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I'm going to be in Island Park next week and wanting to do some lake fishing. I used to fish Island Park Res about once a year but have not fished either Island Park Res or Henrys Lake for several years. I have a boat and a tube so access is no trouble. Any information on how the fishing has been? Any suggestions for what locations on either lake or what to use for bait fishing, tubing with buggers (colors, patterns etc), jigging, or trolling.
Thanks!
Bigcat
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Bigcat, What days will you be in Idaho? I'm fishing Henry's Lake (Mon, Tue- aug 16, 17). I have never fished henrys. I have found little info on the net. All i've read is it is 25 feet or less ? most people use fly rods, fish by the inlets. I will be fishing from boat. What type boat do you have ? We will be fishing in my 14 ft Boston Whaler or 22 ft. trophy. Not sure we can get throphy in the water ? we will be fishing hebgen lake also. taking both boats- water depth ? if u are going before us, let me know how the fishing is . or keep your eye's peeled for us. we like to troll/ jig, but will throw in fly rods & gear. thanks for any info. Travis
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Henry's has been fishing slow but there are some big hybrid that have been caught this year. Henry's will have a lot of weeds like it does every year at this time. The weeds may be a little worse than normal because Henry's is only about 2/3 full. The weeds will make trolling very difficult. Launch ramps at the state park and county boat dock would be marginal at best. The launch ramp by wild rose is your best bet with the low water. I've caught fish out of Henry's on about every popular trout lure or bait. For bait I would recommend a worm/marshmallow or powerbait fished 12”-36” off the bottom. Sometimes I will use a bobber there with the bait 5'-8' below the bobber. I've also caught fish on 3" plastic grubs (black and purple) and marabou jigs that I tip with a worm. Leach patterns are what most fly fisherman use at Henry's but I like to use nymphs there as well. The Californian and Canadian leach patterns are the most popular with brown being one of the most popular colors. Leaches without tails or with sparse marabou tails are also popular at Henry's. You may want to buy or tie some damsel fly nymphs and some freshwater shrimp patterns as well. I would fish in water that is 15' + and try to find an area that doesn't have as many weeds. If your not catching fish in one place try somewhere else. If you fish Henry’s later this week I doubt that you will find any water deeper than 20’ with few places deeper than 18’.
Island Park Reservoir has also been fishing slow this year as well. I would recommend the west end if you’re mostly interested in fly fishing. When the reservoir gets lower like it is now I have also done well in the deeper water on the east half of the reservoir. The area around Bill’s Island always has a number of water skiers and jet skiers at this time of the year so you might want to avoid that area after 10 am. For bait I would recommend a worm/marshmallow or powerbait off the bottom. Any of your favorite lake flies should work. At this time of the year I would fish smaller nymphs (pheasant tail, copper john, hair’s ear), fresh water shrimp, damsel fly nymphs or maybe a crystal bugger.
Here's a link to the reservoir levels [url "http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/burtea.cfm"]http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/burtea.cfm[/url]
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Travis, Maybe you can let me know how you do. I'll be driving up there on tuesday and fishing wed-sat. So don't catch them all before I get there.
Bigcat
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Brian,
Thanks again for all the detailed info. I'll let you know how I do.
Bigcat
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you dont have to worry about travis catching all the fish, ive fished with him for nine years now and he couldn't catch a cold.[url "javascript: addTag('  ')"][ ][/url]
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Just returned from Henry's Lake. A couple of guys in are group fish it monday. They only caught 1 fish. Lots of moss. We didn't put the Whaler or the Trophy in Henry's. Didn't won't Whaler jet to get plugged up with moss And the trophy is to big to launch.
The cabin at Henry's was very nice, lots of fun.
We drove too Hebgen lake ,MT. Boy, what a awesome lake. We only caught small fish, trolled 15 gps speed & 35 feet down. We used small lures & 00 dodgers silver. Look forward to fish Hebgen next year.
Pictures of Henry's Lake.............
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This is a tough time of year to fish Henry's. Looks like you launched out of Wild Rose. Was anyone launching boats from the State Park or County Boat Dock?
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Got back last night from Island Park. We fished Island Park Res on Wed, Thursday, and Saturday. Never made it to Henrys. IP res is at about 40% capacity but still plenty of water to launch at both ramps and lots of fishing room. Lots of islands out of the water and plenty of shallow points to ruin your prop on so be careful. The first day (Wed) would have been a complete bust except for the 6 1/4 pound rainbow that my nephew caught. I'll post a pic when I get it downloaded off the camera. It was our only bite and only fish all morning. Only 4 other boats in that area fishing. On Thursday we took the float tubes and 2 of us fished from the tubes while 3 fished from the boat. The boat people caught 1 fish on a worm and a marshmellow while the tubers got 8 fish on leach patterns. All the fish were in the 2-3 pound range and all rainbows. Only 3 other boats out that day as well. On saturday we went again but only the two tubers went. We used the same leach patterns in the exact same area as Thursday but only got one fish. Since it was saturday there were about 12 boats in this area and some were fishing with leaches/wooley buggers and some were bait fishing. They averaged about 1/2 a fish per boat on average from what I saw on saturday. Many were commenting how slow the fishing was compared to the last few weekends...... I guess they have been getting a few the last few weeks......... I thought we would really get stuck into them on saturday since we seemed to have figured out where they were and what they were hitting on thursday but as usual we got out smarted by the fish and they either moved elsewhere or where feeding on something else. We had a very fun trip and look forward to doing it again next year.
