This post is pretty late but I’ve been swamped the past couple weeks with moving up to MD and getting started working. Brandon and I went out to the world famous Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in Idaho to help out on a study with Marine Ventures and the Henry’s Fork Foundation. Check out Marine Ventures Blog and the Henry’s Fork Foundation Calder Project Page for more information on our study. We were there for the week, June 14-20, and fished most days on the Ranch section. For two days we headed over to Yellowstone to fish the Firehole River.

It was my first time ever fishing out west, I am a North Carolina native and I have never fly fished for trout out of the state. We arrive at the Fork in the afternoon of June 14th and get the RV set up and ready for opening day of the Harriman State Park (Ranch section of the river). We get set up and I decided to fish upstream of the Ranch (legal year round). I casted my San Juan worm into several riffles and in the first hour hooked up on a nice fish. With the strong current (apparently not strong by Western standards–but stronger than anything I’ve fished back home) my 4wt was doubled over and after 4 jumps with the fish 2ft+ out of the water I landed this 16″ rainbow.

When I got back to parking lot with stories of the fish, I was told that it was “illegally” hooked. I was exposed to my first glimpse of “Dry Fly Fishermen”. It was interesting to see people that will only fish with dry flies to a rising trout—even if that means not catching fish or even not fishing. From what we were told in the parking lot no other fish was caught this day. I fished a little more this day but didn’t hook any more fish, but managed to snap my 4wt rod mid cast at the middle ferrule (probably a symptom of fighting the fish). We had a truckload of rods and I grabbed a 5wt that was better suited for this river.

On opening day at the Ranch, we geared up and walked down the banks to find a spot to fish. The river was super crowded this day with anglers staking their spots on the bank to watch for rising fish. We sat down and talked to one group of anglers for over an hour and it was amazing to hear their stories, each one of these three guys had been fishing the Fork for over 40 years—each had witnessed the river in its heyday with monster trout rising to the plentiful huge Green Drakes on opening day. This year, due to a late winter, the Green Drakes were not ready to come off.

We were disappointed to not see a single fish in the water all day, we only heard of 2 fish caught by these Fork veterans (we were hard pressed to find any anglers who had fished the river less than 25 years). We only fished a little this day, and none of our crew hooked a fish.

The following day, Monday June 16, was the same story. Only a few fish caught, no flies coming off and no fish in our group. We decided to head down the road to the lower section of the Ranch—we got to mud up our Suburban on the dirt road but that was the most exciting park of the day. While fishing the river Brandon flew over us taking pictures for an angler count on the river.


Word around the campground was that due to the cold water temperatures, fishing would not pick up for a few days.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we headed to Yellowstone to fish the Firehole and check out the park. We stopped by Bud Lily’s fly shop in West Yellowstone, Montana to get the scoop on hot flies for the river. We were sent off with Caddis, Royal Wulff’s, PMDs and Soft Hackles. We fished for about 30 minutes in strong winds with no sign of fish, but to our surprise a nice Caddis hatch came off and the fishing was on fire. We fished that hatch and got 9 fish between four of us in about 2 hours time. Below is a picture of Joe with a nice brown trout.

The next day on the Firehole was decent, no hatches coming off but a few fish were still willing to take Caddis dries. I fished a prince Nymph and got a few fish. The Firehole was a nice break from the technical fishing of the Henry’s Fork, but the fish were all small (only up to 10-11”).

On Thursday we headed back to the Ranch, while walking down the bank we spotted a few risers and decided to stop. We found one of the best pieces of river in the Ranch this day, three perfectly placed rocks created a 50ft long column of eddies. Many bugs were in the air this day, but we saw none on the water. We saw Caddis, PMDs, Flying Ants, and loads of mosquitoes. While waiting to cast to a riser we saw a friend from the campground with a rod doubled over up stream. He fought the fish, and it ran right through our staked out hole, a run of over 50 yards; the guy caught the fish and it measured 20” (check out the video of his catch here: Marine Ventures Foundation » Opening Day on the Ranch, 2008). We saw that he was using a Black Flying Ant, and I immediately tied one on. The fish in our hole settled down after about 15 minutes and started to rise again, I crept into the water and cast right where I wanted the fly, nothing. On my third cast to this spot this 12” rainbow took the fly.

Brandon then waded out and as soon as he got in the water the wind picked up—no more hatch or rising fish. We headed back in to get some lunch and work on the project some more.

The next day we trekked back to our same hole and saw tons of rising fish again. I cast out my PMD fly several times and hooked up on a nice fish, right at my feet this fish decided to come off the barbless hook, this fish was probably right at 14”. I missed my chance on that fish and sent Brandon in the water to catch him with Flying Ant tied on he hooked this fish in two casts.

I ended up landing two more fish in this spot, one around 10” and the other 12”.

The final day of the trip we headed back to the same spot but mostly to put the rest of the crew on fish. Slack lines and clumsy casts kept the fish from being landed this day, several fish were missed and one big one was broken off. It was time to head back east to give it a go in the saltwater…

The Henry’s Fork trip was the greatest fishing trip I’ve ever been on for sure. I had a great time and a caught a few fish. I would have loved to fish the river in its prime, when fish under 20” didn’t count, and the habitat was perfect for the big bugs that bring the big fish to the top. This was great technical river to fish if you ever get the chance. We weren’t able to find tons of fish on the Ranch section of the river but check out this video we made of the upper section, which has apparently great habitat for the fish here: Marine Ventures Foundation » Under the bridge.

