Details Released

MAMA BEAR EUTHANIZED

Two Cubs Captured

please carry bear spray

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.. Yellowstone National Park has provided additional details about the hiker that was killed by a Grizzly Bear. The decision factors concerning the disposition of the bears are also provided.

PRESS RELEASE

Date: August 13, 2015

August 13, 2015            15-056    
Julena Campbell or Amy Bartlett
(307)344-2015
e-mail us  
Results from an autopsy conducted on Monday afternoon concluded that Lance Crosby, a 63 year old Billings man, died as a result of traumatic injuries sustained from a bear attack. Results from genetic (DNA) analysis of bear hair samples collected next to Crosby’s body confirmed the adult female grizzly bear that was captured at the scene on the night the body was discovered was the bear involved in the fatal attack. Additional support beyond the DNA evidence that this female was the bear involved in the attack include: the bear and cubs were at the attack site when Crosby’s body was found by park rangers; bear tracks of a female with cubs were found at Crosby’s body; this bear was captured at the fatality site within 24 hours of the body being found; and canine puncture wounds inflicted on the victim are consistent with the bite size of the female captured at the site.

Based on the totality of the evidence, this adult female grizzly was the bear involved in the fatality and was euthanized today. An important fact in the decision to euthanize the bear was that a significant portion of the body was consumed and cached with the intent to return for further feeding. Normal defensive attacks by female bears defending their young do not involve consumption of the victim’s body.

Arrangements have been made to transfer the bear’s two cubs to a facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The AZA sets strict standards for facilities with regard to animal handling and care. Details of this placement are still being finalized. The facility is expected to make an announcement on Friday.

“As managers of Yellowstone National Park, we balance the preservation of park resources with public safety,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk. “Our decision takes into account the facts of the case, the goals of the bear management program, and the long term viability of the grizzly bear population as a whole, rather than an individual bear.”

The area closures, including the Elephant Back Loop Trail and Natural Bridge Trail will be lifted on Friday, August 14.

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WALLPAPER:  PARK HEADQUARTERS - MAMMOTH

Just Delightful

UPPER GALLATIN SMOKIN'

Fish Seeking Dance Partners

all bugs seem to be present

WALLPAPER: THE VALLEY OF PERFECTION

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.. So when it's good it's just too good. That's the haps on the Gallatin River. It's easy to tell when the fishing and catching warm weather calendar has about run it's course.

IT'S TRUE -THEY'RE THAT SMALL

.. The catching becomes almost mindless. The breezes are gentle. The clouds are dense. The afternoon showers are right on time. Temperatures climb all the way into the 70's.
.. Every bug in our box is present and, alive and. on the water or, in the air or, in the weeds. What more could you want?
.. The low hopper count seems to have improved. It's even flying ant time. There are still, (or increasing,) spruce moths along the wooded sections and the beetles are big enough that you need to watch your step or trip over them. The neighbors are favoring the old fashioned Hopper/Dropper combination of a size 10 hopper and a size 16 ant.

HOPPERS LEICA THIS LENS

.. There has not been the anticipated heavy rains that scared some fishers to the lowlands.
.. Intermittent and wildly dispersed showers in the afternoon and heavy fog in the morning seems to have wrung some moisture from the air.
.. Some folks still insist that the drive to the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park is where you will find that the fishing and catching is best. Farm out - have at it!
.. While you're over there look for the pretty colors in Soda Butte Creek. Flow testing with dye infusions started yesterday. Some sections of Soda Butte Creek will remain open. Some sections will be closed.
.. The electrofishing for cutthroat salvage will begin about mid week, (around the 19th of August.) Poison dumping is scheduled to happen on the 24, 25, and maybe 26 of August. Check with your favorite feather merchant for exact dates and stream section closures.

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PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

.. Our weather continues to be a pub topic with the neighbors. One of our well educated fisher friends explains that we are already feeling the effects of this coming monster El Niño.
.. It seems that the persistent light precipitation around here is in response to the Jet Stream doing a hula as it moves north and south in response to warm air pulses from the eastern Pacific Ocean around Peru.
.. Of course it has to dodge the Great Basin High and slip underneath the polar vertexes. Hearing the jargon of explanation makes our head spin.
.. We have a better time with pictures and simple arithmetic.
.. In the simplest terms the current, rapidly building, El Niño has a better than nine in ten chance of being the biggest in the last 50 years.
.. We'll let you know come next April or May. Right now we're headed to Specimen Creek. Or maybe Bacon Rind Creek. Or maybe even the perfect Gallatin River.
.. We suggest that you avoid the noisy gulpers on Hebgen Reservoir.

