forgotten my fins for my float tube back at the ranch. We started discussing the options of where to find some float tube fins in the area. As we went through Ashton we only saw one fly shop which was not open yet. We got into Island Park (I think it was Island Park) and they had two big fly shops but they seemed to cater to the moving water crowd since the Henry's Fork is a stone throw away and thus they had no float tube accessories. I was desperate to find some fins and was determined to not let the Henry's Lake trip go to waste. Let me quickly back up and tell you that during the ride out there one of the spinning rods was poking over my right shoulder and was annoying me every time I looked out the window to my right. It would just brush my face so I guess I was not bothered enough to move it out of the way. So right when we are checking one last fly shop in that area I happened to quickly look to my right and somehow the end of the rod shoots straight up my nose. It hurt pretty bad and all of a sudden blood starting dripping out of my nose at a steady rate. Luckily someone ran into a gas station and grabbed some napkins for me. The bleeding stopped and we started laughing at the freak accident, it really was hilarious. We checked one more spot but it was closed so we decided we would just head to the lake and hope that the boat rental place had some fins. As we arrived at the lake we saw glassy water all across the lake. The scenery was spectacular.

We headed into the boat rental shop and by some miracle they had a pair of fins, one pair to be exact. Jim rented a boat for himself and Greg while David and I were going to head out on our tubes. Jim and Greg launched the boat and David and I launched our tubes out of the dock area. We started trolling our flies up the shoreline and we each had a good hit within the first several minutes. Then it went really dead besides snagging logs on the bottom. We started switching flies trying to figure things out to no avail. After a couple hours David spotted some structure right beneath him that had fish stacked all over the place.

We thought we had it made but still could not get any hits. Some midges had been hatching previously and I tried trailing a midge off of our leeches/buggers with no luck. At this point though there were a lot of bugs coming off the water. We saw two fish rise but that was it. It was enough for me to try a dry for a few casts but I soon switched to a floating line with an indicator with a large midge beneath since we had seen some big ones coming off. David located where the fish were stacked and I put my cast right over them. After I got a good cast into the right area I had a fish on...finally! I was surprised how hard it fought as it ended up being only about 18 inches.


I say only 18 inches because Henry's Lake hybrids can run up to 15 pounds or so. That would be an incredible fight! Anyway, luck would run out on us very soon. Just after I landed my fish the wind kicked in immediately. We thought it would be ok but after taking a quick bathroom stop on the shoreline the water was churning pretty bad. Jim and Greg came over and we hopped in the boat. We trolled our flies and worms the rest of time with no luck at all. Greg had a big fish on before our rendezvous with the boat but it broke him off. After trolling up and back the shoreline in the boat we decided to call it a day at Henry's Lake and try to hit some moving water. We ended up trying the Henry's Lake outlet. David and I spotted a pod of big suckers but I thought I saw a trout in the mix. There had to be a few trout in the pod and we supposed a big sucker would be fun to fight on our fly rods if we managed to hook one. David confirmed the presence of some trout as he landed a nice little cutthroat.

Shortly after this I hooked into a nice sized sucker that put up a great fight. He was a good looking specimen in a disgusting kind of way.



We could not seem to hook up with anything after this so we headed back to the ranch. It was a great day fishing, but the catching was lacking somewhat which was a little disappointing since the potential for great fishing (good numbers of large fish) was running through our minds for the past several months. Sometimes when you get skunked or have a very low catch rate you tend to shy away from a particular body of water in search of better fishing elsewhere. This was definitely not the case for me when it comes to Henry's Lake. If the wind had remained calm I am confident that we would have caught a lot of fish since we located them and figured out the way to fish to them. An even stronger motivation for going back is the fact that David was able to see a lot of very large fish cruising right beneath us. He estimated some of the fish going easily over 25 inches. I have been doing a little more research and found out at least one thing we did wrong which was arrive too late. Come to find out the wind always picks up each day by noon so it is best to be on the water around 5:30 a.m. I also want to get a book by Henry's Lake master Bill Schiess called "How to Fish Henry's Lake". He tells exactly what to do for each time of the year, etc. Don't worry Henry, we will be coming back soon!

The next day we tried the Henry's Fork river below Ashton reservoir and managed to catch only a dinky brown. It was very windy which suppressed any sort of hatch from developing. If we had more time to figure it out we could have probably got into some fish. We fished for a few hours then called it a day there. Overall, the beauty of eastern Idaho was soothing to the soul and it was sad to leave such beautiful country. I can't wait to get back up and spend a few more days sampling the trout filled waters north of Utah.

