Fish of the Month: Year 10

Lower Harriman Ranch, August

Yep, it's the last day of the 10th consecutive year in which I have caught a fish every month in my home waters, defined as anything within a three-hour drive of Ashton. The fish-of-the-month tradition started decades ago with my fishing buddy Tom Grimes, who has guided for Henry's Fork Anglers all of those decades. I've had a couple of good multi-year runs over the decades, but this one beats them all...120 consecutive months!

In celebration of 10 years, to make sure I earned the 10th year fair and square, and in the spirit of practicing what I preach professionally by way of adapting to fishing in a changing climate, I played in 2024 by a new set of rules designed to maximize my time on the water, minimize my impact on the resource, and give others a chance to enjoy the river that has been the centerpiece of my life for 47 years. In 2024, I limited myself to a single dry fly or a streamer or wet fly fished on a tight line. No indicators, droppers, Euro-nymphing, or any nymphs at all! Except for two float trips when I stripped streamers on a standard 6-weight rod, all of the streamer fishing was done steelhead-style, swinging streamers and traditional wet flies on a trout spey rod.

First fish of the year, January 1, 2024 on the trout spey.

And with two exceptions of fishing blind dries to cutthroat trout late in the summer, the dry-fly fishing was all sight-fishing to rising fish.

Second fish of the year, January 28, on a midge, seen rising near the Ora Bridge boat ramp.

Further, I vowed to spend more time either working on the river or taking friends, family and guests out to enjoy the Henry's Fork than I did on my own fishing.

Colleague Christina Morrisett hooks up on Warm River in February.

So, with those new rules in place, how did it turn out? Here are the basic statistics on my personal fishing.

• 38 outings

• 106 total hours

• 41 Rainbow Trout

• 15 Brown Trout

• 6 Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

• 2 Mountain Whitefish

• 1 Utah Sucker (caught fairly in the lip on a Wooly Bugger fished on a sink tip)

• Catch rate: 0.61 fish/hour (equivalent to 1.6 hours per fish)

February storm near Marysville.

The catch rate pretty much says it all. In previous years, I consistently had catch rates of 1-2 fish per hour and spent far fewer hours to catch a fish each month. In 2024, the typical spey outing would be 2-3 hours of a lot of casting to maybe hook a fish or two and land one. Needless to say, my spey casting has improved substantially, although I still have a long way to go until it is second nature. While catch rates are much lower with this fishing method, the quality of fish is fairly high. Most fish I caught swinging wet flies and streamers were in the 14-17 inch range and most were very healthy.

Nice fat fish on a slumpbuster, February.

So, the goal of maximizing my time on the river and minimizing my impact on the fish relative to previous years was certainly met. This goal was set in part to adapt to a warmer climate with less water and more anglers--I can still enjoy my time on the river without catching nearly as many fish as I used to. Ironically, one of the things I have discovered in recent years is that the warming climate actually opens up a lot more fishing opportunity in the fall and winter. In one of my first long fish-of-the-month runs in the early 2000s, even finding ice-free water on a day that was anywhere near freezing in December, January, and February was difficult. I can recall many months where I was forced to fish on a 28-degree day on the last day of a given winter month to keep the streak alive. In recent years, I have enjoyed fall fishing all through the month of December and have been able to pick and choose above-freezing days scattered throughout January and February.

A great piece of dry-fly water upstream of Ashton Reservoir, March.

Another fat rainbow on the spey rod, April.

As for other time on the water, I took friends, family, and visitors out on the river 20 different times during the year for a total of 65 hours.

My brother Joe with his first fish of the year, at Ora Bridge in April.

And, I spent 89 hours working on the river as part of HFF's science and technology team.

On a cold day in May, Christina Morrisett, Jack McLaren, and Amber Roseberry measure the river channel's cross-sectional shape for a large collaborative water quality modeling project.

Most of the time, I had two rods rigged up and with me. The first was an 11' 4-weight trout spey (technically a "switch" rod) with a skagit head so I could easily switch among floating, 5-ft sink and 10-ft sink tips to match water conditions. The second rod was a standard 9' 5-weight rod with a floating line and 12' leader, 5X tippet and, in absence of any good reason to use a different fly, a #18 Parachute Adams. That allowed me to fish streamers while there was nothing hatching and them quickly switch to the dry rod to take advantage of a hatch.

Caddis hatch near Jumpoff Canyon, May 4.

I caught fish on both techniques in the months of January, March, May, June, August, October and November and on the same day on March 10, May 4, August 25, and November 10.

Nice fish on a dry caddis pattern, Jumpoff Canyon, May 4.

Although I refrained from using nymphs, droppers and indicators in my personal fishing, I did help friends and family use these techniques to experience the thrill of hooking and landing a nice fish on the Henry's Fork and its tributaries.

Joe with a nice whitefish taken on a black rubberlegs in, May.

But even when the fishing wasn't great, my friends, family and guests always had a great experience on the river I get to call home.

Joe at the end of a nice evening on Ashton Reservoir.

Gulls at the Fun Farm in June mean that the Green Drakes are starting to hatch!

Christina's husband Mitch Parsons casts to a rising fish at the Fun Farm in late June.

And more than once in 2024, that Henry's Fork fish turned out to be the fish of a lifetime.

Joe with a monster brown between Vernon and Chester in June.

My childhood/high school/college buddy Bruce Jackson celebrates his first-ever Henry's Fork float and fish--a 16-inch brown that ate a Chubby 10 minutes into the Warm River to Ashton float on a hot mid-July afternoon!

Even those of us who spend time on the river every week of the year find beauty in the small things.

An Ameletus spinner perches on my finger while Matt Hively prepares the Acoustic Doppler Profiler for a streamflow measurement on the Buffalo River.

After the busy--and hot--part of the summer (including bicycle race season for me) is over, I spend a lot more time on the Henry's Fork and regional waters from August through the end of the year.

Joe with a nice rainbow on a cloudy August morning, Warm River to Ashton reach.

Tom rows my dad and me down the Teton River, August.

A fat 1-year old Ranch rainbow taken on a Parachute Adams in late August.

My other brother Kray hooked up at Chester during a September midge hatch. Brandon is at the oars.

Nice fine-spotted variety of Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout from the Buffalo Fork in Wyoming. Taken on a hopper in mid-September.

A large brown caught by Scott Yates on the Warm River to Ashton reach in mid-October

Nice two-year old Ranch fish taken on a Parachute Adams during a late-October BWO hatch.

Lower Millionaire's Pool, October.

A golden October evening at Jumpoff Canyon.

First snow of the season, downstream of Stone Bridge, November,

Nice fish taken during a BWO hatch at Stone Bridge, November.

Late November day at Parker.

A brown trout in fall colors taken on a sculpin in late November.

Last fish of the year, December 14.

December sunset at Stone Bridge.