Henrys Lake

[bsflies]

[size 1]The fishing season opens on Henrys Lake on this Saturday and all indications indicate that the fishing should be fair to good. The gill netting has shown a good mix of 1, 2 and 3 year old cutthroats with a good number of hybrids over 10 pounds. In the gill nets one day last week there were two 11 pound hybrids in them. According to the numbers in the nets, the fish population appears to be strengthing. Also the gill nets showed a fair population of 1 1/2, and 2 1/2 year old brook trout. I am excited to go after the big boys this year again.

Bill [/size]
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[BrianID]

Thanks for the update.
Do you know if the big hybrids were as fat as they were last year at this time?
What would the average length of the 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old brook trout be?
What would be the average length of the 1, 2 and 3 year old cutts?
Where there very many young hybrids in the nets?
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[BrianID]

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[bsflies]

Brian,

Here are the basic measurements:

Cutt - 1 - 6-8 inches

Cutt - 2 - 14 inches

Cutt - 3 - 17-18

Brook 1 1/2 - 8-10 inches

Brook 1-1/2 - 13-15 inches

Young hybrids are very hard to tell from cutts. The hybrids are extremely deep and heavy. We should see some very large fish as most of the fish that we have checked have been males and the sterile females are just hanging out gaining weight.

By the way, black, black/purple, black/olive, or black/red should be good colors. I love to start out with the Beadhead Electric Black or the Purple Showgirl early in the season.
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[bsflies]

A lot of my former clients and friends live in Utah and desire the reports on Henrys Lake.
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[windriver]

Thanks for explaining yourself BSflies. I was starting to feel Unloved here in Idaho.[]

Windriver
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[BrianID]

Bsflies,
Thanks again for the answering another one of my questions. I hope you hook into some big ones this Saturday and Monday.
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[Bigcat]

Bill,
How early should I get there to beat most of the early morning crowd?? How early it too early? Can you fish at night at Henry's or is there a start time? Is the limit 2 fish as it was years ago? Are there any other restrictions I should know about? I will pick up a regulation when I get my idaho licence but don't know how much reading time i will have between ariving in IP about midnight and getting up early to beat the crowd...... Ah who needs sleep anyway when the fish are biting! Thanks!
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[bsflies]

Fishing on Henrys Lake starts every morning at 5 a.m. and closes every night at 9 p.m. If you are going to fish the Hatchery area, I would be on the water at 5 a.m. Most of those fish will be chased out of there by 9 a.m. Do not fishing inside the bouys!!!!!!! Traditionally there have been 10 to 20 undercover Fish and Game officers around the lake. There is a two fish limit - after you have kept two, quit fishing - once your limit has been kept, you cannot play catch and release. But before you limit has been kept, you can catch and release as many as you can catch.

My non-fly fishing son-in-law and my grandson are going to be fishing with me, so I will not fly fish tomorrow, I will help them troll flies in the 12 to 15 foot depth areas. We will probably start fishing at about 8 a.m. as we will drive to Henrys from Rexburg tomorrow morning. I have not opened my trailer up there yet - no water and no heat. I will wait a couple of weeks to open it up as I have school one more week and then I have to take classes the next week.

Good Luck and let me know how you do.

Bill
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[BrianID]

bsflies probably already gave you all the advice that you will need but I thought I would add a little to help you or others with similar questions.

I don't ever remember waiting more than a half an hour to launch or load a boat at Henry’s. I'm sure there have been times that the wait can exceed an hour but I have never seen it. The busiest times at the boat ramps seem to be 7am-11am so I normally try to avoid this time frame. I'll probably launch around 6:30 or 7:30 tomorrow morning and will expect a 10-20 minute wait. I use this time to get everything in the boat ready for fishing.

If you have time check out the regs before you go.
Here's a link to a PDF format of the 2004/2005 fishing regs.
[url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/home.cfm"]http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/home.cfm[/url]

With the exception of Yellowstone Park I have been checked for a fishing license at Henry's Lake more than any other place that I have fished. Even if you have no intention of breaking the rules there could be just one small thing that you don’t understand that will make you look foolish when a F&G officer stops to check on you. By all of the boat ramps there are normally signs that inform you of what the fishing rules at Henry's Lake are but I would still recommend reading a copy of the regs if at all possible. IMO the only thing that is confusing about the regs at Henry's Lake is that you aren't allowed to use dead minnows as bait (live minnows are illegal in all of Idaho).

Another commonly broken rule is that it is illegal to remove the head or tail of a game fish and then transport them to your campsite, cabin or home. If you plan on taking some fish back to Utah with you then it would technique be illegal to have just the fillets in you cooler. If you keep two fish on Saturday and didn't eat them before you fished Henry's on Sunday or Monday then you would also be breaking the law.
If you want to read about the exceptions on Henry's Lake you will need to click on [url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/us.pdf"]Upper Snake Region Map & Exceptions[/url] and scroll to page 54.
[left]Page 55 has the info about the minnows. Listed under "Snake River, North (Henry's) Fork" in the [url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/us.pdf"]Upper Snake Region Map & Exceptions[/url][font "Times New Roman"][size 3].[/size][/font][/left]

Page 11 of the fishing regs has a list of the things that are unlawful (listed under [url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/info.pdf"]Rules Brochure Cover, Table of Contents, General Information[/url] [url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/rules/info.pdf"]Rules Brochure Cover, Table of Contents, General Information[/url]).
If you understand all of the info on page 11, what is written about Henry's Lake on page 54 and the sidenote next to the Henry's Fork on page 55 then you will know exactly what are the legal and illegal fishing practices at Henry's Lake.
I hope I didn't confuse you more than I helped you.[]

Have a good time this weekend.
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