Thursday, September 20, 2012

As You Like It

LESS IS MORE
Submarines Arriving Daily
or, try a beaver dam

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.. This has to be quick. The big fish, running up the Madison River from Hebgen Reservoir, are coming in waves and running fast and far. The Gibbon River in National Park Meadows even has a couple of the monsters - ALREADY!
.. Follow the neighbors. Walk miles and miles. Cover acres and acres of water. You shall be rewarded.
.. The folks that are catching fish are moving around. Moving around as much as fishing.
.. They are behaving like the steelhead fishers of the Pacific Coast. 
.. Try this: CAST - SWING - SHORT JERK RETRIEVE - THREE STEPS - REPEAT. Get in line. Do the conga. Exercise the pool and your arm. Then, (very important,) move on. Move to another pool. Move to another location. Move to another state, (it's easy to do along the park line.)
.. Fish will eat your fly if they choose to. Switch flies if they aren't on it. It is happening right now. Get here and stay for the next month or so.
..If you're not a headhunter there is great fishing all around us. Hebgen Lake still has some gulpers working to the continuing hatches. Try it, you'll like it.
.. The Gallatin River is in perfect shape and the elbows have left the room. Spruce moths continue to swim near the wooded areas. There are morning, (or all day,) hatches on our blessedly cloudy days. Mostly it's BWO's in the forenoon and a few caddis and, yes Betty, hoppers wake up when it gets a bit warmer.
.. You can fish the Gallatin River all day with an Adams followed by a Prince Nymph and do just fine. Fish with a friend and be very bear aware in the northern reachers of the park water. Hell's Bells - be bear aware along the whole valley. There was just a mauling over the hills. An elk hunter called in a sow griz.
.. A couple of the neighbor kids visited the Firehole River. It's still a bit too warm by mid-day. They sampled the Little Firehole River and Nez Perce Creek. They found both bears and fish. They avoided the bears and stuck the fish with soft hackles.
.. All this kind of exuberant activity drains what little energy we have.
.. There are some nice, well hidden, beaver ponds in, and around the neighborhood.
.. They don't get much press. That's fine with us. A leisurely stroll around them will produce as many fish as mosquito bites in July.
.. We like to watch the noses as they slide up beneath the unsuspecting bugs and bits. Brook Trout reign supreme in these little pools of water.
.. There is, on occasion, a surprise in the form of a 14" - 16" monster. We don't expect much in the way of size - the solitude and gentility are compensation enough.
.. Adventurous neighbors have probed the bear closure boundaries of Duck Creek. There are many fish willing to eat anything that comes their way.
..  Campanula Creek has been neglected by most of the neighbors this year - much to the joy of one youngster that can walk that far. The fish rise freely to anything in the size 12 - 16 range. Sparsely tied caddis seem to be the favorite of the hikers. A Royal Wulff is also a good choice. BEAR SPRAY and an alert friend are mandatory. Singing and joking are requisite behaviors also.
.. That's enough for now - got to go visit some kits we know of.
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