Henry's Fork of the Snake · fly box
The most technical dry-fly water in the lower 48, with weed beds that punish a dragged fly.
| Pattern | Imitates | Size | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comparadun PMD | Ephemerella dun | #16 | Downstream-and-across reach cast; the deer-hair wing must land first. |
| Hare's Ear CDC Emerger | Rising PMD nymph | #16 | Fish it 20 cm under the film in the weed lanes, watching for a boil rather than a rise form. |
| Harrop's Green Drake | Drunella dun | #12 | Only worth rigging when fish are actually on drakes; otherwise it spooks the pool. |
| Fur Ant, black | Flying ant | #16 | Single fly, 5X, cast to individual weed-bed fish and let it sit motionless. |
| Small Rubber-Leg Nymph | Cranefly larva | #12 | Deep indicator rig through the Box Canyon when nothing is hatching on top. |
The dressing plate
On this river
The downstream reach cast
On the Ranch you are usually fishing to a fish you can see, 8–12 metres away, in flat water. Stand level with the fish or slightly above, throw the cast downstream of it, and use the reach to lay the leader out to the side so the fly floats down on a slack line. Done properly the fly arrives first and nothing else follows it.
Weed lanes, not open water
The food is in the weed beds; the fish sit in the 40 cm lanes between them. Read the lanes as you would read a run on a freestone river and put the fly in the lane, not on the weed. A fly that touches weed is a fly that is about to drag.
When nothing is hatching
The Ranch's best-kept secret is the blind-fished small nymph in flat water. Use a 4.5-metre leader, 6X, one small bead-head, and watch the point where the leader meets the surface rather than an indicator. Takes are usually a hesitation or a two-centimetre sideways tick.