Henry’s Fork 9-2-14

This coming two weeks is one of my favorite times to fish the Harriman State Park reach of the river. Crowds are definitely down, and more enjoyable weather prevails.  Surely there are many approaches to fish the river during this time, and all can produce under the right conditions. Because it produces for me, my favorite is through long drifts around cover using a hopper pattern. I prefer using this technique with traditional patterns. That is because I believe their imprint on the smooth surface of the river here is closer to that of the natural insect than those patterns fashioned from foam and rubber. And this technique with traditional patterns produces for me on other streams with similar surfaces. On water of broken surface this difference is minimized. When presenting  with a long drift be aware of drag, strive for a natural drift as long as possible, and wade as little as is practical.