Will Yellowstone Be Next ??

(GOOD) NEWS FLASH

Phase Out Felt Soles

check timely posts

.. New Zealand has banned felt-soled wading boots. This is an effort to help stop the spread of invasive species. This is important. We wonder when Wader Makers and governments in the United States will follow suit?
.. Read it HERE, from Protect Your Waters.

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.. For alternative choices check the recent timely posts at Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone: (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5.)

The Other Firehole

A PAUSE IN CATCHING
IS AT HAND

Enjoy The Scenery

make a day of it

(The image files for this post are huge.
Click on them to enjoy The Other Firehole.)

.. Most visitors to Yellowstone National Park appreciate the Firehole River for it's beauty, thermal features, swimming hole, broad flowered meadows, and roadside picnic areas. This is a good time for fly fishers to do the same.
.. If fishing the Firehole River is on your agenda during the next 30 days, take time during mid day to pause and smell the flowers - so to speak.
.. Do as the local residents do: pay homage to Mattie Culver and drop some flowers at her head stone. She was the wife of a winter keeper and died in the winter of 1889.
.. She was left unburied until the ground thawed. The web will give you more information about this hearty Yellowstone pioneer. Her grave is located on the peninsula between the Firehole River and Nez Perce Creek.
.. The beautiful pool and stream-wide riffles nearby are named in her honor. The fish are visible in the warm water during mid day. They cruise lethargically from the depths to the shore. Throw them no hooks. Watch and plan for when the water is cooler.
.. Our prolonged Spring has kept the flowers blooming. Stroll around before and after your picnic and enjoy them.
.. There are places to fish on the Firehole River all season long. Now is the time to explore them. There are still cold waters and some good fishing on the Little Firehole River in Biscuit Basin. The confluence meadow and the shade of the trees up the Little Firehole River are excellent places. There is even a bridge for traversing the spongy areas.
.. Many of the larger fish have already migrated into this refuge. It's a poorly held secret for Summer fishing and catching.
.. Maybe you'll even try Iron Spring Creek; just don't wander into the thermal area.
.. Take the time to walk to the cool water where the fish are in better shape and the catching won't exhaust them to the point of mortality.
.. There is exceptional all season fishing on the Firehole River above Old Faithful. The broad easy bike trail to Lone Star Geyser Basin provides excellent access to this cold water portion of the Firehole River. There is a bridge up here too. There are mostly Brook Trout in this section, and they are willing dance partners. Give them a twirl and you should have the time of your life.
.. You can stroll from pool to pool, riffle to riffle, run to run, and cover the whole trail and back without breaking a sweat. There is a hidden and secret beaver pond up this way too. It will remind you of times gone bye. We'll not tell you where.
.. The Brook Trout in the pond are a bit more shy than those in the river - must be a characteristic of age and size.
.. There is even exceptional fishing in the lower part of the river's reach. Dancing water, placid pools, glides and streams that are ignored by most fishers this time of the year.
.. There are berries, (just starting to ripen,) shady runs, green grass, downed snags, deep pools, and everything that quickens the heart of a fly fisher.
.. It is vacant and the trout are busily eating and enjoying their Yellowstone vacation. Should you desire to interrupt their contented existence it takes just a little scramble down a steep bank. Where is it? Just below the lower cascade of the Firehole Falls Complex. Don't tell anyone you heard it here.
.. It's time to let the Firehole River rest. Let the fish struggle through the warm water period without the aggravation of persistent fly fishers. It's time to visit The Other Firehole.

More PETA Poo Poo

CAN IT BE TRUE ?

read all about it

secret

.. The PETA trial in North Carolina has brought to light some interesting tid-bits about how a $30,000,000.00 organization treats animals in its care. This is becoming quite the interesting event. READ IT HERE. MORE HERE.

Of Wikis And Caddis

CLICK OVER AND CONTRIBUTE

just the facts ma'am
(P.S. hoppers seen in Gibbon Meadows)

.. The recent expansion of the fly fishing sections at Wikepedia continues. Recent additions to Angling In Yellowstone National Park, and Fly Fishing have begun to shape the whole section and topic. When this flurry of activity is over the die will be cast for the scope and content of the subject.
.. Wikipedia has grown to enormous proportions and is becoming a "go-to" source for both casual and serious research. It's still a bit cumbersome too, but it is a useful early tool in research and general information gathering.
.. The Wiki-Spawn are proliferating and now include Wikiversity, wikiHow, Wikihowto. Cross references and cross fertilization is beginning to be fully incorporated in the various articles on many topics and subjects.
.. There is currently no entry for fly fishing in Wikiversity, wikiHow has dozens of fishing related articles including how to fish for river trout and how to tie a blood knot, Wikihowto has no articles on fly fishing.
.. Here's how you can help. The Fly Fishing article in Wikipedia has an editorial box, (masthead image,) noting the specificity of some aspects of the article, along with a caution that technique and methods might be better suited to other wikis.
.. Jump right in and add your two cents worth. If you don't, your expertise and information may be lost to the ages, (we notice that the East Gallatin River entry is particularly sparse.) Or just ignore it all and go fishing.

