Last week Mike and I enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather for some fishing on the Henry's Fork and Fall River. It had been awhile since Mike and I had fished together. Our interactions are so often work oriented that it was nice to spend a day on the water with him.
Usually winters in Idaho limit an angler's choices as far as accessibility to the water...but not this year! This winter the low snowpack in the valley and mild daytime temperatures have allowed anglers more days on the river and more access. As we loaded into Mike's truck we couldn't decide where we wanted to go. Should we go fish dry midges to the lazy cutthroat trout of the South Fork? How about nymph the world-class pocket water in the Box Canyon? Maybe go swing leech patterns in search of monster browns on lower Henry's Fork? Decisions, decisions, decisions...
With a limited number of hours to fish we spent the first half of the afternoon catching cookie cutter rainbows on Fall River and then ended our day below Vernon Bridge on the Henry's Fork. I was curious as to the health of the trout below Ashton due to the prolonged dam repairs this past fall which caused off color water conditions for almost three months. And I was pleasantly surprised to find all the trout that we landed to be healthy and heavy which is evident in the above picture of Mike and one of the nice rainbows he caught and released that February afternoon.
The river all to ourselves, fishing with a living legend, richly colored rainbows...a day of winter fishing.
Written by Jake Wells