At 09:46 AM 5/17/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Jim,
>
>Maybe we can hook up this year at Silver Creek. We looked for your duct-tape
>Dodge last year to no avail. We will be there again searching for the
>elusive drake on the 8-11 of June. Will you be there then?
>
>-Dave
Dave (and anyone else interested)
I evidently hit the road before I saw your e-mail of 5/17.
When we left I didn't unsubscribe from WaFlyFishers. Just
let it accumulate until we got back. That way I could check
up on what everyone had been up to.
Dave, you gotta look for a new duct tape Dodge this year. I bought
a 99 with a Cummins. I haven't changed though...still big and ugly
with a beard.
We had originally intended to split 10 or 12 days between Henry's
Lake and Silver Creek on the way home. Henry's Lake was so nice we
just kinda hung around enjoying things for 10 days or so.
Mostly just sat around and watched the thunderstorms bust through.
I had a couple on nice evenings on the Firehole catching small Browns
on small dark x-caddis.
On June 22 one of the guides at the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop in West
Yellowstone told me that he had a good morning on Green Drakes
on the Henry's Fork. So I figured that I at least gotta see this.
The next day I was in the Parking lot at Last Chance (just above
the boundary to Harriman Ranch). What a show. More like a quilting
bee than a fishing trip. Alot of those folks have been fishing
the Green Drake hatch for 30 or 35 years. Many know each other so
they fish a little and gossip alot. Before I got my waders on the
welcoming committee came over to get all my particulars. They
couldn't believe that I had never fished the Green Drakes on the
Henry's Fork before. The hatch started at 11:00 and ended at 2:00
just as advertised. Wish I could say I really did well but I can't.
In fact I was visited by the striped kitty. Saw some nice fish
caught though in the 20-24 inch range.
I fished it again the following Monday. Kinda knew what was going
on this time. Had six or seven nice fish absolutely mug my fly.
Didn't hook any of them. Some days are like that.
On the 28th we moved down to Silver Creek. I was thinking that maybe
I could get in a day or two before the better half put her foot down.
We always camp (if you can call staying in a 27 foot travel trailer
camping) in a grassy field in front of the Heyburn Fish Hatchery.
Usually 10 or 12 camps there at the most. We pulled in and my wife
counted 80 rigs (some full bus conversions) parked in the field. They
were parked cheek-to-jowl three deep. They had turned the grass
into about 3 inches of dry powder dust. It looked like some commercial
tour operation had taken over as headquarters on a caravan.
We just drove on out and headed the rig towards home. We'll probably
head back over that way toward the end of August or early September.
Jim Jones
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
