Crowded ?

VISITORS ENJOY VISITING

Bison Enjoy Lounging

fishers enjoy catching

FISH THE GIBBON RIVER GINGERLY

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.. The "HIGH SEASON" in Yellowstone National Park is upon us. A major spike in visitation is just two weeks away.
.. By the Fourth Of July behavior patterns of fish and people in the park will have reached maturity.

.. Right now motor home owners have learned to park on the double yellow line. Fish have learned to look up.
.. Bicyclists have already learned to ignore the bicycle lane. Fish learned to follow the shadows two weeks ago.
.. Photographers are learning  to scorn the life-giving rains. Fish have remembered to use the current in a tussle with upright featherless bipeds.
.. Changes in the learning process and park conditions will soon begin to take place. These changes should increase the maturation level of visitors, fish, and fishers. Lines at entrance stations will reach astronomical lengths. Fish will begin to avoid the warming waters. Fishers will need to fish at different times on different days with different weather conditions.

A BLOOMIN' RIVER

.. Sadly visitors will not learn to enter the park earlier or later. Interestingly fishers will gripe and grouse about the weather - rather than take advantage of it.
.. Fish, of course, will be in the most advantageous water for feeding and keeping cool: The fish mature faster than humans.

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.. The Firehole River has provided excellent catching over the past four or five days. Air temperatures have been below seasonal averages.
.. Along with a couple of decent showers, our cloud cover has been fortuitously conspicuous and has encouraged the hatches of Mayflies, Caddis, and other aquatic bugs and such.
.. The next few weeks will demand rapid maturation of the fishers if they intend to become successful catchers:  A WARMING TREND LOOMS.

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.. The Madison River has become slow, cool, and crystal clear. It is spewing forth little winged creatures that seem to be unappreciated by many visiting fishers: perhaps it's the combined vehicular and bicycle traffic.

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.. Grebe Lake is experiencing some heavy pressure. The early disappearance of the snow and the rapid drying of the trails has allowed happy anglers to spread the word about this normally moderately fished destination.

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.. Pistol packing fishers have been encountered on the Mary Mountain Trail. They had no bear spray. Apparently they have lost their light bulbs.
.. They were disappointed with the catching as well. Search the deep riffles and dark pools with drab nymphs and you'll do better than they did on Nez Perce Creek.

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Tough Casting On Grayling Creek

.. The larger fish seem to have backed down from Grayling Creek. This leaves the creek with an exuberant population of 8 to 10 inch fish and lots of elbow room - for both the bears and the fishers. There is even a small caddis hatch happening late on warm days.
.. The best catching is beginning to move from the rapid bits of water in the park to the lower willow thickets of the lower creek and the upper ends of the estuary at Hebgen Reservoir.

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Do It Yourself

.. The Upper Gallatin River is still being ignored by experts and feather merchants alike. Sparse hatches of mayflies have been reported. Sparse sightings of caddis are problematic. Big fish are being taken on giant nymphs, small streamers, and both soft and stiff hackles. Some of the deep holes along about mile-post 26 are clear and it's possible to to see the gentle inhalation of the nymphs: if you're sneaky.

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HAPPY CAMPER

The Generals

TOO MANY BUGS

Too Few Flies

make 'em do double duty

MADISON RIVER AT THE PARK LINE

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.. So it's come to catching time at the O. K. Corral.
.. All of the wealthy visitors and other sorts of technical fishers currently in Yellowstone National Park have each bought a hundred dozen flies in eight different sizes and 27 patterns.
.. They have listened to the professionals. They have read all the books. Now, flies in vest, they have it all covered. Good on them.
.. We're not strong enough to carry that many flies, nor can we change them quick enough to keep up with the different bugs that pack our ears and nose, and radiator.
.. The neighborhood kids, on the other hand, are poor; they cover acres and acres of water - and - are true artists at devising flies for matching our local hatches: real and imagined! They tie exceptional flies. You can't buy their flies: at any price.

TRIPLE THREAT CADDIS

.. They are also masters at destroying perfectly good flies given the exigences of changing conditions, luck, or whim, or whatever.
.. One of their favorite flies, (ours too,) is, (for want of a better handle,) the "Triple Threat Caddis."
.. It's just a standard elk hair caddis pattern. It's a bit lighter than most of the commercial patterns.
.. The wing is a little sparse for catalog pictures. And, Horror of horrors, the hackle is the premium dry fly sort and way too big for the fly.
.. It is usually tied on a gold-toned hook that they have scrounged up from some undisclosed Bass Pro Shop or Wal Mart.
.. With deft manipulations of their fingernails, (or whatever,) they transform the fly into a floating something-or-other, and with a smidgen more plucking they end up with a sinking thing-a-majig.
.. We've tried it. You should too - or not, depending on your creativity, desperation, or pocketbook.

