06-17-2010, 02:19 AM
[cool]I finally made it to Henry's Lake (aka "Trout Heaven") - a destination I've wanted to fish for quite some time now. We went from Saturday-Sunday and boy, that wind really sucked! We went down to launch the boat at the state park at about 7:30 a.m. and it was blowing bad with about 4 foot swells and whitecaps. Stayed there for about a half hour to see if it would get better and it didn't. We went back to the cabin and took a nap. A few hrs later it was still crappy weather so we waited til 4:30. It seemed a little calmer so we loaded up the boat and headed down to the lake. It was still blowing but not as bad so we went out...
Headed to the Duck Creek area first as my buddy has done really well over there over the years... It was too windy to fly cast so we trolled large purple showgirls on leadcore line out about 2.5 colors. Within 5 minutes my buddy had one hooked up and it wasn't small... We didn't have a scale but it was a nice cutbow about 25 or 26 inches I'd say and approximately 6 or 7 pounds... We continued to troll that area and never left it since we were getting not steller, but decent action. Ended up with 6 fish that night. Not high quantity, but the quality was excellent. I lost a big one about 5 seconds into the fight due to a faulty clinch knot I tied... ARGH! Tied a much better knot and I caught three fish finally. A cut about 18 inches and a cutbow about the same size. Eric caught another one about the same size as his first...the fish hit while he was taking care of nature, lol... Funniest thing I've seen in a while. We headed back to the cabin with hopes that the wind and rain would cooperate the next day.
Sunday we overslept a bit because we stayed up too late watching funny "guy type movies" (American Pie 2) so we didn't get on the lake until about 9:30. Unfortunately, the bite didn't last long. We were kicking ourselves for sleeping in too late. Headed to Duck Creek again. I managed 3 fish and Eric and his son got a skunk. They were a 19 inch cut, a 14 inch brookie, and a 17 inch hybrid. Kept the cut and released the other two. The fishing died off at about 10:15 or so. We trolled a little North of there and even tried to fly fish/cast up at Stump Hole, as the wind was getting more manageable, but we got nothing up there so at about 12:30 or so we decided to head back to the cabin until the evening bite. We went down to Big Spring to see the sights and hiked down the Henrys Fork to get some nice pics.
Sunday evening we went back out at about 5 and it was windier than earlier that day so flycasting was out of the question. Trolled and got nothing at Duck Creek so we headed out more East of there out towards the middle heading kind of towards Targhee Creek (If I remember right - it was my first time on Henrys...) At one point all three of us got some massive hits, but the fish all got off. It was really strange. I had one on and got him about 10 feet from the boat and then he decided to spit the hook and laugh at me... Felt like a 18 inch hybrid or so, but it would have been nice to get a look. Eric caught and released a 14 inch brookie and Jerry hooked into a nice probably 23 inch football hybrid that weighed about 4 or 5 pounds. Then we got nothing else for about an hour and the wind was getting worse. 3 foot swells at about 7:00 so we decided to call it a day. It was a fun trip and I am now officially in love with Henry's Lake and can't wait to fish it again later this summer when it's not as windy. We released most fish but kept a couple in the attatched pic.
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Headed to the Duck Creek area first as my buddy has done really well over there over the years... It was too windy to fly cast so we trolled large purple showgirls on leadcore line out about 2.5 colors. Within 5 minutes my buddy had one hooked up and it wasn't small... We didn't have a scale but it was a nice cutbow about 25 or 26 inches I'd say and approximately 6 or 7 pounds... We continued to troll that area and never left it since we were getting not steller, but decent action. Ended up with 6 fish that night. Not high quantity, but the quality was excellent. I lost a big one about 5 seconds into the fight due to a faulty clinch knot I tied... ARGH! Tied a much better knot and I caught three fish finally. A cut about 18 inches and a cutbow about the same size. Eric caught another one about the same size as his first...the fish hit while he was taking care of nature, lol... Funniest thing I've seen in a while. We headed back to the cabin with hopes that the wind and rain would cooperate the next day.
Sunday we overslept a bit because we stayed up too late watching funny "guy type movies" (American Pie 2) so we didn't get on the lake until about 9:30. Unfortunately, the bite didn't last long. We were kicking ourselves for sleeping in too late. Headed to Duck Creek again. I managed 3 fish and Eric and his son got a skunk. They were a 19 inch cut, a 14 inch brookie, and a 17 inch hybrid. Kept the cut and released the other two. The fishing died off at about 10:15 or so. We trolled a little North of there and even tried to fly fish/cast up at Stump Hole, as the wind was getting more manageable, but we got nothing up there so at about 12:30 or so we decided to head back to the cabin until the evening bite. We went down to Big Spring to see the sights and hiked down the Henrys Fork to get some nice pics.
Sunday evening we went back out at about 5 and it was windier than earlier that day so flycasting was out of the question. Trolled and got nothing at Duck Creek so we headed out more East of there out towards the middle heading kind of towards Targhee Creek (If I remember right - it was my first time on Henrys...) At one point all three of us got some massive hits, but the fish all got off. It was really strange. I had one on and got him about 10 feet from the boat and then he decided to spit the hook and laugh at me... Felt like a 18 inch hybrid or so, but it would have been nice to get a look. Eric caught and released a 14 inch brookie and Jerry hooked into a nice probably 23 inch football hybrid that weighed about 4 or 5 pounds. Then we got nothing else for about an hour and the wind was getting worse. 3 foot swells at about 7:00 so we decided to call it a day. It was a fun trip and I am now officially in love with Henry's Lake and can't wait to fish it again later this summer when it's not as windy. We released most fish but kept a couple in the attatched pic.
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