When to Come and What To Expect:
Fly Fishing: Outside Yellowstone National Park – June – Henry’s Fork of the Snake River
The Henry’s Fork of the Snake is a huge river with a tremendous diversity of water types. It provides over sixty miles of water to fish. The Salmonfly hatch will be underway when June starts. It starts the last week of May and moves up river. By the first week in June it is usually over on the Henry’s Fork.. There will be plenty of Golden Stoneflies still hatching along with some mayflies and caddisflies. The Box Canyon section will probably still have some Salmonflies hatching the first of June and is where you want to first consider.
There will be plenty of PMDs, or Pale Morning Dun mayflies hatching in the Last Chance area. The Harrimon Ranch section opens on June 15th. PMDs, Brown Drakes, Green Drakes and tons of caddisflies will be hatching the rest of the month. There will be Little Short Horned Sedges, some Long Horn Sedges and plenty of Spotted Sedges. There are usually some Western March Browns, or what the locals call Black Quills that hatch in early June. The PMDs usually start the first week of June in the Ranch section. The Green Drakes start just before the opening of the Ranch section. It usually last about ten days to two weeks maximum. Not long after it is over and usually before the month of June ends, the Small Western Green Drakes will hatch. It last on into July in the Ranch section.
In the fast water areas you will also find Green Sedges hatching. In the Aston area, you will find all of the above but also a huge hatch of Gray Drakes in late June.
After the Salmonfly hatch ends in the Box Canyon, the fish usually stop feeding aggressively on top and eat everything from sculpin, minnows, baitfish, crayfish, leeches, caddisfly larvae, and stonefly and mayfly nymphs. Your best bet is to fish large nymphs and streamers to imitate this food. The canyon hold some very large rainbows that makes up for the lag in surface action.
The first of June can be hit or miss in the park. The Madison and Firehole Rivers, the first ones you can fish, can still be high and off color. If this is the case, the Henry’s Fork should certainly be considered.
Copyright 2012 James Marsh