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DISGRACED MUDDLER

.. The lowly and ubiquitous Muddler Minnow is subjected to a similar, but slightly different treatment. It is usually tied with colors that could imitate either a small fish or a local grasshopper.
.. It is usually fished with gusto,  (appropriate to the conditions and imagined imitation,) and can be swung, stripped, floated, jerked, or plopped. The wing is often split side-to-side and pulled down below the body and supposedly imitates a hopper. If nothing else it is a good bobber for a hopper-dropper combo.
.. Great stuff if you can't afford a 97 pocket vest and the heavy boxes to fill all those pockets.

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LOCAL MITE

.. A Montana legend is the Sandy Mite.
.. The neighborhood kids have a variation that dispenses with the woven body and can be rapidly tied with simple, cheap, and common materials. They sometimes call it the Local Mite - when they call it anything at all. Sometimes just the Mite - or - Mighty Mite.
..This little darlin' is subjected to the same depredations and humiliations as the caddis. Plucked naked or with just a few shortened fibers it becomes anything your heart and imagination desires.

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.. We own a few fly boxes. We use them. The kids have a few, or many, as their whims demand. We usually take our boxes with us. They fit in a lunch sack with pepperoni and a baguette of french bread.
.. The kids pack an old 35mm film canister with a bunch of flies and jump in the river. Travelin' lite and catching many. Not the stuff of slick videos, product endorsements, or webbyzeeens - aw shucks! Catch fish by the bucket though.

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RECRUITS: 100+ strong. Fish Near Here In The Evening. YUM!

As Suspected

"FIRE" HOLE FOR A REASON

Up The Hot Staircase

closure may be early this year

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.. We're watching the spikes on the Firehole River:

==> JUNE 15 = 75° F,
==> JUNE 16 = 76° F,
==> JUNE 17 = 77° F,
==> JUNE 18 = 76° F.

.. Them's a bit warm for this part of June. The extended forecast is for continued warming. The near term outlook is for moderating temperatures in the mid- to high 60's.
.. Fish now is the consensus.

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It's In The Air

DON'T TELL THE VISITORS

Sleep With The Windows Open

the rain is getting colder

August 14, 2011 - TAKE THE HINT

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.. The signs are all around us. Bow hunters are checking strings, heads and fletching. Boom hunters are cleaning and loading. The grasshoppers have wings. The meadow grasses are drying and beginning their descent into straw. The neighbors are talking about good sleeping weather. This morning's shower was cold and refreshing. We're taking bets on the date of the first snowfall.
.. Abbreviated warm and extended cold is the measure of the seasons in the high country. We're looking forward to the anticipated glorious Autumn. We've scouted the big holes and parking places for the fall-run submarines.

.. We've noted the phenomenal density of ripening berries, (places to avoid in the upcoming weeks.) And we're using the last few warm days to catch some fish in all the familiar, (and less familiar,) places.
.. Catching is still good. We've not much to add about it except that a venture to Winter Creek will prove rewarding. So too, will a stroll down the path at Tower Falls. The "other" gulpers, those at Grebe Lake and the Duck Creek estuary are making their appearance now. Oh, by the way, Soda Butte Creek is on fire with hoppers and beetles.
.. We've not mentioned our idiosyncratic predilection for fishing some interesting structures in and around the neighborhood. We'll let you know about that in a day or two. Right now there is a Trico hatch on the cooling Madison River that the fish have finally discovered  --  SURPRISE!
.. We're headed there instantly, now that the second pot of coffee is gone, the stomach is in rebellion.

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TAKE A HORSE TO UPPER FAN CREEK, DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE

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Wee Paws 4 Kawz

THE COLOR OF NOSTALGIA

Beautiful Cartoons

yesterday is always best
{brief fishing report too}

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.. For 41 years straight auto enthusiasts have made West Yellowstone the terminal destination for a mid summer migration. Fishing is in the rumble seat for a couple of days as we participate in the ritual.

.. The contemporary migrants with these beauties are of the same geriatric generation that tends to dominate the demographics of contemporary fly fishing. They are filthy rich very affluent well to do aging males with a passion for capturing a dream.
.. The vehicles are no longer the HOT RODS of bygone days. They are cartoons, nay, caricatures of a real or imagined ideal. They are beautiful and perfect in their own right.

