Printable View
I'm headed to SE Idaho next week for a little family vacation and the boss has given me permission to go fishing for a day. Which is better this time of year? the South Fork or the Henry's Fork. Never fished either and both are on my bucket list......and DAMN guides up there are $$$$$$$$$ compared to California.
They can both have their moments in the Fall, Baetis fishing on the Hank can be be primo in October, Streamer fishing the S. Fork can be good, be mindful of dropping flows as fish seem to need time to adjust to big changes. Thankfully ID limits guide days and utilizes outfitters exclusively to maintain a better experience than some other places.
I was over at my place in Driggs for a few days last week. We fished the HF, Madison, and Teton. The best fishing was on the Madison, I took several nice browns and rainbows on streamers on one of the few partially overcast days we experienced.
There has been stubbornly persistent high pressure, delivering beautiful fall weather but limiting the really dense BWO and mahogany hatches that this time of year is known for. The dry fly fishing was not great the entire time we were there.
If you are hiring a guide, tell them what type of fishing you like and let them make the choice of river and float stretch. They will have day to day intel on what is going on and make a better, more informed choice than you can make. We have had very good experiences with the crew at Teton Valley Lodge.
We ended up fishing the South Fork from Pallisades dam down to Highway 29. It was cold clear and windy in the morning, but we got into a few fish; cutties, rainbows and a lot of whitefish. It went very quiet in the afternoon when it warmed up and I think we had 1-2 fish in 4 hours, but I did get a 20 inch fat brown that made it all worthwhile!
The river was pretty skinny and there wasn't much of anything hatching, just a few sporadic BWOs.
Nothing worse for the dry fly fishing on the SF in autumn than clear windy weather but glad you got into a few!Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw