ELBOWS FLOODING
TO THE GALLATIN
TO THE GALLATIN
Some Stretches Still Available
take a number or a tributary
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.. Our neighbors are there every day. The visiting license plates are proliferating... Feather merchants are beginning to shift their vocabulary.
.. Guides are re-learning the pull-outs and parking spots.
.. Love
abounds on the Gallatin River in Yellowstone National Park... The ever faithful caddis are making their daily appearances. Sometimes it seems like all day. Some days there is a curtain call about 7:30 PM. Love of caddis fishing is one of the staples of the Gallatin River... Floaters, sinkers, film fanciers, bottom bouncers, and skitterers are all useful techniques and all are successful - at various times. Elk hair, deer hair, light, dark, green, brown, big and little flies have devotees along this river.
.. Of course there are other flies and other hatches.
Of course there are people who wait for hours on end until they see a nose in the air. Of course there are fisher folk that must be able to see their fly in order to catch a fish. But - there is always some sort of caddis fishing available... Currently there are PMD's, a few Flavs, (and or drakes,) small, (mostly yellow,) stoneflies, and other assorted fluvial bugs. The terrestrial hatch is well underway and ants, beetles, bees, spruce moths, and hoppers are increasing their populations by the day
.. As the elbows crowd the easily accessible
water near the highway it behooves the fisher with good legs, good lungs, and an appreciation of the remote to seek out the tributaries... Already love is being spread up Specimen Creek (by both bears and fishers.) Gentle fondling is taking place along Fan Creek, (especially the lower reaches.) Penetration into the willow meadows of Bacon Rind Creek has been discovered... Invasions up the Big Horn Trail are becoming nearly commonplace.
.. This foreplay is leading up to the climax of hatches on the Gallatin River. It should occur in the next two weeks, (give or take a few days.) The hopper nymphs are in their final stages and wings have appeared on some early bloomers.
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.. As you know, the river trends north/ south; this means that the fish switch hides periodically during the day. The sun & the shifting shadows play a big part in fish location. It's important to keep this in mind as you caress the banks with your gentle strides... Should you bother to notice it, the fisher's trail is way too close to the bank. Your footfalls and shadow will telegraph your loving intent far before you get to where the fish were.
.. Stealth techniques will reward the fisher, even on this most forgiving of our neighborhood streams.
.. Remember that beneath the surface these high valleys are covered with glacial detritus of one sort or another... The Gallatin River cuts through a terminal moraine along the Big Horn Trail. Outwash gravels and boulders predominate in the subsurface strata for most of the park section of this river.
.. These tightly compacted stones are amazingly efficient conductors of sound and vibration. Galumphing and brush busting will get you there quicker, but the fish may know it long before you arrive.
