The clock is running down on my stretch of work in 2025. I’ve got a date with a river in Idaho, opening day on the Railroad Ranch, at the little fishing community of Last Chance on June 15. Looking back, I think I’ve only hit the opener once, in 2021.
Lets see, in 2015, my first year on the road, I was stuck in Reno sorting out issues with the then new-to-me Funmover. I didn’t get to fish the Henry’s Fork until July. As a relatively green fly fisher, I wasn’t up for the challenge of the Railroad Ranch. I swam streamers through the Box Canyon section and did OK.
The next year, I was in work mode in Colorado in June, trying to recover financially from not being employed for twelve months! I did fish on June 15 though, on a lake near Fort Collins while I was still looking for work.
The next year, I was a little more established in my role at the shop in Colorado, and I completed a bunch of neat projects. I didn’t fish on the 15th of June; I was building an engine for an Austin Healey 3000, which is kinda funny, because I’m working on another Healey engine here in Costa Mesa in 2025.
I was stuck at work again in June of 2018, not breaking away until late in the month. I put my feet in the Henry’s Fork on June 28 that year. I started focusing more on the dry fly fishing and was becoming a better tyer. But I still didn’t really know what the hell I was doing.
In 2019 and 2020, I was working and did not make it to Idaho either year. Bummer!
2021 was the year I decided to mix in with the crowd and fish the opening day. I even showed up early and went looking for salmon flies in the canyon section above the Riverside campground on June 5. That didn’t work out so well… I found the bugs, but the fish had already eaten their fill and were uncooperative.
When the 15th rolled around, the parking lot at Last Chance was packed with anglers’ cars, trucks and various van life rigs. “Jesus, what a mob”, I thought to myself. But you know what? The Ranch is a big stretch of water, and once everyone filters down stream and picks a spot, it really didn’t seem that crowded.
I remember that morning’s first fish pretty well. By my reckoning, the fish were rising to eat Pale Morning Duns, and I had tied up a bunch of new ones just for this occasion. I picked out a spot where I saw noses regularly sipping bugs off the surface, and worked my way into position. It was most of the way across to the other bank, and it is usually an easy wade across, though there are holes to avoid and sometimes the vegetation can get tangled around your ankles. I think odds are that the fish on the far bank see less pressure than the ones closer to the trail, so maybe they are slightly less wary?
By the camera’s clock, that morning’s first fish came at 8:30. So it didn’t take long! I doubt I had got onto the trail much earlier than 8, and it was a great fish too. I got another smaller one in short order, and my closest neighbor on the water seemed kind of miffed… he hadn’t scored yet! I’ve heard many people say that one good fish a day on the Ranch should be considered a successful outing, and I think I got three or four that day. Later in the day, down stream around the islands section, I came across the tail end of a green drake hatch. Thousands of empty nymphal shucks floating past my thighs! I switched from the PMD to a drake cripple pattern and was able to fool a couple of fish, one of which straightened out the hook and slipped away from me.
In 2022, my nomadic existence was interrupted by new complication, I had found a girlfriend to travel with. We drove out to Wyoming for a wedding of one of her friends, and the timing put the Ranch opener off the calendar. But after I dropped her off at the Idaho Falls airport for a flight back home, I drove straight back up to Harriman and parked the motorhome at the Gravel Pit, steps away from the water. That year, I got into the brown drake hatch for the first time, and though I got a few fish to eat my imitations, it was frustratingly slow!
The next year, I was flying solo again and I made it to Last Chance on June 25. I was still trying to finish up a Bugatti project on the 15th. The old timers hanging around camp at the Gravel Pit in 2023 all seemed to agree that the fish had suffered a bad winter and the numbers were way down. It did seem to me that there were fewer heads rising along the stretch that I was familiar with. Regardless, I got a few memorable fish to eat my green drake imitations that year. I also walked a lot farther and explored more water in sections that I hadn’t covered before. I didn’t catch fish there, but I saw new water!
I also witnessed a police chase across Osborne bridge, which was exciting. I read the next day that they forced the car off the road a little ways north.
Last year I decided to try to find some new waters and spent my time in Wyoming and Montana. I didn’t go to Idaho at all, and I’m jonesing for another trip to the Ranch! Three more weeks to wait…
TRAVELINGWITHTOOLS 
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