Lionel Prichard and the Hanks brothers

Pines, Peaks, & Peixe

In case you are wondering what "peixe" is, it is Portuguese for "fish". I couldn't think of any fishing lingo that started with "p" at the moment. Anyhow, David and I headed up to a small picturesque reservoir for an afternoon of fishing. Things started off slow but I found a spot where I kept getting consistent hits after I caught one small planter bow.


We were using crystal buggers in a size 6 which was probably a little big for many of the small mouths that were trying to eat them. I think I had some smaller buggers in my box but I was content because I was getting consistent hits. After a bit the hits died down and we kicked across the length of the reservoir looking for productive spots.


Until this point David had the skunk and I only had one fish with a few more on and a bunch of hits. We eventually made our way back to the spot where I caught my first fish. It was a good move because I started getting hits again. Then it dawned on me that we should trail a midge off of the buggers so our hook up rate would increase. This was the ticket although the next fish I hooked up with took the bugger. It was a nice looking little rainbow and I wanted a pic but he started flipping around on the apron of my float tube and threw the hook and flopped into the water. David was trying to help me and during the fiasco I managed to hook my trailing fly into the strap around my float tube and David got his leader wrapped up in his fins. A ton of effort that yielded no picture of the nice little specimen. Once we added the midge I started catching quite a few but for some reason David was not getting hits still. I had the hotter rod for some reason although he started getting hits and landed a nice little stillwater brown and a planter bow. Overall the day was great and the scenery could not be beat!

Ice Off

Supposedly a local high elevation reservoir had a ton of ice left just a few weeks ago. However, a small spurt of warmer temperatures combined with a wind storm ripped the remaining ice to shreds and open water supposedly prevailed. As I heard some rumblings about this ice off I knew I needed to try and get up there soon. Ice off on reservoirs can be some of the best fishing of the year although I had not had too much success with the phenomenon in the past. I wanted this to change this trip. Anyhow, my brother-in-law David and I met up at a popular gas station just after the crack of dawn and headed up to cutthroat heaven. The wind was very calm and the area we fished had some evidence of the deep freeze left over. A small ice shelf was clinging to a point that jutted out toward the center of the reservoir. Other than this we could see open water everywhere. Some argue the best "ice off" fishing occurs right as the edges of the ice start to pull away from the bank. Others say it is best after a few weeks once the water clears slightly and warms up a bit. We were too late and too early for either respective situation but we knew the fishing still had great potential. Things started off slow which would be a theme to the day as far as catching goes. However after a short time David hooked up with a nice cutthroat. We saw a few fish rising but not enough to warrant the dry fly. We fished wooley buggers the whole day in a few different colors. Things went quiet after this first fish. I thought it was going to warm up quick so I did not wear a jacket at first. The air did warm up but I did not account for the freezing water temperature that quickly had me shivering as the cold seeped right through my breathable waders. We both got out and bundled up and headed back out on our float tubes. While the fishing was not fast, the scenery and tranquility of being out on the glassy water could not be beat. It was so calm and quiet you could hear the occasional chatter hundreds of yards away from other anglers. It was a truly therapeutic morning and the quality of the fishing experience definitely made the slow catch rate insignificant. We eventually kicked ourselves down the shore aways and as David was kicking toward shore to fix the zipper on his float tube he hooked into another beautiful cutthroat.




We fished the area for awhile and I finally hooked up with a beautiful fish that went over 20 inches. That just added to an already great day of fishing. I can't wait to get back up there and have another great fishing experience.

Community Pond

Fly fishing is oftentimes associated with getting away from the sprawl and up to some mountain stream or creek to find solitude. However there are opportunities to catch some fish in the heart of the city. Definitely one of the more interesting places I have fly fished was a community pond over the weekend located in the center of the Salt Lake Valley. An interesting note was that a conservation officer checked our licenses which has only happened to me a couple times ever. I guess they want to make sure the people using the pond (the majority of which tend to take home everything they catch) have paid their dues by buying a license and being legit. Anyway, David and I did a simple nymph rig with a chironomid or two and indicator fished the pond. David quickly hooked up with a little rainbow that was missing its fins. The suspicions of frankenfish were confirmed when I pulled out a lake trout of all things that looked like he could have seen better days if he had not been selected for broodstock in the hatchery.

We did manage to catch some decent looking planter bows which were fun. Besides the lake trout another highlight was when David caught an albino trout. I regret not running over and snapping a pic or two but I managed to sneak into a pretty good area after someone left that I didn't want to give up quite yet. I was rewarded with a nice little chunky rainbow for staying put. Overall, it was a fun and interesting day at the community pond.

