It’s that time of year again. As we get into the month of June, the best dry fly fishing is about to take place on the Henry’s Fork. The cold days are over and with great water flows, sunny days, and hungry trout comes some of the best fishing of the year. The famed Henry's Fork hatches have already begun with the emergence of a variety of mayflies that will complete their life cycle on the water, and provide us anglers with hours of excitement.
This season looks to be the complete opposite of last year, with great water flows and hatches arriving on schedule if not a little bit early. The weather is warm and sunny in Island Park...so come on over to the Henry’s Fork!
The Upper Henry’s Fork
Flows in the Box Canyon have remained constant at around 900 CFS.
Salmonflies are still being spotted, and Golden Stones are now beginning to be seen throughout the different sections of the river. Nymph fishing remains the most effective way to fish the canyon in the morning hours with different color zebra midges. Then don’t be afraid to dry drop once you hit the first meadow in the afternoon.
There are great caddis hatches starting, which has provided some surprisingly large early season fish in the Last Chance area. We are also beginning to see a few PMD’s flying around.
Harriman State Park opens to fishing on June 15th.
Warm River to Ashton
This section has produced well with nymph fishing being the most effective method, however we are starting to see Golden Stones, and this section should pick up this coming week to offer some great dry fly action with the warm weather.
Use a smaller rubberlegs nymph on as a dropper below your dry when hammering the banks.
Ashton Tailwater
The reservoir was drawn to the level at which it will remain for the rest of the season, however this drawdown has now caused the river to be slightly off-color. Any heavy rainfall is also producing runoff from the Ashton Dam construction site.
However, don’t let that discourage you from fishing this section as we have had medium to good action on top with most of our larger fish being taken on rubberlegs nymphs. That being said, the Golden Stones are crawling out and should be giving us some productive dry fly fishing for the next several weeks.
Tributaries
Warm River is fishing well with large attractor dries and dropper nymphs.
Fall River is still a little off-color and very cold, so no major migration of Salmonflies yet.
South Fork of the Snake
Flows are holding at 11,000 CFS and are predicted to remain at that level for an extended period of time. Water clarity is excellent and nymph and streamer fishing have been the ticket for getting into some nice early season fish. BWO’s have been hatching in great numbers to provide some decent dry fly fishing as well.
However, subsurface fishing techniques will be the most productive and yield the most fish.
Madison River
All of the Madison is now open to fishing.
Reports are that the river is somewhat off color below Quake Lake and any tributary, but success is being had using early season nymphs such as san juan worms and large rubberlegs. The streamer fishing has also been exceptional. It seems that they don’t care what kind of pattern you throw, as the fish are just looking for stuff to eat. Remember…big flies catch big fish.
Area Lakes
Henry’s Lake opened this year to a surprisingly small number of anglers. Perhaps this is because the lake ice came off so early in the year, that most all of the trout moved back into the lake even before the opener.
Leeches and large streamers have produced well on the lake. Don't forget to trail small nymphs as well.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is now open to fishing with the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers being the most popular for this time of the year. You can expect to see good numbers of caddis and PMD’s hatching with plenty of eager trout rising in the meadows. Any cold overcast days might still produce some BWO's on the Madison.
Swinging soft hackles such as a Partridge & Peacock or Partridge & Pheasant is always the standard method for fishing the Firehole.