Bluster At Last

FISHING HOT

Catching Good

weather colder and grunger

THE END OF AUTUMN IN THE HIGH COUNTRY

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.. It's been cool for a couple of nights. The low clouds have spit a bit and the sparse electric colors of our gentle and dry Fall are gone.
.. Mustard, brown, rust, amber, gray, leaden, and other late fall descriptors should be in your vocabulary if you visit here. You should also practice words like monster, pretty, giant, kype, streamer, rubber legs, woollywhatever, favorite Baetis, etc.
.. It's popcorn time on the Firehole River. Noses are everywhere and Baetis-Sipping can be heard for yards and yards. Splashing is the order of the day when the afternoon sun is just right and the Caddis take wing in frenzied flight to avoid the airborne trout.

.. The Madison River has been great, even in the sunlight, for the Fall-run fish from Hebgen Reservoir. Fishers have found the dark water in places never before fished. The books are obsolete right now. Some of the giant fish that have been pulled from the Madison River have left holes in the water that took hours to fill in.
.. Of course, if you are like us - and had your fill of the conga line, the upper Firehole River is yielding about 20 neon Brook Trout per hour to any competently presented fly, (above or below the surface:) fewer elbows and shielding from the wind by the dense lodgepole desert, are a Fall delight indeed.
.. The open secret of the week is the Gallatin River. A rig with two nymphs of the Prince variety, (different sizes - mind you,) is the current neighborhood choice. Surprisingly this also coincides with the advice from the counter help at many feather merchants.
.. Again this year, the neighbors are tying the KING PRINCE NYMPH. Runners seem to enjoy large nymphs as much as streamers and Woolly Worms Buggers.
.. The big bends of the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park in the now closed Bakers Hole Campground are being visited by folks willing to walk for their fish - there are many in the deep pools and undercut banks of this "fishy" bit of water.
.. Many of the neighbors believe that the biggest fish from the reservoir will not show until the snow arrives. That could be tonight, tomorrow, or as late as Wednesday. So be it.
.. The poor sister of Fall fishing is showing great form right now. The Gibbon River is nearly devoid of elbows above the falls. There are many unmolested fish eager for a dance partner. Drowned Caddis or Baetis cripples should accompany your standard Adams in the big meadows. Cute little bead head nymphs could yield a Grayling above Norris Campground on either Solfatara Creek or the Gibbon River's skinny, but dark, water. Of course the eager Brookies above Virginia Cascade will dance with any thing they can get in their mouth.

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Forgotten Riffles And Runs Of The Gibbon River Are Solace To Trout