Barrie and I were introduced through the fly fishing club in Florida. I joined it after moving there in 2006 and Barrie and I stared fishing together shortly after. Neither of us owned a flats boat, but we both had kayaks so that was how we fished together. That, and wading some of our favorite places that could be accessed from shore.
Barrie’s roots were trout fishing as are mine and that was a thread for us as most of the Florida fly fishermen have a keen focus on saltwater and don’t have the trout roots. Barrie is also a great tyer and has given me some good critique. We last fished together here in Idaho 5 years ago in 2017, the first year after we bought the cabin.
It was a June trip and we had weather that was all over the map, including a cold, rainy day on the Henry’s Fork. The first day out was a float from Warm River to Ashton Lake. This can be a great section for dry flies and is is really just one long run which makes it difficult to find any differentiated structure, except for a few occasional big rocks. The green drakes are a June hatch but we did not see any on this trip.
It was our first visit to The Ranch on opening day – June 15th, 2017. Perhaps a mistake as I now go the day after. The parking lot was full and there we well over 200 people there, when we arrived at around 10am. We were overwhelmed and felt completely out of our element, I so took us to another spot that required a 1.5 mile walk in to get to the river. It was a flat walk, but seemed long none the less. We didn’t find any rising fish and decided to tie on soft hackles. I did well swinging them through a fast run but all the fish were small and Barrie decided he would stay closer to shore in water that is not as swift. Since the fishing was not that great, we did not last that long there. As you can see the wildflowers were just stunning though.
Our next float was back on the Henry’s Fork, floating the Ora Bridge to Chester Dam section of the river. This is the area that I have come to love over the past several years. There is more structure than up above and I have been investing more time here, to really learn where the fish live and when, what and how they eat. It got rainy while we were floating, on and off with lots of clouds. That said, it was really a good day fishing wise. Unfortunately, Barrie’s big brown escaped, thanks to a crappy knot that I tied. Sorry my friend, it won’t happen again!
Barrie and I had plans to get together again last September, but we postponed because of the warm water temps and low flows. We decided to reschedule to early May this year. Water temps will be low, crowds will be minimal and we should have solid hatches of caddis and BWO’s. Gotta love the dry fly fishing, and we will be fishing from my new drift boat!!! I’m excited and we are making plans! This time we will also be fishing with Ray! Stay tuned……..
