GIBBON COMING INTO SHAPE
Firehole Hitting Stride
madison by next week ?
.. Our river maps are undergoing extensive annotation and will be posted in the next day or two. Images of the locales and fly patterns are being added. For now go to Yellowstoner's Maps.-------
.. Our Spring was short, unsettled, tentative, and is now gone. Except for the high water we've entered our Summer fishing mode. The rivers on the west side of the park are all fishable. The color is receding and there is just about a week or ten days left of the high water. It looks like our river's flows have peaked... The Firehole River is a bit high, but in excellent condition. Bugs are plentiful and predictable. This week promises to be excellent with an upper level disturbance keeping some clouds in the forecast all week. Air temperatures are approaching mid summer levels a little early, and afternoon thundershowers are going to be
the norm. They'll be widely scattered and probably violent. Remember that your rod is an excellent lightning attractor - especially the graphite ones... The Gibbon River canyon has lost most of its brown color and is now just tinged with pink. It is beginning to fish well for the nymph fishers.
.. The small meadows above Virginia Cascades are lush, green and productive. Browns, Brookies, and Grayling await the fisher willing to enjoy catching rather than waiting... The trail to Grebe Lake is drying rapidly and the moose have moved away. Only the bears and a few adventurous souls have wandered the three miles to this Spring fishing hot spot.
.. The Gibbon River in the big meadows surrounding the picnic area is finally clear. There are still bears, elk, and bison to contend with and the grass is lush. The big holes in the meander bends are finally becoming havens for resident trout and stealth is the best tactic here... The Madison River is beginning to fish well. Nymphs and streamers are still the most productive, but the evening caddis hatches are beginning to make themselves felt. The riffle and run sections are still yielding fish to stonefly nymphs. Try a Yellowstone Sally or a Silli-Legs in sizes 6 - 10.
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.. We are at the beginning of the buggy season. The mosquitoes are doing well this year, and the caddis seem to be having a very good time of it as well... The mayflies and the stoneflies are doing just fine too. It's important, as the warm weather approaches, to be able to more closely approximate the bug that the fish are eating.
.. Fly patterns come and go. The fish seem to eat them all. Morphology and size are the first keys to the successful patterns; and color, (shade,) comes in a close third.
.. It seems a bit superfluous to caution that more patterns in the box is better than fewer -- but it seems to be true. The trout psyche is an alien and mysterious thing. Changing flies is often a waste of time -- more often it's a productive endeavor. We have our favorites; habit is a tough thing to break, but the more the merrier.
.. Along with a few Feather Dusters and Shop Vacs we carry the full Spring Box well into Summer. As the trout begin to sky-gaze more in July we augment the assortment with a few well selected dry flies.
.. Right now soft hackles, (floated and sunken,) are doing well. Your favorite big and little -- dark and light, caddis are also productive. Be prepared with some small dry flies as the PMD's and Baetis move through their size machinations. And, of course a fine selection of Hare's Ears, Feather Dusters, Yellowstone Badgers, and Prince nymphs will serve you well.
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.. Poor Tom. After logging more miles behind a steering wheel than Danica Patrick he lost some fishing time to a radiator hose... Exhaustion is second only to the frustration of snapping a graphite rod on a large Montana Trout. Read the complete sad tale of woe HERE.
