Fishing Reports
John Schultz's Montana & Idaho Report (May 22, 2026)
Good morning!
Susie and I went to Island Park last Friday (May 22nd) to open our house for the summer. Fortunately, all was well with the house, sometimes we get some nasty surprises on our first trip!
We fished Hebgen in two different locations, three days, and although the fishing wasn’t fast and furious, the quality of the fish was excellent! Unusually, we caught about 3 times as many Browns as Rainbows, with a few of each @ 21”, but almost all were 17” or larger! Most of my success was with my type 4 and a black and purple Matuka, and my type 7 with both a Midnight Bunny the first day and a half, and a Chinchilla with pearl olive estaz the rest of the trip.
Susie stayed mostly in the shallow water and her best fly was an A P Emerger pattern tied with purple Straggle String!
The water temperature was 51/53 degrees for the three days, with about 7’ of visibility, and the air temperature was 60 to 70 degrees, with all types of wind, and some rain, thunder, and lightning! Seems to be the norm this spring!
We have been boycotting Henry’s Lake for the last 4 years, due to what I think has been terrible management! Fortunately, the Henry’s Lake Foundation has finally started to get the DWR’s attention, and is making some progress towards fixing the lake! We drove passed it on Labor Day, to see what was happening, and we saw more boats on it than we have seen for years! We decided we should give it a whirl on Wednesday. We stopped at the fly shop on Aspen Ridge , the Drift Lodge, to buy licenses, and get a fishing report, and get an update on Mike, the owners condition, he is fighting stage 4 cancer! Fortunately, Mike is holding his own, and doing OK 🙏🙏. We got a treat when we went in, and our old friend, and my first still water mentor, Bill Schiess was there, stocking their fly inventory!
We got a very good report from the shop, and were told that brown leaches had been the bomb over the holiday. Unfortunately, their new computer wasn’t working properly, and we couldn’t buy a license there! We had to back track to the Sam Patch store to get legal, so we didn’t get on the water until about 10:30.
When we got to A Frame Bay, it was actually Hot! I had to shed some layers before we launched our boats! No Wind! Generally, flat water on HL is bad news! I started with my intermediate, with the Claret on it from its last use. The water there is very shallow, and weedy, I made my first cast when I got into about 4’ , and turned on my motor to work out into deeper water, without letting out any additional line, I thought I had snagged a weed, and gave my line a tug. Weed turned out to be a 21” Cutthroat! I kept working in the very skinny water for a while with no further luck, and started changing patterns. The water was already 56 degrees, so I tried a straggle string Damsel, again no luck. Susie started with her AP that had worked on Hebgen, but no luck, and switched to (Thanks Mr Quapp!) a garden hackle, and immediately hooked up! That was actually going to be my next try, switched, and I got my second fish right away! We both stuck with that combo until we quit at 3:00, never leaving the intermediate, and the deepest water I fished was 10’! We ended up with 38 between us, with 3 21”, and 5 or 6 20” fish! Mostly Cutthroats, but I did land 2 small Brook Trout! No Monsters, but most were Quality Fish! Very Pleasant Surprise!