52nd ay of Fly Fishing – October 21st, 2004 – The Henry’s Fork 850cfs
Molly has been on a few floats in her four and a half years. You might ask why so few? Well, it’s largely because Molly is basically ADHD. We she is on a boat, which is a small space for a dog, she is surrounded by water and it makes her anxious. In the past when I have had her on the boat, she basically paces non-stop, walking along the gunnels. This day was a breakthrough however! Ultimately, as a captain, you want the boat dog to just hang out and sit is one spot, especially when you have a fisherman upfront and definitely if you have one front and back. Molly is not that dog yet, but with this float she has been much better than on previous floats – not pacing, but standing in one place and looking out. She still moves around some, but not continuously as before. For her, repetition is the key and I plan to take her on all solo floats moving forward.
Fall float on the Henry’s Fork
First off, the conditions were not ideal. Fall 2024 got off to a really slow start, mostly due to warm temparatures. So the issue with the Henry’s Fork below Ashton is the thick weeds are still there. They have not released yet. Combine this with lower flows and fishing below the surface becomes difficult, whether nymphing or stripping streamers, the weeds were a problem. For the first half of the float, I worked a leech pattern through all the spots where I thought it would work, anchoring up where I needed to and sometimes getting out of the boat. Ordinarily, this would make Molly anxious, but not today. She stood and watched very calmly. I picked up a couple of smaller fish, then I had a really nice fish on and lost it after a jump and a roll basically threw the hook.
As I posted up to a dry fly area and decided to eat lunch while looking for heads, the upstream wind, which was already a problem, just kept getting stronger. WInd and throwing small dry flies is always a problem. It made it even more difficult to dial in the right fly. Was I getting refusals due to fly choice? Or were they refusing due to bad drift, thanks to 30 knot wind gusts? Anyway, the wind just kept putting the fish down and the rises weren’t very regular to begin with, so decided to push on.
An hour later, I made it down to my secret spot. Still secret as no other boats were there. I posted up looking for heads and there were a few. It looked like a white midge. I went with a fly I tied with a white wing called a no-see-um. Putting it on my Scott G2 3wt I also had to add 6.5x tippet due to the size 24 To me, it seemed like a perfect match but I felt like I was getting refusals. But to be fair getting a good drift and getting full extension of the leader and tippet was nearly impossible. Also a confounding influence was the fact that the fly was basically weightless at the end of really fine tippet. This combo made getting a solid presentation, literally impossible! I finally did an eat, but it was a smaller fish, not the big dogs the secret spot is known for. But the big fish did not join in. These flies were just too small to get them excited.
Learnings
So with that, Molly and I headed for the take out. Today, I did learn a few things. Know that without a doubt, the wind on the river will always be stronger than the forecast for Ashton forecasts, or any others for that matter. Second, 850 cfs is a low flow on the HF. It is a winter flow. And in winter, you have to be stealth in your approach, you also don’t have to deal with weeds, and many winter days have light or no winds. But the real advantage is in winter, the bulk of the weeds are gone as well, making it much easier to locate and approach fish. But, having said all of that, every float on a section of a river better prepares you for the next float on that section. My knowledge base is clearly growing!
Molly Poses in Front of the Tetons at Sunset
