Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} School of Trout - Henry's Fork Recap

Wow. Add a plane ticket, drinks, requested gratuities, and that Basic Trout class is about $10K, or almost two grand per day. I think I stumbled into the wrong river.

On Nov 4, 2019, at 1:28 PM, Andrew R <andrewreichardt88@gmail.com> wrote:



Hi there TPFRers,

Haven't done a recap of one of my trips in a long time but thought that this one was worth at least summarizing. Last month I had the privilege of attending the School of Trout on the Henry's Fork in Last Chance, Idaho. I applied for the Hatch Magazine scholarship to the school back in the spring and while I didn't win it, I was ultimately awarded a scholarship by Trout Unlimited to attend. 

I'd never been to Idaho and never fished the Henry's Fork. I'd been told that it in many parts fishes like a giant spring creek. Lots of vegetation, slow glassy water and skittish fish. I'd say that that description was mostly spot-on with the Box Canyon section a notable exception. 

I arrived at TroutHunter on a brisk but not terrible 45 degree day. Great food and beer was consumed that night. The next day was good weather as well (more below) but then the temperatures dropped into the single digits and hung there for the next few days. School of Trout is sort of an unusual format for a fishing trip as it's really more of like a fly-fishing tutorial on steroids. We had class each day in the morning, a casting session, another class in the afternoon and fishing afterwards. 

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The first day we stuck to that set-up pretty much, with talks from Hilary Hutcheson on fly fishing equipment and John Juracek on casting. With a few hours of sunlight remaining we headed up to the Box Canyon section for some fishing, joined by Tom Rosenbauer who walked the beginners through reading water, fly selection, etc. The class was told to fish dry droppers. I took one look at the fast broken water and decided to go with a tightline nymphing rig instead. 20-30 minutes of getting my depths/drifts dialed in and I was suddenly on several fish in a row, including one very nice 16 inch colored-up rainbow. Needless to say, I thought I was going to put on a clinic. This did not happen. One very spastic whitefish later and my tightline rig was a bird's nest and with only a few minutes of fishing left, my day was done. 

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Like I mentioned, a strong cold front sweeped through Idaho/Montana that night, with temperatures sticking to a narrow range in the single digit-teens. The instructors made the easy call and fishing was off for the next few days. Instead we were treated to a deluge of knowledge from some of the world's most celebrate anglers. Tom Rosenbauer, John Juracek, Kirk Deeter, Craig Mathews, Tim Romano, Jeff Currier, Hilary Hutcheson and others provided us with an incredible depth of information on fishing. Of particular note were Tom Rosenbauer's talk on bugs and fly selection; Jeff Currier's talks on streamer tactics as well as tightline nymphing (Jeff is the most accomplished competition angler in US history); and Tim Romano's talk on fly fishing photography. 

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If you feel so disposed, I'd encourage you to take a gander at my article in Hatch Magazine. 

Also, if you have any interest in School of Trout, or the scholarship program, please feel free to give me a shout.

Tight Lines,

Andrew Reichardt

President, NCC-TU

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