After the amazing fishing with Dusty and Colt, another great event was waiting, the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston. The venue was the Sacagawea Park, along the banks of the Yellowstone river. Unfortunately Chris Barclay couldn't join the Clave, which was a huge bummer.
I think there were about 20 attendees from all over the country. Some, like Mike McFarland, drove 27 hours from Bellwood, Pennsylvania to Livingston, Montana. That's some serious scenic route he and his friends took.
I arrived around 6 PM at the venue. Several rod builders were setting up the table with their rods. Among them Livingtson Rod Company, Bob Hallowell and Mike McFarland.
After dinner the casting of the rods, talking about tapers and lengths went full swing.
Around 9 PM Dusty kicked off the raffle. The prizes to be won was pretty impressive. Fly lines by 406 Fly Lines, hats, T-shirts and sweaters and three rods donated by Chris Barclay, Livingston Rod Company and a collaboration rod by Mike McFarland/Bob Hallowell. I won a T-shirt, sweater and the McFarland/Hallowell rod!
After fishing two days on the Henry's Fork I left the Angler's Lodge in Island Park, Idaho around 7 AM and took the route to Montana this time via Ennis, Noris to Livingston for my next get-together with Dusty and Colt.
I stopped briefly at Raynold'sPass. A well known stretch on the Madison river where I have fished in the past. This is, together with the stretch at the 3 Dollar Bridge, probably the best stretch to wade fish the Madison river outside the park.
Along the way to Ennis I saw the El Western Lodge where Tom Morgan's parents used to operated, back then, the motel. Barely 100 meters further down road 287 is the O'Dell spring creek where Tom used to guide the motel guests when he was a kid. A nice piece of fly fishing history that doesn't seem to have changed.
A stop at Madison River Fishing Company down town Ennis is mandatory. This fly shop was one of my main supplier of fly tying material for many years before the internet. The ownership changed some 5-6 years ago. After getting an obligatory hat of the shop, I continued my way to meet Dusty and Colt at George's shop in Livingston. I arrived at the Yellowstone Angler around 10:30 AM.
Being a local, Dusty knows the streams only locals know. He asked if we wanted to catch some nice native cutthroats on hoppers. Well hell, that's what we're here for! 😀 We headed for about 45 minutes drive to a tributary of the Yellowstone river. Driving along a dirt road, the scenery turned into a hills filled with burnt trees. I know forest fires are nothing unusual here, it still looks barren and desolate. A more milder temperature (around 22 C / low 70's F) was a nice change from the heat of the past week.
We geared up with light rods. Dusty brought a light rod from his new fibreglass series (yet to be released) while Colt brought his five piece Lamiglass he built himself. I had my Scott bamboo with me.
The stream, some parts barely 3 meters (9 ft) wide while the widest part being about 5 meters wide (15 ft), was filled with fallen trees providing shade and hiding spots for the fish. Navigating upstream was challenging as we had to climb over trees with nasty leftovers of branches.
As we leisurely moved upstream while taking turns on spots, fish were eagerly taking the offerings. The cutts were surprisingly large for the size, type of water (freestone) and altitude. Most fish were around 8-12 inch, while fish caught in the 15-16 range aren't uncommon here.
Every interesting spot seem to host one or two nice fish. Spots where overhead cast was awkward, a bow-and-arrow presentation did the trick.
We used various hopper and beetle patterns. I used my Alien Bug and the cutts seem to like them.
After a late lunch Dusty had to leave early to prepare for the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston later today. Colt and I decided to move upstream. The weather seem to have cooled down slightly and the wind picked up a bit. While we fished for another hour and a half, we kept on catching (and loosing) very hungry cutts. The sky filled up with clouds and eventually it started to rain lightly. We decided to call it a quits. A few final casts resulted in the best fish of the day for Colt. With a handsome 15-16 inch cutt we wrapped up an amazing day.
As we walked back to the truck, wind gusts started to intensify. Not long after we drove back down the road it started to rain. Talk about good timing.
The next morning my drone took off near Osborne Bridge at around 6:30 AM to take some nice footages of the Henry's Fork at sunrise. After the shooting I drove to Wood Road 16 to fish the morning. The stretch at Wood Road 16 was recommended by Eric, a forum member at Classic fly rod forum.
The 'entrance' of the Wood Road 16 stretch
Nice and calm morning
Caught about a dozen rainbows, mainly in the 8-12 inch range until around noon. Insects (PMDs and small caddis) started to move around at 9 AM. Rusty spinners and small PMD cripples seemed to work best for me.
I went back to my lodge around 12:30 PM and wanted to try the banks along the lodge with hoppers and beetles. I wasn't getting the response I was hoping for. The heat was in full swing and the temperature of the water near the bank was probably already too high for the fish.
After about an hour I packed up and decided to check out the upper faster stretches of the Henry's Fork at Box Canyon to see if fish were more eager to take a fly during the heat of the afternoon.
The outlet of the Island Park Reservoir
Henry's Fork is pretty swift here at Box Canynon stretch
A steep path down to the river at the Box Canyon camping ground
The stretch near the camping ground another fisherman had the same idea about fishing during the heat. This stretch at Box Canyon fishing along the banks is not an easy task with the higher banks against the hill. My friends are about to arrive in Island Park in less than 45 minutes and I was starting to feel hungry. At around 4 PM I went to the Trout Hunter Bar to get some lunch while waiting for my friend Dan and his brother Doug. They decided to drive down from Bozeman and fish the Henry's Fork this weekend.
After a drink at the Bar Dan and I drove to the Last Chance stretch to meet up with his brother Doug and fish the evening together. As we were gearing up the heat was already gone. It even felt a bit chilly!
As we walked the banks we could see darker clouds appear in the distance. As we looked over the river to see if there are any fish activity the dark clouds were rapidly approaching us. Wind started to pick up and at around 8 PM it was apparent there won't be any fishing this evening. As several other fishermen were leaving the river, we walked back the the parking lot.
Well, this Henry's Fork virus is surely one that grabs you and don't let go. I'll try it again next time. Maybe I should fish a few days longer than the two days I planned.
Update June 18, 2020:
Henry's Fork is not a river where you start catching fish by covering the water with random casts to promising spots. Henry's Fork legend Mike Lawson explains how to fish the Henry's Fork.
