Trip to Henry's Fork and Madison for my son and I

[Byron haugh]

Herefishy,
Just a mini-taste of a short video my son in Chile is working on about our recent trip:

https://vimeo.com/225672619

[Byron haugh]

I don't tie Salmonflies myself. So, we purchased Salmonflies from a number of fly shops. Blue Ribbon, Beartooth, and the Slide Inn as well as a couple others. We found that there was a significant difference in the various patterns in their hook-up rate.

I intend to work on a pattern for next season. It was very interesting that 3 of us used differing patterns and found some which worked much better than the others....


Just in case there are any novices reading this thread: Stoneflies do not "hatch" in the river. They crawl out of the river onto land and attach to rocks, grass, bushes, or trees near the river. They dry out, and break free from their nymphal shucks to mate. They have 4 wings and are clumbsy fliers. Many, many of them fall from the bushes/grass/trees along the river into the water below. This often happens when a breeze comes along.
The trout wait along the banks in very shallow water to feed on them.

When they are active and falling into the water near the bank, many imitations will work when cast right at the water edge and free floated downstream.

When they are not active and are not falling into the river, we found that a rather gaudy imitation version works better.

The one below is such a pattern. If you look closely, you can see how they chewed this one up.....



My son on the Ranch of the Henry's Fork

[Byron haugh]

Anyone use this? Kelly Galloup swears by it, so I picked up a bottle.

For use the day before using the flies.

Kelly claims you can catch a bunch of fish when you pre-treat your fries with flyAgra before the fly will sink.

[jcampbell]

Haven't heard of this one. I use a similar product called Water Shed. Same 24 hour application requirement. It does work.

[Byron haugh]

I am a big fan of "a little dab 'll do ya" dry magic. But gotta try this Flyagra

[Byron haugh]

This chewed up pattern worked well for me.....especially when it had rubber legs intact.

[Byron haugh]

Another pattern which was productive for me was Blue Ribbon Flies' Nick's Sunken Stone. The photo of the fly as purchased is from their website.

Bucky McCormick showed me how to massage the "Mohawk" style deer hair to either side of the fly before fishing as also shown in the pictures I took before tying on.

Blue Ribbon Flies' photo of their fly is at the bottom as you would purchase or tie it.

Great fly!!

[Byron haugh]

Herefishy:
At least I think it was Herefishy who inquired about using my Caddis with some UV fibers in the trailing shuck:

When I sent the photo below to my son the other day, he responded: "thanks for your fly with the UV"....

Brown caught with one of my caddis patterns on the Henry's Fork below Ashton.....wade fishing.


It is very hard to get a quick photo of someone's fish. You have to be close with a camera, and nobody wants to quit fishing to take a photo and no one wants to have a fish out of water for more than a couple seconds. So, we only get photos of some of the fish. However, in the future, I want to try to get a photo of the fly as well to document the pattern working.

[Marco]

I can just picture the dudes' face at your license application place. "You guys are from WHERE ??????" In any case, I haven't fished the Henry's Fork in at least 40 years but your pics are whetting my appetite. I generally prefer tighter spaces and faster water but I can get over that after viewing your results. I see the fish and I see the recipe, the rest should be a piece of cake. Looks like you guys had a grand time and thanks for sharing the experience .
Mark

PS: We'll be up thataways from Sept 17 thru Oct 9th or so ( after the tourists leave).

[Byron haugh]

Marco,
Fall can be good there. I fished the pools just inside the Park on the Madison. However, although the tourists might be thinning out, the fishermen aren't at the Barns' Pools.