.. The initial American Hot Rod Era was a very brief post WWII phenomenon that was truncated when Detroit discovered the popular passion for street speed and performance. For a very short time the amateur ruled in creativity, imagination, and performance.
.. The vehicles that are descending on our little town recall, but do not recreate that era. They are built or bought to fulfill some vision of a bygone time. They are full of modern technology. They are contemporary products that could never have been imagined in 1946. They are used for a myriad of social purposes never dreamed of in 1951.

.. These are vehicles that are owned and driven by an age-grade of citizens that was shunned by the current members when they themselves were young.
.. There is a lovely pathos present in this ritual. It evokes memories, dreams, situations and times that have become dim with the passage of decades. It is a ritual that is part recreation and part reenactment of an era that lives in American folklore.

.. The participants gather together. They no longer are vibrant teenagers seeking speed and performance from their daily drivers. They are not young combatants from a recently terminated world war that invented or innovated a better manifold, front axle, or muffler.
.. Today they wear designer togs and eschew tattered work clothing for contemporary imported styles. They buy pieces and parts from specialty manufacturers and assemble them into dream machines; painted with paint and in colors that have come straight from their long gone wet dreams.

.. The vehicles, in and of themselves, are works of art. They are beautiful, sleek, slick, perfect, and tuned with money that was not available for such things during those decades long past. They are a celebration of what should have been - OR - what could only have been dreamed of. They are what we thought we wanted. They are what we pretended was an ideal to be achieved.

.. They are brought together in a fashion that would never have happened 60 years ago. They are pampered, polished, fondled, and stroked, rather than driven. Many are towed on trailers to the appointed destination and then babied into the correctness of stance for admiration.
.. Ah, such is the state of these beautiful beasts. Their function has metamorphosed along with their owners. No longer do they rumble and roar and instill fear in a sane public. No longer do they get driven on a daily basis. No longer are they constantly changing and being "tinkered with." No longer are they used to embarrass the local constabulary in a high-speed chase.

.. Now they are reminders of a recent past that becomes embellished and augmented with the retelling of tales that never were and probably never could have been.
.. The HOT ROD of today is a "TUNER." It's built in Asia or America has far too few cylinders, whines instead of roars, and is driven by youngsters that one day, themselves, may become portly, pudgy, and ponderous. Their cars are nimble, quick, full of contemporary technology and serve the dual purpose of daily transportation and occasional reckless recreation. Perhaps their drivers will recreate their dreams 60 years hence. Perhaps not.

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.. Should you choose to fish rather than admire the sculptures, there are great possibilities in the neighborhood.
==> Obsidian Creek will yield eager Brookies to any properly presented attractor on the surface and most nymphs dangled below a bobber,
==> The lowland Madison River is fishing as it should have last month. Little nymphs such as the Shop Vac will be just fine,
==> The Gallatin River is a dream fishery right now. Use an Elk Hair Caddis followed by a Prince Nymph everywhere,
==> The Firehole River is a marginal bet for great catching but fish it if you must,
==> Nez Perce Creek above the first thermal area is going like gang busters right now, attractors of any sort on or in the water will suffice,
==> The big meadows on the Gibbon River are still productive for the accomplished fish stalker, the little meadows above the cascades are a better bet for fun catching,
==> Slough Creek is dead-nuts ripe and will provide good catching all day on nymphs and on the surface for those that need to see their fly,
==> Ignore the experts and fish the colored water of Soda Butte Creek you'll be the first to be bragging about the size of the fish. Avoid the confluence meadows and wander in the narrow sections seeking bears and brutish fish.

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THE WAY IT REALLY WAS

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Get 'Em Ready

HOPPERS ENTER FINAL MOLT

Wings Just Around The Corner

invent a double dropper

FISH HERE FOR BIG RAINBOWS

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.. We saw one hopper with wings over the weekend. It was at the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. We saw quite a few with stubs of developing wings. We saw very many hoppers without wings.

No Wings

.. We saw two kinds of hoppers: gray with dark gray speckled spots about 1/4" long, AND brown with yellow about 3/8" long. Neither sort had fully developed wings. The one with wings was too fast to get a picture of - unless we decided to abandon the rod for the camera.
.. Terrestrial bugs are prolific on the Gallatin River right now. Soon it will be impossible to walk without killing some trout food.