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WALLPAPER:   FLAUTAS CON MACHACA

Get Yourself A Drone

..
..

Clear Today . . . BUT

COOLNESS AND DAMPNESS

Springs Running Clear & Cold

enjoy it for itself

WALLPAPER: COLD SPRING BANK ON NOTELLUM CREEK

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.. Recent arrivals to our village have been heard to comment that persistent evening drizzle with gray days does not constitute Summer.
.. Memories are short. Perceptions are colored by expectations. We're on the edge of the high country and just about anything can happen: even snow.

Green Thing - A Caddis Look Alike

.. Today is clear and warming. Tomorrow will be warmer. Then back to the damp, cool, and gray days that visitors decry and short term memories have forgotten are not atypical.
.. Water temperature of the west side rivers has not ameliorated by much but the stream side spring discharge has increased and locally cold cooler pockets have been expanding. The fish are concentrated, the fishers are dispersed.
.. We suggest that you continue to avoid the Firehole River, (Temps in the high 70's,) and the Madison River, (Temps in the mid 70's.) Fish, instead, the Gallatin River. Fish Hebgen Reservoir. Fish Between The Lakes.
.. Stroll the banks of Fan Creek or penetrate the willows of Bacon Rind Creek meadows. Enjoy the scenery with bear spray at the ready. Catch a few fish in the afternoon drizzle and call it good.

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WALLPAPER: SUMMER BEEF PADDY DONE RIGHT

Briefs

DEATH IN YELLOWSTONE

Spruce Moths Working

hoppers have wings and legs

THESE ARE NOT JUST FOR DECORATION

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.. The partially eaten body of a seasonal employee of Medcore was discovered near Elephant Back Loop Trail. The body was found about noon on Friday, (LINK-1.) The involvement of Grizzly Bears was announced yesterday, (LINK-2.)
.. We've said it before and we say it again: walk, stroll, hike, or meander with your bear spray in hand and sing loudly to the bears. Two or three companions is usually a good number for bear fishing. 
.. The man was described as "an experienced hiker," and was known to frequent the area where his body was found.

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ADULT MOTH

.. Spruce moths have been reported along the wooded sections of the Gallatin River near the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. They now add their flavor to the miscellaneous smorgasbord available for the eager trout.
.. It might be worth mentioning that the neotanous form is also edible and does, in fact, fall from trees into the awater.
.. Ants, beetles, caddis, hoppers, and sporadic mayflies provide a balanced diet for our scaly friends. Certainly you have something that will work.

BABY MOTH

.. The best advice for now is to take the whole box, (or two or three,) and fish with a friend to share information with. Covering a lot of water is always a good idea. Trigger finger on the bear spray and take time to look around at the scenery above the water.

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.. It's not known as a streamer fishery but, there have been some genuine hogs jerked from the Madison River Between The Lakes. The last few deep meander bends before Quake Lake have been, of late, persistently haunted by a couple of the neighbors.

GOOD OL' OLIVE MATUKA

.. Once a gigantic fish takes a streamer it's hard to fish elsewhere for awhile. Nothing fancy going on here: no two handed rods, no 10' nine weights, no exotic flies with endangered fluff. Matuka is the name of the game. Fling, mend, strip, wait, strip again, hang on.

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.. A steady stream of the young neighbors are traveling to far reaches of the northeast corner of the park on a regular basis. They get up early and arrive in time to see long shadows across the confluence of Slough Creek with the Lamar River.

TROUT CANDY

.. These sage rats ignore the lush meadows of the famous creek. They don't fish where trees obscure the view and snag a cast or where the grass is so deep that it tickles their nether regions. They are allergic to guide books and famous fisheries.
.. Right now they are using unfashionable San Juan Worms, Black Deer Hair Beetles, monster Woolly Buggers, Hoppers, and the occasional small stone fly nymph or ant imitations. The cell phone pictures are convincing.

