Henry's Fork Fishing Report - October 2, 2025

Henry’s Fork Streamflows

Island Park Dam:  340 cfs

Ashton Dam:  969 cfs

St. Anthony:  936 cfs

Fall River:  365 cfs

With the flip of the calendar to October it is, without question, fall on the Henry’s Fork.  Baetis, pseudos, and mahoganies will make up the bug offerings throughout the river, and though reasonably good fishing will generally be found, cloudy days will be fishier than sunny ones.  The river is low, cold, weedy, fishy, and clarity is good throughout the system.  Keep an eye on the forecast for great fishing opportunities and to guide your layering choices, air temperatures can vary quite a bit at this time of year. 

Box Canyon

The Box remains a good choice for a day’s float as well as a great choice if you’d like to remove some of that pesky fiberglass from the underside!  It’s hard to get through here without hitting a few rocks, so stay locked in those leg braces!  Fishing is good in here, small nymphs reflective of baetis, pseudos and mahoganies will produce the most consistent results.  Be sure to keep your hooks clean, there are weeds aplenty!  Streamers, dry/droppers, and indicator nymphing rigs will all work at this time of year.  For nymphs we like PTs, R/L Tactical PTs, Cocktail Nymphs, Juju baetis, Micro Mays #16-20, red, black and brown Zebra Midges #16-20, Soft Hackles #16-20, and a few olive HP Caddis pupa #16.  # 10-12 Rubberlegs are handy to have as well.  Perdigons are a good bet and a variety will work in small sizes:  red Jig Napoleons, Olive Hot Spots, Jake’s SH, Black Daggers, Bullet Quills, and Spanish Bullets will all do the trick.  For streamers, we usually like black, olive and two tone olive and white, but it’s worth experimenting.

Railroad Ranch

There are plenty of fish rising on the Ranch, but you’ll have to put in some legwork and put your observational skills to use to identify the larger targets.  Larger trout at this time of year will usually show a preference for Mahogany duns and emergers, but be sure to have some small baetis and pseudo patterns along as well.  Larger trout often surround themselves with feisty smaller ones and it can be a challenge to feed the larger trout before a youngster goes out of its way to grab it.  Fall days are fun days on the Ranch, and activity will be at its peak from 10am – 2 or 3pm for the most part, take your fly rod for a walk and see what comes to pass!  Anglers will favor cloudy and partly cloudy conditions to sunny ones, but don’t let that stop you, as we progress deeper into fall, hatches and feeding become more consistent.

Canyon Country

These are beautiful days in the canyons, but you’ll be best to limit your forays to sunny days with fair weather.  These canyons are no place to be stuck in cold and rainy conditions, plenty of other opportunity around on days like that!  For fair weather days, these floats will provide decent action on dry/dropper rigs and streamers.  As ever, a BSA jig rubberlegs is a solid bet and if they are persnickety, try a fast sinking beadhead or perdigon, lots of mahogany nymphs in these reaches.

Warm River to Ashton

This is a fun time of year to be in this section with some opportunity for larger trout, brown trout will be on the move throughout the system and some traveling up from Ashton Reservoir.  Large surprises can be found in unpredictable locations, and can come up on nymphs or streamers alike.  This is a great time of year to break out a trout spey and step cast a few runs, or play with floating lines and sink tips while stripping from a boat.  Indicator nymphing rigs will produce the most consistent results, but plenty of other opportunities are out there.  Fly selections should be similar to those recommended for the Box Canyon, but a little more variety with your streamer selection can move some of those brown trout.

Below Ashton Reservoir

The lower river is in good shape, and fishing is decent on most days.  Cloudy weather will definitely provide more favorable conditions for hatches and dry fly fishing, but nymphing, streamer fishing and dry/dropper fishing can be good on sunny days as well.  Small nymphs are the name of the game down here, mostly #16-20, along with some rubberlegs in smaller sizes #10-12.  We like most of the same flies recommended for the Box Canyon down here, and it’s hard to beat a BSA Bouface Leech in olive, white, or black for a streamer.  Fishing can be good throughout the river on down to St Anthony and beyond, this is a good time of year to foray into the lower reaches if the upper reaches are too crowded for your taste.

Good luck out there!