FLOWS SKYROCKET
Hang On To Your Britches
there's still fish to be had
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| We don't usually fish the big meadows but this one was productive on Saturday |
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.. Friday, Saturday, & Sunday were absolutely beautiful. The fishing was borderline spectacular and the catching was pretty good too. The waters of the west side rivers are darkly colored but visibility was good, (up to 4 feet.) All that is about to change.
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| The Madison River provided catching over the weekend |
.. Fishers still fished and a few bugs, (even the sunshine caddis,) came forth. But, with rain in the forecast, and temperatures in the 60's for the next few days, catching is going to be challenging to say the least.
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| Visibility was O.K. |
.. Prince Nymphs and some caddis imitations were successful in the whiskey colored water. Flows were high and the river was bank full but the catching was steady and the fish were spunky.
.. We even took a fish at both snags at Grasshopper Bank. We also caught something too heavy to lift and had to break off twice. Wonder what it was?
.. The Madison River may fish O.K. for another 24 hours. Flows of the Firehole River and Gibbon River will make that decision for us. The water temperature is holding in the low to mid 50's and we're keeping our fingers crossed. Grassy banks, breaks in gradient, back eddy's, snag swirls, and other slack water areas will produce fish for the savvy angler.
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| Buffs & Babies lounging in a wet meadow |
.. They smirked and snarked at nymph fishers, stood around and waited for "the hatch," and fished occasionally. Rumor has it that there were fish caught by these Penitentes who must see their fly to catch a fish.
.. The sunshine was cursed and visitors with emergers and cripples had a field day while the faithful looked on and mumbled. The parking places on the road and in the lots were full of license plates from foreign countries like Idaho and Utah. Some exotic plates from other galaxies like New York and Wyoming were also seen.
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| Our favorite Gibbon River Culvert |
.. While the pros and their minions were gathered on the Firehole River, the neighbors and a very few naive visitors caught buckets of fish in the canyon, on the flats and in the meadows of the beautiful Gibbon River.
.. Parking was easy. The new road made travel from point to point a pleasure, and the fish were surprisingly cooperative. Even the small meadow around Norris Campground yielded fish of a surprising size, (to 14" frequently.)
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| Crinkled-Leg Ant |
.. We met a visitor from Hawaii, (true story,) who had seen some ants, (and beetles,) and was catching fish with what he called his "Crinkled-Leg Ant."" He gave us a couple. They are small, (16 - 18,) and we suppose that they could be an ant from a fish's point of view.
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| SJW |
.. The river was not yet out of bank but there were fish in the grass in some of the eddy's and slack water irregularities near the banks. In one such place we took three eager fish on our yellow San Juan Worm.
.. From the takes we guessed that there was some sort of competition going on in that little eddy.
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| Fish swirling within inches of the bank |
.. A couple of the neighbors fished with various emergers and drowned dry flies. When the fly could get a good drift near the grass of the banks there were surface takes.
.. The river was near flood stage and the grass and other shore debris made presentation critical for the surface fishers. Happily, with a bit of stealth, some accurate very short casts were possible thanks to the colored water.
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| Claytonia lanceolata |
.. We're hoping that there will be some time during the coming "BLOWN-OUT-STAGE" to get into the park. We know a few places where we won't have to walk too far to find a hungry fish.
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| Rumors of a landslide cannot be confirmed |
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| Two snags: two fish. Not bad for 10 minutes work on the way to some really hot fishing. |