April 15th, 2023
I look forward to the middle of April as it not only signals a change of season here in the greater Yellowstone region, but it is also my birthday. My fiancé and I make the trip down to Ashton, Idaho to celebrate with her family. It turns out her father’s birthday is the day after mine, so we celebrate the only way we know how, fishing.
It’s always special being able to fish with Dwayne as he has taught me so much in the sport and continues to be one of my go-to connections to bounce ideas off in this never-ending hobby. I attribute a lot of my skills and success in this sport to him, and I am forever grateful for the relationship we have developed over the last few years.
The harsh winter we have seen in the area is still very apparent in eastern Idaho. While the Bozeman area has switched into spring mode with snow melting and bugs beginning to hatch, Ashton still has lots of snow, and water temperatures aren’t quite warm enough for spring hatches.
Putting on the famous Henrys Fork around 10:30 AM, we had to drop the boat over the snowbank with the boat ramps still covered in snow. We were also accompanied by Gavin, Dwayne’s son, who is a good fisherman himself. Though we were not sure what the fish gods had in store for us on this bright spring day, we were happy to be out together.
The last few years floating the fork around mid-April have yielded some of the best blue wing olive days I’ve ever seen. This year we didn’t see a single fish rise. We filtered through a variety of nymph patterns with our greatest success coming on the egg pattern. Gavin and Dwayne mainly nymphed throughout the day, though we did try a dry dropper in the hopes of fooling one on a skwala. No luck there. We hooked about a dozen decent fish (8 – 15 inches) on the nymphs which kept us interested throughout the day, but it was slow compared to other days we have experienced.
I committed to the streamer most of the day. After moving two fish in front of the boat ramp I was optimistic for a decent streamer day, though it was more of a curse. It took a few hours before I was able to hook and land my only fish of the day, but it was a solid brown trout that made the birthday float a great success
I’ll never complain about a day floating the Henrys Fork. Like many, the fork has a special place in my heart, and I am grateful for the many opportunities I’ve had to fish in the area. We enjoyed the warm sun and made the best of a nice spring day. I assumed the high sun and spawning rainbows had something to do with the slow fishing, though we each had our struggles throughout the day. Right after I took the oars, Gavin landed the smallest whitefish I had ever seen. This fish seemed to curse Gavin for the next 30 minutes. Every couple of casts Gavin came up with a tangled line or missing flies.
I had my own struggles, as I spent about 45 seconds fishing and lost five flies within that time frame. Literally, four casts in a row lost three streamers and a nymph rig broke off in the rocks. It was hard to watch. Though this may have been frustrating in the moment, it made for a great laugh when giving the girls a rundown of the day. Those moments are priceless.
A weekend filled with family, fishing, and amazing food cannot be replaced. I feel so blessed to be able to spend my birthday weekend doing what I love, in an amazing area of the world, with people who fill me with joy.
My Setup
The streamer setup I used was my 9ft 8wt Echo Streamer X paired with Scientific Angler Amplitude Infinity taper floating line. I fished a 7.5 ft monofilament leader to a micro swivel where I tied another foot of 2x tippet material to a variety of streamer patterns. The one fish I fooled on a streamer was caught on a black meat whistle. Though I’m not fully sure what the nymph rigs looked like on the other rods, from what I saw was a standard 9-foot leader to 3x. This is where a size 10 chubby was tied on with two dropper nymphs below on about four feet of 4x tippet. An olive bullet and bead pattern tied in line with a small split shot between seemed to be the most effective setup.
What I learned
This trip was eye-opening to me as I realized how much I need to learn when fishing from and rowing a drift boat. I love wade fishing and have spent a lot of my time honing my skills from foot the last few years. The constant motion of the boat made things difficult for me and I never felt I was fishing the water effectively from the boat. I just need more time in a boat to begin to feel comfortable and learn how to effectively cover water using all techniques. While I have moderate rowing experience, rowing to fish is a different game and I have a lot to learn in this area as well. This will come with practice, and I look forward to more time fishing from watercraft to develop these skills.
What Left Me Curious?
How did the rainbow trout spawn affect our fishing that day? I wondered if many of the fish had moved into tributaries, or if many had other things on their mind rather than feeding. It’s funny how the fall brown trout spawn is put on a pedestal in the fly-fishing community, but the rainbow trout spawn is rarely talked about. At least in my circles. This is a point a good friend of mine brought up.
It was prime spawning time for those fish, especially with the colder water temperatures this year. I know many guys look forward to migrating fish and targeting them, but I wonder if it worked against us on this day. I tend to assume many factors go into play when having slow or amazing days of fishing, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the spawning activity had to do with the slower than normal fishing on such a nice day. I’d love to hear what your opinion is on this topic!