Spring Fishing

Spring is a time of Baetis (or Blue Wing Olives) and midge hatches coming off of western rivers. Usually I anticipate a lot of dry fly action in the spring, especially when the baetis are hatching. A friend and I headed out on a local river recently and besides a very few midges the river seemed very quiet. The catching matched the activity of the bugs for several hours which was a little frustrating since I nailed them the time before. The water was clear but a little higher which moved the fish out from a familiar run. We could not find the fish. Luckily we headed back to a spot we started out fishing early in the day and lo and behold the fish were all stacked up for the feast which had just gotten underway. It was windy and some blue wing olives were definitely hatching but the wind seemed to blow them across the surface as soon as they emerged. The fish did not key in on the adults but were taking nymphs in the mid to upper water column. There was some midges mixed into the bunch and we caught fish on mayfly nymph patterns (small pheasant tails) and midge pupa. It was not lights out catching but good nevertheless, and a great day to be on the water.

Hog Huntin'

I met up with my brother in law at the mouth of the canyon Friday morning for yet another fishing adventure. We arrived at the river only to find the water level had risen. There was also a lot of "cabbage" or vegetation floating in the water. Not only does this usually make it more difficult to catch fish, but it also means you would have to clean your flies and line off after almost every cast. We starred at the water for a minute or so then decided it would be best to head up to another section of the river. I hope the rise in water level on the lower section was due to a higher volume of water being released from the dam and not from some sort of early spring run-off. The best fishing yet is coming soon and an early run-off could really foul the fishing up down there. Another half hour and we were up to a spot just below the dam. The water was nice and clear and that was good enough for me. We headed upstream passing a nice hole just under a bridge. We fished the edge of some riffles for a few minutes but decided it was not the best spot probably so we went back down to the hole near the bridge. We knew there had to be a big fish or two in the area. After fishing it for a bit I decided to look down off the bridge to get a better vantage point. Our suspicions of some big fish were confirmed as I made out several thick shouldered browns hugging the bottom along the edge of the current. We were not concerned with numbers so we decided to target these beasts. We took turns, one being the scout looking down off the bridge and the other being the fisherman. Our method though fun was not too effective at first. One time I was off the bridge down by my brother in law and he hooked what he thought was the bottom. We were pretty sure the bottom of the river was not moving when we saw the fly rod start to pulse up and down...fish on! David played the fish nicely and we managed to land it about 30 yards down stream. Not the biggest fish in the hole but a very respectable brown trout.


We had a few other hits and toward the end of our time at the bridge hole I managed to hook and land a short but chunky brown. I had what felt like a nice fish on afterwards but he ran downstream and came unbuttoned. I should have followed him downstream, but I spaced it for some reason and he came unhooked beneath the shadows of the bridge. It was fun experimenting and trying to catch some of these picky fish. We eventually were ready for a change of pace so we headed over to another section of the river that seemed pretty crowded so we opted to head to a different river. We saw a nice hole below an angler access spot so we went over the cattle fence ladder and headed on down. I immediately hooked a very fat little rainbow that put up a heck of a fight and had absolutely no quit in him.


Shortly after that I hooked and landed a whitefish which was fun. This second river we were fishing is known to have a good population of whitefish. We started catching quite a few whitefish, some very fat and quite large.


We had quite a few tangles with a tree at the head of the hole and while I was re-rigging one of the rods David hooked into something very large. After a second or two I saw it flash out in the current and I started yelling, "huge brown! huge brown!". David played the fish perfectly. This fish did not want to budge from the current. After what seemed like an eternity we beached the fish on a shallow gravel bar. This was an impressive fish. I need to remember to buy a small tape measure but I would estimate the fish around 20 inches plus. After a few quick pictures we sent him on his way. That was the best river caught fish I had seen in a long time. It made the trip that much more special. David has a knack for pulling out the big boys and I am glad because I have just as much fun watching as catching.

Neither of these pictures do justice to this fish, in the first his tail is bent away from the camera and in the one below the rod and reel were held in the air well in front of the fish and not down at his level, the reel circumfrence would have easily fit inside his tail.

We ventured downstream but for some reason no other hole produced a fish for us. We eventually came back to the magic hole of the day and landed a few more whitefish and David caught another smaller brown with extremely light coloring. This was a trip where David was able to add one more fish to his Wall of Fame. Until next time, tight lines!

Very light colored brown