Weather's Coming

NEIGHBORHOOD INDICATORS

NFS ROADS GETTING WORKOUT

runners getting ready

WALLPAPER:   NEIGHBORHOOD INDICATOR TREE

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.. Around the neighborhood there are a few trees, and other signs that consistently signal the time to switch flies and fishing locations.
.. The buzz in our visitors vocabulary is about the waters in Yellowstone National Park and  the presence of migrating Brown Trout on their annual run to sexual encounters.

SEASONAL INDICATOR

.. We encourage all of our visiting fishers to visit their favorite feather merchant and get some advice about where to fish during the early stages of the run.
.. The absolute best rumors and stories will be found amongst their dusty aisles and from their counter help.
.. Right now staging behavior is dominant among the trout migrants. They are sniffing and tasting the water for cues: temperature, turbidity, trace elements and volatile compounds, among others.
.. This behavior concentrates pods of pre-spawn fish in the estuaries and mouths of the tributary rivers that feed the Madison River Drainage. Many of the neighborhood tributary streams are now truncated by the water in Hebgen Reservoir. The fish wait until the cues overwhelm their complacent lifestyle in the reservoir.

A VICTORIAN TREASURE

.. A few fish start up the tributaries early. A few fish lag behind the general population, (a selective advantage or disadvantage that only time will reveal.)
.. During the pre-spawn and 'early run' the fish are tentative when they enter the tributaries. They mill around and make false starts from the reservoir to the rivers and then back.
.. They are hungry and hormone driven. The population density varies with time and distance up the various tributaries.
.. Right now, as you read this, the fish density in the estuaries of Gryaling Creek, Duck Creek, South Fork Madison River, Madison River and others is increasing by the day  -- some more than others.
-- Right now the pre-spawn population density is greater in the estuaries and lower reaches of the tributaries than in the upper reaches.

A VICTORIAN TREASURE - TOO

-- Right now visitors are fishing the upper reaches of the various tributaries. Right now the neighbors are still fishing in the reservoir and the estuaries. Wonder why that is?
.. The giant soft hackle fly seems to be in the forefront of our neighbor's selection for the estuarine fish.
.. Streamers aimed at the dark holes near the banks in the lower river segments are a close second to the soft hackles.
.. One key to finding the fish is to pay attention to the sun and shadows within each river segment.
.. This is particularly true of the sinuous Madison River course as it parallels and transects the park line just prior to debauching into Hebgen Reservoir. The fish from the reservoir are in bright shallow water. It is a foreign environment for reservoir dwellers.

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KING PRINCE NYMPH

.. The Firehole River is about right for early and late fishing. Through the coming week we will have nearly perfect catching weather. The temperatures will fall in the evening. Scattered clouds and showers will dot the west side of the park. The elbow density will not have reached epidemic proportions. The school-aged mobs will be mostly gone.
.. Watch the noses for hints about the flies. The neighborhood faithful are using Scarlet Ibis wet flies, King Prince nymphs, and the usual assortment of flymphs and soft hackles with both regularity and success.
.. If you need to see your fly as it floats the baetids are becoming more regular as are the caddis.

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.. Over yonder, the Lamar River has been blessed with only occasional mud plugs. Catching is good and the transition from terrestrials to floaters is in full bloom.

WALLPAPER: GOOD MORNING LAMAR RIVER

.. It's not often mentioned but, fish run up the tributaries of the Lamar River in the Fall. They move back and forth through the winter and into the Spring.
.. The confluences of the Lamar River with: Slough Creek, Soda Butte Creek, Cache Creek, Calfee Creek, and Miller Creek, are full of fish at this time of year.
.. if, on the other hand,  you would like to have exceptional water to yourself right now get a back country guide to take you to  Mist Creek and the Little Lamar River. Be advised that head hunters and hero photographers will be disappointed with the size of the fish above Cache Creek. The beauty, solitude, and grandure however, could make you look more and fish less.

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.. This afternoon the fish are holding a convention along the shoreline near Spring Creek Campground. We'll head that way in an hour or two. With the anticipated weather coming in a day or two we'll wait until Wednesday to join the neighbors where the runners are thickest.

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WALLPAPER: WHERE ARE YOU FISHING TODAY  ?