Warm River is a tributary to the Henry's Fork east of Ashton, ID. It is a spring creek, with the mainstem forming for many miles above the old Fish Hatchery, supplemented by Warm Springs. There is nothing but wilderness between the river and Yellowstone National Park. On the way in this afternoon, I had to pass this meadow.



Then, as I approached the Hatchery, I was greeted by a moose in the middle of the river. Unfortunately, by the time I could get out of the truck to get her photo, she had moved to the far side of the river.



The mainstem of the Warm River heads back up this canyon for miles. Over the past several years, I've fished about five miles of it, starting at the hatchery and heading upstream for several miles and accessing it at a point further up and then fishing down a couple miles. It is quite a delightful dry fly stream with lots of bows, mostly 8" to 12", and brookies, mostly 6" to 9".



The river usually runs crystal clear and low, but today it was really off color and quite high. I hiked about a mile upstream and tried fishing for a few minutes, but then noticed a BUNCH of mosquitos on both legs and arms and decided I didn't want to deal with them. Good fishing conditions would have outweighed the inconvenience of the mosquitos, but fishing was not going to be fun up there today.

Warm Springs flows out of the hillside just below the hatchery and puts 200 CFS at 50F into the river. Its not really clear in the photo, but the difference between the water from the mainstem in the foreground and the water from the spring is quite remarkable.



I wandered downstream about a quarter mile and met some folks from Utah who were taking a lunch break. They had fished for a while down from where they were taking their break and had only caught one small bow between them. Another fellow was fishing that area and had caught a dozen or so typical Warm River bows.

The couple from Utah mentioned that about a half dozen grizzly bears have been spotted quite recently upstream from the old hatchery. Maybe I should send a thank you note and a pint of fresh blood to those mosquitos ??