Who's ready for Henry's Lake????

[tob04002]

I know a lot of ya'll fish Henry's Lake during the year and I just wanted to see who was ready for the upcoming season??? I have only fished there a couple of times with little to no luck. I just picked up fly fishing and would love to catch (and land) one of those 'big' fish.

So, I just wanted to get some chatter started about Henry's and see what kind of flies people use at the very beginning of the season!

Also, if anybody doesn't have a boat, would anybody be interested in joining me on renting one up there at the store they have up there at the lake?

Some good replies and chatter would be great!!

-Josh [fishin]
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[flygoddess]

I make on and off trips up there with one seven dayer in September. Going to try to make Opener this year.
I only fly fish, but I use my Pontoon boat. I have been fishing the lake for about 12 years now and it is very technical.
Last year was a very easy year to catch fish. Not like the past years, but I also didn't see any HUGE fish this last year. BIG fish, don't get me wrong with my best at 30", but there were only a few reports of that.

For Henry's you will need an Intermediate line and either a TYPE II or TYPE III wet cell sinking line and a "SIX" weight outfit at least.

Flies, BS Flies are what I use and they always work. Mity Mouse, Purple Showgirl, Hot Chocolate, Electric Black, and Lynn Scott has a Halloween Softhackle that was the ticket last year.

Also the usual NYMPHS work killer like Haresears, and Prince Nymphs.
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[ChrisTheFish]

Do you ever use Chironomids there?
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[flygoddess]

Shhhhhhhhhhh[]
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[tob04002]

Thanks for the input...I will have to check some of that stuff out. I am sure it is more than having all of the right stuff and everything. Skill probably has a lot to do with catching the fish I am sure.

More input would be great though!
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[windriver]

As flygoddess said Henry's can be very technical. Last year was less technical but you still have to fish where the fish are. I would recommend Bill Schiess' book Fishing Henry's Lake. It is still the best reference to see where the holes are and what time of year to try them. The fish do change locations from year to year, but it is a great general guide.

In order of importance I would say fishing where the fish are is #1. Fishing the correct depth is #2. Finding the right speed or strip for the fly is #3, and the fly selection is #4. Others may disagree with me but it should be an interesting conversation.

Windriver
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[maghunter]

There was an interesting article in the outdoors section of the Post Register on Thursday about the numbers and quality of fish showing up to spawn. I know they say it every year but they say it could be an outstanding year for fishing. [] Last year I fished Henry's for the first time and we had a blast. Decided to use trolling gear and garden tackle for our first attempt at the lake, but as we trolled past all the fly fishermen seemed they were out fishing us. So I am excited to try stripping some flys and hooking a big hybrid.
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[Belasko]

My prefered method this last fall was get a 2 pole permit. Rig one with a bobber and worm and put the rod in a rod holder. Then the other one I throw various lures (spinners, spoons, etc) until I hit on one. I found last year one would work well most the time, but occasionally both would and then it was just interesting []. But like was said before, location is the main key.
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[tob04002]

So where would be the best places to fish early in the season?

Besides fly fishing...and besides using worms, what kind of lures or spinners would you use early in the season? And would that be appropriate?
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[Belasko]

The lures I usually heard used are pop gear, rapalas and panther martins. I had good luck last year with kastmasters and crocodile spoons, but that was late season.
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[flygoddess]

One thing...it has been said before. The CUTTHROAT are not meat eaters. Meaning they don't eat bait fish. It may happen on occasion, but all the studies they have done on these fish, there is not fish in them.
So, they might be hitting the lures and the Kastmasters for other reasons.
That would explain why FLIES are much more productive.

In reference to Windriver, I think fly and depth go hand in hand and to me most important. Then retrieve. As far as where, I find them anywhere I hit up there...maybe I am lucky, OH WAIT! I have TWO copies of Bills Book and I do target the spots he posts in his book for the months that it says.