A few more pictures from our trip:

Trout Hunter

Last Chance, ID

Scanning the River after Breakfast

Campground/parking lot where we stayed (we were the only guys there who hadn’t fished the fork for 25 years):

Trying to spot fish off the canyon on the Fork

Bison in the middle of the road in Yellowstone

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Northern Patagonia Fishing - Aoniken Spring Creek Hike-in Adventure

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Pulmari River Fishing Report - Rainbow and Brown Trout Fishing

Weather: Moring was a bit chilly in the low 50’s and later warmed up during the day to get into the middle 70’s
Water Conditions: The Pulmari River as a bit low, but has been fishing OK
Fly Fishing Equipment: 5 and 6wts with floating lines and dry flies

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Northern Patagonia - Alumine River Fishing Report - Rainbow and Brown Trout Fishing

Morning Session
Weather: Morning was a bit chilly in the low 50’s and later warmed up during the day to get into the middle 70’s
Water Conditions: The Alumine River as a bit low, but has been fishing OK
Fly Fishing Equipment: 5 and 6wts with 250 and 350 sinking lines drifting nymphs.

Report
I fished with Mapu alone, Tom and Ryan fished with Javier. Mapu is a Park and Fisheries Ranger. His family owns a camp ground which we floated by and his Mom came out and took some pics. Fishing was a little crazy in that we drift double nymph rigs, but actually stripped them in. I caught a fish almost immediately as we started our drift fomr the put in. It was pretty consistent hooking and a good amount of catching the entire day. Mostly rainbows, but I managed two nice browns. First one was very large, but I was holding the fish just above the water so I did not keep him out of the water long and he slipped out and he went right back to his home waters before Mapu could get the shot.

We stopped for lunch around 2pm where Slyvia (the outfits cook) had set up a great little camp with everything including a tent to keep the bees out. Interesting things on the bees (yellow jackets) in Argentina. They are not native and were introduced to eat the horse flies. The problem is that someone did not seem to do their research because the two do not seem to come out during the same season. As soon as the late summer comes the horse flies disappaear and the bees appear, which means the bees never have a chance to even eat the horse flies. And when the food comes out, man so do the bees. As long as you do not swat and make them mad you are good and will not get stung, start swinging and your about garentees to find yourself with a nice welt. After lunch we took about an hour and a half siesta, then loaded into the boats and contiuned on down the Alumine. About fifteen minutes into the float I hooked into another nice brown, this time I held on to the fish and Mapu was able to take a few shots. The rest of the day was smaller sized rainbows landed with a beautiful backdrop of the Alumine River basin. We fished up the drift around 8pm,jumped in the trucks and headed back to the Patagonia Fishing Club’s Lodge. On the ride home we talked about the day and Tom and Ryan we not able to land any larger fish, but caught plenty on the numbers side.

We were greeted by Guy who had apetizers ready and a bottle of Argentine wine already opened. We showered, grab some apetizers, talked about fishing and then sat down to dinner around 9:30pm. For dinner we had Argentine lasanga followed with flan for desert. We wrapped up dinner around 10:45pm and decided to get an internet connection which required us to pack into guy’s truck and head into downtown Alumine to the internet cafe. We each logged on to the painfully slow connection, checked what email we could and closed the place down at midnight. For the three of us for an hour it was 6 pesos or $3US. By 12:20am were were back at the lodge and we were beat, so we hit the sack.

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Northeast Argentina - We Leave Pira Lodg/ Iberia Marsh and head to The Patagonia Fishing Club in Northern Patagonia located in the small down of Alumine

Morning Session
Weather: Cloudy, warm in the 70’s
Water Conditions: N/A
Fly Fishing Equipment: Packed for the next stop

Report
Today was a big travel day taking us from the north east side of Argentina to the Northern Patagonia region. Yesterday evening just after we arrived at the dock a good sized storm rolled in dumping a good amount of rain resulting in what was he final blow to our chances of having the charter plane land on Pira Lodge’s private air strip. While the rain was good for the marsh helping the water quality and possibly the water level, it was not good for our backs as it meant we had to take over a 2 hour truck ride, half of which was on dirt roads, to Goya where we would meet the plane at Goya’s small airport. We left Pira at 7am, loaded up the plane and headed to Buenos Aires. Two hours and a few minutes later (the flight back was a little shorter because hte charter plane was a different model (a Mitschabie that could do 300knots) we arrived at the private flight terminal where we were met by ____________from Prana Tourismo. We loaded up the small bus which took us to the domistic terminal across the airport which took about ten minutes. From there we loaded up and took a two hour flight to Baraloche. At Baraloche airport we were met by Guy who is the Assistant Manager at the Patagonia Fishing Club. We loaded up his Toyota Hilux and set out for the four and a half hour drive north to the lodge. We took a less direct route to the lodge, but the route has more paved then dirt roads which allows for a better ride and a bit shorter, though the distance is longer. Guy entertained us with Argentina history and a commentary on Argentina modern politics. It was quite a ride. We arrived in Alumine around 8:45pm and traveled five minutes out of down to the lodge which is located on an enstancia which is about 400 hectors or 800 acres. Small by Argentina standards, but a very nice place. The Patagonia Fishing lodge is as authentic as it gets.

We unpacked some of our stuff and apitizers was served at the “bar” at 9:30pm, followed by dinner at 10:00pm. Dinner was a beef dish with pan friend potatos with a while sauce. Guy continued his entertainment talking to us about Argentine politics, about some of his adventures with clients and followed up with information about how our stay would unfold. Tomorrow we would be floating the Alumnie in rafts with fishing guides Mapu and Javier. Wake up call is 7:30am, “early” for Argentine standards, breakfast at 8am and the guides would arrive around 8:30am.

We finally got to bed around 1:30am.

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