It Took Longer Than Last Year,
it was big; as grayling go.
<- Fluvial Grayling
.. Right after lunch, (about 4:00 PM,) we parked Da Ford at the pull-out just before Norris Campground on the Gibbon River.
.. There were too many folks for our taste, but then again, it is Yellowstone. We had driven up from the morning non-hatch on the Firehole River where we settled for a few small fish in Biscuit Basin - taken on nymphs and soft hackles.
.. Surprisingly, when we got to Norris, no one was in the big pool just below the campground road. The quest for the Grayling resumed and was consummated with little fanfare and just one introductory Brook Trout. Both fish took a "GREEN THING" dead drifted just below the surface.
<- Green Thing
.. This fly is nothing to write home about, (sorry Jenny,) and did it's job with no complaints. The fly is just our favorite shade of 'Caddis Green' Angora Goat with a single turn of Golden Pheasant rump feather, (one side stripped - size 10). We'd post a recipe; but we just did. The fly was developed by Jerry Galvan for taking large and shy trout on the Owens River Ranch, north of Bishop, in California. Jerry felt that all top predators were always opportunistic feeders and anything that looked close would do. Seems to work!
<- Greeting Comittee
.. On the way back to the car to celebrate we discovered the reason that no one was fishing the meadow. A large female bison was doing it's best to rub the hide off of it's sides in the grove of trees right next to the parking lot. Such is the blindness of a fisher in quest of a fish, plumb stupid!
.. On the way home we stopped along the Madison River at two places where there was room to park. The Caddis Flies were coming off the water fairly heavily at the Mt. Haynes pull-out, and at the Talus Slope pull-out. We practiced our LDR techniques for about an hour; than moved down to the Gneiss Creek trailhead. Caddis were abundant and so were the trout.
.. The fishing in Yellowstone has settled into it's summer pattern and the fisherfolk are dotted along the streams like so much decoration on a sugar cookie. There are still good fish to be had in the Firehole River.
.. Fish early when the water is still cool, and the PMD's are emerging, (or the spinners are floating.) Fish very late when the shadows are long and the Caddis are present. The big fish have already moved into the shadows and some have abandoned the Firehole River for Iron Spring Creek, Nez Perce Creek, and the Little Firehole River.
.. Our foray up the Lone Star Geyser Trail, (above the upper geyser basin and the falls,) last week, produced good fishing that ought to come into it's own during the next 10 days or so.
.. There are reports, (from trusted neighbors,) that the Gallatin River is doing just fine in the confluence area, at the Fawn Pass pull-out. Fan Creek is still holding 14" - 16" fish that can be taken if your first cast is dead on. Use ants, foam beetles, or very small, (size 16 -18,) caddis.
..Hot spot report! About a mile below the Pebble Creek campground, is a small turnout: park and pack your float tube to Trout Lake. This lake has big hungry cutthroats. The walk in is a 'grunt' for the mature and wizened angler but invigorating for the younger set. The fish are currently taking anything thrown at them: floating stuff in the early morning, streamers during mid-day, and midges and floating nymphs in the cool evening hours. If you can make the hike this is a place that is always worth fishing.
P.S. Don't Forget The Picnic.