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.. Whispers abound in the least used tables in the pubs. Winter Creek, Gibbon River between the cascades and Greebe Lake, Firehole River on the trail to Lone Star Geyser, and weed beds with leeches on Hebgen Lake.
.. We'd be remiss if we failed to mention the whispers. We'd be garroted if told you more.

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WALLPAPER:   SODA BUTTE

Visit A Foreign Country

FISH OF THE SPUDLANDS

A Nympher's Delight

check flows -- catch fish

WALLPAPER: AT WATERFALL RIFFLES

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BEWARE OF IDAHO

.. A few miles, of delightful tailwater riffles and runs, await anglers willing to eschew the dry fly religion du jour.
.. We visited the Box Canyon of the Henry's Fork and it exercised our memory mechanisms. Hadn't fished there since 1968 or '69. Our error.
.. Back then we recognized two parts of the Snake River: 'The North Fork,' and 'The South Fork.' Folks today still understand when we say 'The South Fork.'

FLOAT BIG'UNS EARLY

.. "The Box" is an intimate stretch of water with a lot of willing fish.
.. We had believed, (in the 60's,) that it held 20,000 fish per mile. Today, the estimate is about 7,000 fish per mile. That's still a goodly number since the best holding water concentrates the fish.
.. There is nothing to prevent folks from floating a fly: some do, especially when the salmonflies are popping. The rumored truth of the matter is that the sub surface biota is so dense that the the fish just have to park themselves in a gentle spot and open their maw and let the river sweep food into it.

GET DOWN QUICK

.. This is both good and bad. You need to find the fish. You need to poke 'em in the nose.
.. History and geology conspire to make the simple task of catching a trout more difficult than it would seem to be.
.. The porosity of the jointed and segmented basalts of the Island Park Caldera provide many nooks and crannies for the resident biota and for the wayward nymph hook.
.. This is one place where the old axiom holds true: "If you ain't hookin' rocks - you ain't catchin' fish."

SHORT AND SWEET RIDE

.. The little canyon was carved by the combined forces of the Buffalo River and the Henry's Fork.
.. The scouring force of these two rivers was curtailed in 1939 when the Island Park Dam was completed.
.. The dam created the Island Park Reservoir and drowned some of the best fishing on the Trude Ranch, (yes . . . that Trude! President Herbert Hoover loved it.)
.. This dam and the check dam at the mouth of the Buffalo River just above it's confluence with the Henry's Fork River have slowed flows, (most of the time,) to produce ideal water for catching fish.
.. The dams have tamed the roiling, canyon carving discharge of the two rivers into a pleasant stretch of river for floating in a drift boat  -- or canoe, or tube, or kayak.
.. Should you not be a "nympher;" and should you fish with a guide, you will probably 'cherry pick' the riffles and fish in a most conservative manner. This will stab you some fish and lose you very few flies.

VERY SMALL WORKS TOO

.. If you're after the giants, and if you have flies to lose, you should probe the dark crevasses near large boulders. The giants are there. The crevasses hold deep dark secrets and enormous fish, as well as a full assortment flies - a veritable gold mine of history.
.. Look for flows in the 800 to 900 cfs for a gentle day. Fish deep and fish slow. Lose flies and call it good. Go big when the big bugs are around. Go as small as size 18 when they are not there.
.. You can even drown your favorite surface imitations - (after mashing them into nondescript wads,) and enjoy this little segment of the Snake River.
.. We'll be back.

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WALLPAPER:   BUREAU OF RECLAMATION WATER HOUSE - 1939

The Scenic Route

ROAD CLOSURE ADVENTURES

Arrive Early - Leave Early

only the solitary need apply

WALLPAPER:  ENJOY THE SCENERY

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.. The ongoing road improvements in Yellowstone National Park have become so commonplace during the last decade that park habitues have come to use them as screening devices.
.. There are some fine catching opportunities in, or near, construction zones. Most park visitors try to avoid delays and construction zones. Fishers can use them.
..The neighbors have the closure and delay schedules memorized. For the rest of us the information is listed HERE.
.. Not to give away too much -- but, Obsidian Creek is more abandoned than usual. There are others as well.

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WALLPAPER: FRIENDLY FISHING DESTINATION