Wings Just Starting

.. The inventive minds in the neighborhood have already prepared an arsenal of double fly rigs for the upcoming shenanigans.
.. The traditional favorite is the widely used "Hopper-Dropper" combination. A big hopper up top with a nymph or emerger of some sort on the point.
.. Coming on strong over the last two years has been the "Hopper-Hopper" rig. Big hopper on top and little hopper on the point. Also being used with some regularity is the "Dropper-Hopper" combination with a small nymph on a short tag, (2") about 14" above the hopper on point.

Armed And Ready

.. The "Bobber-Hopper," "Hopper-Bobber," & "Hopper-Bobber-Dropper" variants have their adherants as well. One thing for sure - it's easy to see the bobber rigs.
.. The trout of the Gallatin River are about to be inundated with food. The PMD's are still working late on cloudy afternoons.
.. Caddis are starting about 1:40 PM. Ants, beetles, spruce moths, hoppers, butterflies, segmented annelids, and neotenous forms of stoneflies are all on the plate.
.. The neighbors are already on the river. The visitors are too. The thistles have grown spines, and are beginning to bloom, (hopper food,) and will soon be a hazard to your waders.
.. If you plan to fish the Gallatin River please carry your bear spray. The lush valley is full of bears. The bear scat is on the trails and in the weeds. Fish with a friend and make some noise as you stroll from giant fish to giant fish.

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THE GATEWAY

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The Snortle Strikes

GULPER GONE DOWN ?

Seek 'Em With A Snortle

fish seem to eat when they can

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.. The gulpers are gulping. Not quite like Pac-Man yet but persistent and consistent. Hebgen Lake is drawing the faithful with increasing regularity.

.. The Callibaetis are here and Trico clouds are small but regular. It's a bit different this year. The weed beds are covered by more water than in the recent past.
.. Light is penetrating the water just fine but, the Pac-Fish action is just now becoming apparent. This is probably because weed beds are just a bit deep for the sensitive bugs that inhabit them to be awakened by the requisite photo-period for maximum intense activity.
.. The wind has been coming on strong a skosh early too. So action is truncated by less than desirable conditions earlier in the mid morning than most fishers would like.

.. All-in-all things are proceeding apace with near normality and should develop into the feeding frenzy we're familiar with in the next 5 - 10 days. If you should find a weed bed at the right depth, you will be blessed with gulping action that is superb. Right now the key is water depth. Gulping is not lake-wide - YET!
.. All is not lost if the gulpers abandon the surface. Stay with your selected weed forest and go down. Traditionally, the neighbors use small buggers, leeches, and the local favorite the Snortle.
--The Snortle, (spelling can vary,) is a typical silli-legs pattern that is tied variously by different artisans. The recipe for the one shown above is:
Tail: 2 silli-legs about the length of the hook,
Body: peach Antron ribbed with scarlet Antron twisted on top,
Thorax: coarse hare's mask with two pair of silli-legs,
Hook size: 8, (unusual,) to 14, (a tough proposition.)
.. The most common variation is like the standard variety with black wool yarn substituted for the scarlet Antron. Some of the neighbors use a copper or lead wire under-body.
.. The fly is fished on a short, (5 or 6 foot leader and counted down to the weed tops or sides of the subterranean forest. A slow herky-jerky retrieve is the common action used. Brave and intrepid fishers let it sink into the edge of a weed bed and retrieve with a 2" - 3" motion with a 5 or 6 second pause in between.

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Say What ?

SUSPICIOUS BUGS INVADE

It's Been Some Time

the cicada visitation

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.. The neighbors and ever-alert guides from around here have noticed an increase in the cicada population. So? Fish eat them when they can. And, now they can!

.. We were alerted to the increase in these hoary bugs by long-time fly fishing guide Chris Herpin, who hoarsely whispered in our ear - "I don't know that I should tell you this, BUT, there are more cicadas this year than even you have ever seen!"
.. Often you won't see the big bugs but you will hear them. The launch ramps and lunch spots on the lowland Madison River are full of the song of the cicada.

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Click on the player to hear the song.

Image of CicadasFromMontana CM020501

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 .. The cicadas of Montana hatch every year. They sing and chirp and get eaten by fish with a gusto that would make a starving Pit Bull envious. You can read about the impending invasion HERE.
.. Chris did not reveal the flies he was using to woo the big trout on the river. He did note that nary a fly shop in the area had any cicada imitations for sale. He did say that there are some patterns in the competent fisher's boxes that will do. But there is a secret pattern making the rounds in the musty dark corners of the local pubs.

.. Should you see a group of dripping souls huddled together in out of the way places it might be a sagacious act to eavesdrop on their whispered conversation. If it's not about sex, or beer, or gas prices; it's probably about how to tie the lace-winged-wonder-pattern that takes big trout faster than a speeding minnow.
.. The fly is large, (cicadas can be 2" long.) The fly is light and casts like a dream. The fly is easy to tie and is being banged out by the virtuoso fluff artisans in town. So far we've offered bribes of significant dimensions and substance but there's no headway being made on that front.
.. Mr. Herpin suggested that there are some things that are best left unsaid and mysterious. We badgered him for a good 20 minutes but received no coherent responses. He left our presence muttering and mumbling about grizzled old farts and something called a "MEGAFUGLY." At least that's what it sounded like to our wax-laden ears.

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CLICK HERE

.. Local recipe and variations RIGHTCHERE.

Takin' It Easy

FROLIC IN THE PARK

Fish A Little

play a lot

KICKIN' IT

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Firehole Follies

.. Despite the warped psyche of Yellowstone's visiting fly flayers, there's more to the park than trout. There are wonders to behold, adventures to partake of, and gentle lolling about to be done.
.. There's wading without waders, there's sight seeing, there's picnicking, there's flower finding, there's animal gawking, there's photo taking and there's just plain relaxing in spectacular, (and very crowded,) scenery.

Two-handed mid-air mend

.. There's even kid fishing and kid swimming and kid frolicking. There's the beautiful roar of diesel buses and the staccato bark of big twin motorcycles.
.. There's the the gentle giggle of picnicking teen-aged girls and roaring guffaws of the boys that are strutting and posing for them. This is a spectacle like none other on earth.
.. All this is secondary, (or even a nuisance,) for those that see Yellowstone National Park as some sort of holy tabernacle for catch and torture fly fishing.

Whispers

.. The fishing is good, (but not 'the best',) and the surroundings are wondrous to behold. Sadly there are fishers who behold only water and bits of fluff.
.. There's even fondling and smooching, (and not of fish.) There's cuddling, stroking, sharing, whispering, and commiserating. There's a world of activity that has more to do with the park than the fish.
.. It's a place where words fail; when you think about it. Yet for a very small segment of the visiting public it's only a place to fish. So sad.
.. It's finally "High Summer" in Yellowstone Park and time to take it easy. There is fishing and catching to be had. But there's so much more.
.. Should you choose to fish to the exclusion of the rest of Yellowstone. Or should you choose to absorb the park through a 'windshield survey,' you've missed quite a bit.
.. This is a place where thermophiles hint at the origin of life. This is a place sitting on top of one of the worlds largest active volcanoes.

Picnic In The Park

.. This is a place where grizzles roam, elk bugle, bison battle, and geysers erupt with amazing frequency and regularity.
.. This is a place where mud boils, sulfur permeates the air, and boiling pools are colored with the vibrancy of a child's coloring book. It would be a shame to miss all that and more.

.. Right now, fish in the west side streams can be caught with just a single fly. Or three if you're picky. Fish can be caught without getting in the water. Fish can be caught at midday, morning, afternoon, and evening. But if you spend all that time fishing and catching you will have missed Yellowstone.

Fish Food

.. Miss it if you must! Right now the Firehole River is at it's Summer tipping point. Temperatures are climbing and the fish are taking it easy. There's caddis around in the morning. The fish are eating them. We suggest that you just leave them be.
.. The Madison River is providing excellent catching all day long. A caddis imitation of some sort will work for most situations.
.. Put a dozen sinking and floating flies in a 35mm film canister and leave your waders at home. Walk around and enjoy the park - fish a little too. Wade wet, you won't shrink or melt.
.. Nez Perce Creek provides thermal areas, bears, bison, marmots, and fish. It's a nice walk. Keep your eyes open and the bear spray in your hand. Caddis work here; particularly the sinking kind.

One small corner of the park

.. The Gibbon River is doing better than the glory waters of the western park. If you don't want to use a caddis imitation try any thing that looks like fish food.
.. Nothing too small right now. Royal Coachman and Goofus Bugs are taking fish on the top. Prince Nymphs down and deep. There are some pretty good hatches of mayflies in the big meadows. They are big and sorta brownish. Fish are eating them when they are around.
.. Fan Creek is finally coming around and is just the color of dirty dish water. Your favorite attractors will work here along with the caddis.
.. The Gallatin River has finally bloomed. PMD's, little stoneflies, (nymphs,) and two or three kinds of caddis are all in the offing.
.. Summer will be gone in little less than a month. Autumn will last for the five weeks after that.  Right now it's time to avoid the heatwave, enjoy the scenery and take your catching as it comes along.

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MOUNT HAYNES

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