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.