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.. Now is the time to tie up some 'Hopper-Dropper' leaders. The hoppers are going to be here very soon and the action promises to be violent this season.
.. There are a few hoppers at the little riffle above the picnic area in [no] Elk Park on the Gibbon River. There are a few in the meanders at National Park Meadows on the Madison and Gibbon Rivers. None have been seen at Grasshopper Bank - but then, again, we didn't stop to look.
.. We have a trusted report that there are hoppers at Roosevelt, and that the elk on the flats south of Gardiner have been seen kicking at mysterious yellow dots.
.. Take your fluttering caddis for a walk on the Firehole River after dinner. Stay until dark-thirty and fish the back eddies and undercut banks. Keep the 'skeeters away with an occasional respite and your favorite bug repellent.
.. There is still very good fishing on Nez Perce Creek. Don't tell anyone that you heard about it here. Simple attractors and a few soft hackles will be all you need. We fished there all day and into the night with just Feather Dusters and Stiff Hackles, (floated and sunk both of them and they worked just fine.) Caught a fish or two. Saw a bear. Saw a bison. Saw two day hikers. Visited with a blood sucking mosquito.
.. All bugs present and accounted for on the Gallatin River. All fish eating well. No hopper reports here yet, but that doesn't mean you can't practice with them. PMD's, Golden Stone Flies, and a glorious evening caddis hatch adorn this river.
.. Somehow the word has spread and the parking places are scarce. Try a Casual Dress, Yellowstone Sally, or Hellifiknow in sizes 12 and smaller. You can float or sink them to your heart's desire.
.. Jason Neuswanger over at the Trout Nut has some fine pictures of caddis in all stages. It's no wonder there are so many successful imitations. His Hydropsychidae page is full of both pictures and fishing information
.. Soda Butte Creek is ripe. Morning will be the finest time if you dislike mosquitoes. Fish the little riffles and pocket water in the small canyon just above the confluence meadows. Nymphs, to start with, is the way to go; followed by your favorite PMD or Gray Drake imitations. Floating a sparsely dressed soft hackle can do it all.
.. Evning will bring on the caddis and a trip down the road to Slough Creek can produce some amazing results with just about any well presented imitation.
.. An excellent pattern for almost the whole caddis hatch is the Iris Caddis. This pattern originated right here in West Yellowstone. It is a development of the folks at Blue Ribbon Flies and is usually fished as a floater. It is just as effective when drowned. The original can be seen HERE. A modern version can be seen HERE. Tie a bunch of these and use them behind a floating hopper and you may get tired of catching.

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.. Those busy beavers over at Parks Fly Shop have published a useful article entitled A Month By Month Rundown Of The Fishing In Yellowstone Country. This brings their information articles to four. We look forward to the coming chapters.
.. The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) has updated and expanded their site. This foundation is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It has excellent introductory articles for family fishing and boating fun. The fishing information is generalized enough for the novice and specific enough for the advanced angler. Regional and state information is excellent, and very useful if you travel to an unfamiliar region of the country. Check out the Fishing Section, and the State Information. There's even some statewide fishing reports that are references to commercial sites and are sort of timely and mostly accurate.
.. Fly Fishing Yellowstone Park continues to grow and expand. The recently added stream directory and the Yellowstone Hatches sidebar are very useful introductory tools. We anticipate additional hatch charts, too.
.. We would be remiss in our late night typing should we fail to mention the beautiful sheepshead fish pictured over at the Horse's Mouth. Such wondrous form and proportions are seldom seen in this part of the world. It must be the salt water that enhances such striking beauty.

The Penn Reading Project

.. The money quote:

The path leading to Your Inner Fish, which was published in 2008, begins two years earlier, when Shubin, a renowned paleontologist and anatomy professor, discovered “Tiktaalik,” a prehistoric crocodile-like animal that may represent a missing link in the tree of life. In Your Inner Fish, Shubin continues his exploration of evolution as he investigates fundamental questions of origins, development, and human existence. The book is both fact-filled and accessible to the non-scientist. It is also a kind of diary of Shubin’s research, and a celebration of the pleasures and excitement that surround academic pursuits. Oliver Sacks said of Your Inner Fish that it is “…an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human.”

" I'd Still Rather Be Fishin' "

THE GUTSIEST JOB
IN THE WEST

Via New West
..

.. Anne Medley of NewWest.net spent a day collecting this video, an interview, and dead animals. Read the whole story HERE.

Just How Warm Is Too Warm ?

WE KNOW IT'S HAPPENING

Will Bass Invade Yellowstone ?

.. A note by Cory Hatch in the Jackson Hole Daily cites studies that suggest our grandchildren may be seeking bass instead of trout in Yellowstone's Firehole River.

MONEY QUOTE:
Water temperatures in Wyoming trout fisheries have already increased 2 degrees, a trend that could reduce fishing opportunities in the state by 50 percent by the end of the century, a report by conservation groups says. Wyoming rivers such as the Firehole, the North Platt and the Upper Green are considered most at risk in the state, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council and Trout Unlimited.

.. We can see it now: