Henry’s Lake, April 12th, 2024

Nate Tillotson, fisheries biologist for the IDF&G’s Upper Snake River Region gave a superb meeting on Henry’s Lake fishery status last Wednesday evening. The public meeting at the Fairfield Inn and Suites, open to the public, was sponsored by the Snake River Cutthroats club resulted in many attendees. Nate’s presentation featured good and bad news, too much to totally describe here, but we will offer a few highlights from what Nate and his crew determined.

First, the bad news. Recently there are fewer, but larger than average fish ( cutthroat average 16.7 inches in length, hybrids 20.6 inches, and brookies 12.5 inches ) in the lake. Slim fishing success is upcoming in the lake for the next few years because hatchery and wild cutthroat ( only 9% occurs in tributaries) spawning has been lower than normal for the last several years, and summertime water temperatures have not been ideal. Now the good news. Ice fishing appears not to impact trout population in the lake. Nate expects that this will be a great year for fishing the lake because the 2017 cutthroat spawn was very good and the result should be a better number of and larger on the average of mature fish than recent years. Tributaries ( mostly Targhee and some of Howard Creeks) are being studied to determine what needs to be done to offer increased wild cutthroat spawning ( hybrid trout and brookies in the lake are sterile). Recently a few brown trout have been caught in the lake, but the source of these ( adjacent private ponds) have been discovered and hosted browns are being or will be eradicated. Water quality studies are beginning to reveal conditions that impact fish population.

So this is the best chance in recent years for fishing success and perhaps catching the ” cutthroat trout of a lifetime” from Henry’s Lake