However, if it is a really warm year, I might try say JUNES map in Sept. and so on.
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[poky-mon]

Just be patient when you fish it. I'm sure theres quite a few people that have been skunked there. I like the midnight fire, half ass renegade' hot chocolate and a prince nymph and I use type II. I bought Type III wet cell last fall so I'll find out This year if it works for me. stop at BS flies when you go they have a good assortment of flies for henry's Buy Bill Schies's book. Try the cliffs county boat dock
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[tob04002]

Thanks for the info...it is kind of weird that cuthroats aren't meat eaters. I usually do REALLY well using rapallas on rivers and such. It seems to me as if they LOVE eating them sometimes?

I also have a copy of Bill's book and I will have to do some hard core reading before my trips this year.

Now I just need to find a boat to use????
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[flygoddess]

I can't answer for the river cutts, I was just told by the guys that have been working at Henry's, that the Yellowstone cutts don't eat fish. I asked the same thing as some have been caught on Rappalas and other bait type lures. I was just told that they probably attacked it.
In the Gillnetting they have done, they check some fish to see what they are eating, but they don't find fish in there.
Now the Brookies is another story.
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[iliketofish]

I agree with you flygoddess, cutties aren't very pisciverous, even in rivers as far as I know, although I have also caught a ton of them on lures. from what I can tell, fish have their prefered food items that they look for, but if they see an easy meal like an injured bait fish, which most lures are designed to imitate, they will often take advantage of it.
I have often wondered if that is why they still manage the south fork of the snake for browns as well as cutts. The cuts eat more bugs and the browns eat more bait fish, although there is obviously some overlap. If this were true the competition would be less between the two species, whereas the rainbows fall somewhere in the middle which would cause more competition (I know that the main reason for trying to give the rainbows the boot is hybridization, before somebody calls me an idiot []) Any way, sorry to ramble, I'm just thinking outloud and wondering if anybody else has any insights.
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[windriver]

I think every environment is different. Where I fish on the Teton there are not very good fly hatches. I have seen on many occasions large cutts come into a ball of bait fish with their mouths wide open. Skimming the top of the water like a shark. So I would say it may not have so much to do with the species as the availability of food.

Henry's is chuck full of shrimp, leeches, and various nymphs. Most years the fish do not have to search far for food. Why would they waist energy chasing bait fish when they can pick off the easy stuff in the water column?

Windriver
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[Belasko]

I have to agree. One rule of survival is economical use of energy to achieve the most good.
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[packfish]

Last year was a great year for me also- numbers of fish caught were up every day- size of fish- didn't catch the largest I ever caught but my avg size was up quite a bit and I did have a few to the toon if landed would have been my largest. Still I had one day in 3 hours that I picked up 14 large fish on flies and watched 4 guys in a boat with garden hackle put that to shame.
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[flygoddess]

I am usually on the water for a couple of hours and 15+ fish is normal.
We hit Henry's last year right after weeks of warm weather and a cold snap had just moved in making the fishing a little slower (as reported by everyone up there) but I still managed the norm. I wonder what my count would have been if I had got up there two weeks earlier[crazy]
I don't think my arm could have handled it.[cool]
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[Druac]

Hello all,

Making my first trip to Henrys this year with a family friend who lives out of Boise (his first trip as well). Neither of us fly fish, but are wishing about now that we did. We debated it when we started planning this trip a few months ago, but decided with all the other expenses involved (I am coming out of N. California, please don't hold it against me ), we would stick with our standard gear and try the Trolling/Bait/Lure methods as we are setup for that already.

Regardless, the first thing I did was order Bill's book online and have already read it from cover to cover. I have been doing some research over the last couple weeks (lurking these forums included) and reading this thread just got me all the more psyched.

My friend has a 12’ aluminum ‘’ with a 40hp outboard and we have reserved a camp site at Henrys State Park. We will be there for opening weekend and plan to stay for 8 nights/10 days. Please tell me that if I do my homework, that we have a great chance of landing some nice fish in that span of time. We plan to fish EVERY day, at least early morning and evening, with one or two day trips to Yellowstone as neither of us have been there either.

We plan to catch and release for the most part, but because we are staying for a little over a week, I’m sure we will want to enjoy a few over the fire. For this reason we plan to modify the gear to allow for maximum survival for the most part. Any tips in this regard would be very much appreciated!

As the OP already stated, thank you all very much for participating on these forums and giving us newbies some tips on Henrys!
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