By Chris Lawon
It always surprises me when the snow starts to fall, and I realize that our fishing season has wrapped up. It seems like a whirlwind trying to look back over the summer months. When Memorial Day weekend rolls in everything becomes a blur, and it’s not until Halloween that things become clear again. We had another great year here at Henry’s Fork Anglers. Our fishing was fantastic, and so were our water conditions. However, we will need a big snow year this upcoming winter for favorable conditions next year…so start thinking snow!
We had spectacular stonefly hatches again. The Salmonflies arrived May 15th on the lower river, and the Golden Stones hatched shortly thereafter. Lots of big brown trout were landed on the lower river. We also had some great dry fly fishing in the Box Canyon with the big bugs this year. This hatch is always a treat for those who timed it right.
We also had prolific hatches of PMD’s, Green and Brown Drakes, Caddis, Flavs, Mahogany Duns, Tricos, and Baetis on the Henry’s Fork. I got a chance to fish the Ranch during the Brown Drake hatch for a couple of nights with some fantastic dry fly fishing. It was a treat to land several big rainbows over 20 inches and watch the sun set over Bishop Mountain. We had several old time loyal customers come in and tell us the fishing this year reminded them of the “good old days.” The Ranch fished great for much of all season and the hopper fishing was incredible during August and September. One of our clients landed a rainbow pushing 26 inches! Those of you wondering if there is any fish in the Ranch…let me affirm with a resounding “YES.”
As this season comes to a close we would like to recognize guide Dan Kappes and give him many thanks for all the great service he provide our clients. We thank him for his loyalty, friendship, and professionalism he has provided HFA for over eight years. We wish him well in his future endeavors as he moves on in his pursuit of law. I confident that he will be a great lawyer, and I will be sure to look him up next time I get in trouble.
We would also like to highlight the wounded veterans at Higher Ground. Some of our guides were able to take these great young men out on our local waters for a couple of days. We are appreciative of their service to this country, and recognize that the freedom we all enjoy is very much not free. We were also fortunate to donate some time on the river to Youth on The Fly in cooperation of the Henry’s Fork Foundation. It is wonderful to get our youth involved with this great resource. The future of these great rivers and streams depend on them.
Now it is time to buckle down and prepare for 2013. We will be improving our website, and we also have a much more favorable selection of products on our online store. If you are interested in some great gift ideas for the holidays please visit here. We wish you a wonderful holiday season, and look forward to the 2013 season. See you on the river next year!