Bigcat
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This season has been my most enjoyable fishing on Henrys Lake that I have ever had. Very few fishermen utilized the lake as there were only three of us that consistantly fished it. The fish during most of the summer were very large with many in the 8 to 15 pounds and caught throughout the season.
Now that the water has cooled, the fish are moving back into the area around the Hatchery, Targhee Creek and Staley Springs. Last Saturday I caught 12 fish in six hours with three of them over 24 inches. There are also a lot of fish between 8 to 12 inches for the first time in several years. This bodes well for the future. The best flies for us last weekend were the Light Olive Crystal, Mity Mouse and the California Leech. Some were also having good luck with black jigs and Canadian Brown leechs.
I will be guiding and fishing this Saturday again and will post a report next week. Good Luck.
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bsflies,
Thanks for the report and welcome to the board.
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Brian,
I guided and fished Henrys Lake on Saturday, Sept 19. It has blown all day Friday and most of Saturday. We had to contend with off-colored water both at the Hatchery, Staleys and Targhee. We did hook a big one at the Hatchery which we broke off and then we caught two in 14 fieet of water in the Blue Roof Hole and then got two large fish over 24 inches in 12 feet of water of the County Boat Dock. I think that the muddy water kept us from having a good day with flies. We got the fish of Lt Olive Crystals, Brown CB's, and Lt Olive Rug Yarn flies.
I will be guiding and fishing again next Saturday. I will keep you posted again.
Good luck.
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Thanks for the report bsflies. Do you know if the lake has turned over yet? How old do you think the average 24" hybrid in Henry's is?
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The lake had not turned over last weekend, but it should have this week as we have recorded two inches of rain and the air temperature has been below freezing most of the nights this week. I will be going up this Saturday to guide and fish again.
The Fish and Game released about 825,000 cutt fingerlings last week which were between 4 to 4.5 inches, which is outstanding. the survival rate should be very good. Along with that they released about another 100,000 smaller cutts and only about 40,000 hybrids because of the poor egg quality last spring.
Regardless of what the newspapers report, the fishing pressure is not less than this summer, as most days this summer only three or four boats were on the lake. Now there is about 10 to 20 on the lake - still not many people fishing the lake.
A 24-inch hybrid is three or four years old, while a 24-inch cutt is probably 4 to 5 years old. The hybrids have a huge girth on them which usually is between 18 to 21 inches. That really adds the weight to them.
If I can help you in any other way - let me know.
Bill
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Fished last Saturday on Henrys Lake and had another good day. I guided in the morning and we took five fish on Lt Olive Crystals and Brown CB's early out from the Hatchery and about half way between the State Park ramp and Targhee Creek (Hog Hole) in eight feet of water. In the afternoon I fished by myself taking nine fish in three hours in the Hog Hole, off Targhee Creek and then off the County Boat Dock on the west side of the lake.
The day was very bright and no wind which is poor conditions for great fishing. We had to fish the weeds to catch fish. Several fishermen reported great fishing off the Cliffs early in the morning, but after the sun came up, the fish quit.
The lake is coming up - it has raised about two inches last week- and the fishermen are returning to the lake. There were about 30 boats on the lake on Saturday. The water temperature was at 49 degrees early Saturday morning.
I am planning on fishing in this Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday.
Good Luck
Bill
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Thanks for report and answer to my question. To bad there weren't very many hybrids available to plant this year. As much as I like cutthroats I would rather see the F&G plant more hybrids and brook trout in Henry's. Good luck this next weekend.
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Bill,
Welcome to the board. Its great to have your knowledge and experience here on the board. I wish Island park was a little closer than 6 hours away so that we could use our cabin more often and take advantage of the great fishing and beautiful area up there. Welcome and thanks for your weekly reports!
Bigcat
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[cool] Hi
I can give you a lot of information on fishing Henry's Lake and IP Res.
Contact me at [url "mailto:info@bsflies.com"]info@bsflies.com[/url]
I'm new to this site so I'm not sure I know what I'm doing yet in here. Contact me via e-mail and I can help you.
Lynn
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Lynn-
Welcome to the board! Thanks for the offer for information about the IP area. I'll be in contact with you next summer before our annual summer trip. I sure wish that the fishermen in Idaho took advantage of this board like the Utah fisherman do the Utah board with dozens of new posts daily. It would be nice to get more info about different fishing areas in Idaho.
Bigcat
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Welcome to the board Lynn. I replied to your email and sent you a PM.
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