Idaho: Snow and Rainbows

Kohler and I took a trip up to the Island Park, Idaho this weekend. It was the first time for either of us to fish the well known Henry's Fork. When we got there early friday morning we assumed there was a good chance we would have the river all to ourselves since it was so darn cold outside. Even the guy at Mike Lawson's Fly shop looked at us like we were nuts. Turns out we we didn't see another soul on the river all weekend, it was great.

The road leading into Ashton, Id friday morning.
Box Canyon on a cold October morning. We started our trip fishing Box Canyon below Island Park Reservoir. After pulling 6 fish out of the first two little pockets, we were very very excited, unfortunately things cooled off even more, especially the fishing. I didn't have another bite all day, but Kohler hooked and fought the biggest trout either of us have ever seen on the end of a rod. Guestimate: 23"-25" and fat as all get out! Kohler lost him as he made a final run back into the main current. It was too bad! We later decided the day sucked for fishing because I wasn't wearing my nice old red hat that Kohler loves so much. I made sure to put it on early the next morning and it paid off.
We saw some sweet moose, and 5 or 6 bald eagles while we were there.
This is the long stretch of river we hiked Saturday morning to get to Coffee Pot Rapids. The roads were very snowy and we were in my Jetta so we were forced to stay near main highways and do some extra hiking. Saturday morning we hiked and hour and a half in, and 5 hours later we hiked an hour and a half out. Long but wonderful day.


A nice fat 14" rainbow. Fortunately enough Saturday was a little warmer and the fish were more active. We had a great day at the Coffee Pot where we caught many beautiful rainbows. The fish weren't the biggest, but they made up for their size with their density and beauty. We did happen to see 4 or 5 fish that were easily over 20" but no luck getting them to bite.
Beautiful Coffee Pot rainbow.
Coffee Pot Rapids
Kohler with a fat rainbow.
These were the prettiest rainbows either of us had ever caught. Pictures never quite do beautiful fish justice.

A few hours into our day, the fog started to settle in on us. It turned out to be a beautiful mystical afternoon.