Spring Has Sproinnged

THE PARK IS GETTING READY
Fishing Just Down The Road
plan now !!
(between the lakes still hot)nps photo
A FEW PRE-SEASON NOTES

.. Six days above 40 degrees and counting. As the neighbors like to say: "Don't get used to it!" But it sure looks like Spring. Forget the 10 foot tall snow drifts, the roads are clear and dust covered. This is wonderful for now, and we're enjoying it.
.. The park is closed - well not really. If you have a bicycle, skateboard, rollerblades, wheel chair, or just plain feet, you can access Yellowstone and use the roads. It's a wonderful spring ritual for the neighbors and the locals. A free park with no cars, snowmobiles, or other motorized contrivances -- just the occasional "administrative travel," and the work crews. What a pretty place.
.. Check the Yellowstone Fishing Regulations now. The official web site hasn't been updated yet so they may be the same as last year. We'll keep you posted, (Yellowstone Fishing Page.)
.. If your blog, web site, or business page includes advertising, and you use a picture from Yellowstone National Park -- You need a photo permit. Otherwise you must use public domain photos. The permits cost $$$$ and take about two weeks.
.. It is illegal to fish with a guide in Yellowstone that does not have a park permit. There is a crackdown about to happen this year. Check the Yellowstone "Permitted Fishing Businesses" page for authorized guides and guide services. Don't go to jail for a trout. Don't encourage un-permitted guides.
.. As an aside, your outfitter for back country fishing must have an EIA Certificate for stock that is used in Yellowstone. As part of your reservation contact conversation, you should ask about this - and if they will be feeding certified 'weed-free' hay.
.. Why do we mention these things now? Because it's time to start making your reservations. Maybe it's even a bit late. The best dates and the best outfitters are already getting bookings. Don't be slow and miss your dates.
.. General news and press releases about Yellowstone can be found at the Yellowstone National Park NEWS page.
.. Beaver Creek at it's confluence with Quake Lake is holding some nice fish. There are also some fish above the campground and the highway. These are a remnant population of spring spawning Rainbow Trout mixed with some very aggressive Brown Trout.
.. The creek above the beaver ponds will hold fish for as long as the flows remain high enough to keep their interest - perhaps until the regulations allow us to fish for them. The same fish seem to cluster just below the discharge plume in the transition from the Madison River-Beaver Creek confluence to Quake Lake. Many of the neighbors use mostly worms for these big fish. A Dark Spruce Fly, or a big brown Marabou Leech will bring the same results. Fish the edge of the silt plume and watch for a slow take - wait a bit longer than you think you should. These are hungry fish - not dumb fish.
.. From Protect Your Waters comes news of more invaders headed west. This is a virus that has proven deadly in the Great Lakes and may soon hit inland waters. It's name is "viral hemorrhagic septicemia" or VHS.
.. VHS has been called the "Ebola for fish" because it causes them to hemorrhage, killing them, much as the Ebola virus has killed humans in Africa. Read about the threat at StarTribune.com.
.. This has already caused some real concern in the Pacific Salmon fishery. There is a less virulent and a more virulent strain. The more virulent strain has cost Europeans about $40,000,000. It nearly cost the Pacific coast fishery 4.5 million fish. To find out more about this virus you can see what the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is doing. Or for real scary stuff check out the USGS note about Saving Salmon.
.. Mid Current lets us know about the impact of Whirling Disease on the Bitterroot. The full statement is more than just a bit disconcerting. You can find out about it at the Montana Forum. This will not go away, and it's impact will be greater by the year on the Yellowstone and Madison Rivers and their tributaries.

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P.S. The flap about the delisting of Grizzly bears is all over the wire services and the blogs. Our 'Boundary Street' grizzly is in town and it's about two weeks early. If you take a walk in the park - sing loud ribald songs. It'll keep the bears away and other visitors as well. Take bear spray and avoid dead things; like elk, ducks, bison, moose, etc. Spring fare for hungry bears.

Slow Easy Groceries & Google Earth

HEBGEN STILL FROZEN
Neighbors Out In Force
single utah tag observed
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The Madison River Between The Lakes has awakened with a roar during this recent warming trend, and the neighbors have staggered and 'postholed' through the snow to get to the hungry fish. Our cool days and cold nights mean that brunch is a good time to start your day, followed by a leisurely 20 minute drive to the dam.

.. We've had various degrees of overcast, but the mid-day brightness has brought midges to the surface, and fish feeding just below the film.
.. The larger fish are just now entering this year 'round fishery, and spawning will start soon. The giant fish will be along in about 2-3 weeks. The fish are strong but sluggish; and the present, (about 900 cfs,) cold flows are ideal for leisurely subsurface drifts. The stretch of river from Hebgen Dam to the Island Bend is the most accessible right now. This is an excellent place for Spruce Flies, large Hare's Ear Nymphs, and Stone Fly Nymphs of various sorts.
.. Fish the slower holding water and the deep glides between rocks. Near the dam a fast sink tip with a size 6 - 10 Light Spruce Fly will dredge up some monsters if you have a 40 - 50 foot roll cast in your repertoire.
.. This is a good time to use generalized flies such as a Hornberg. Start it dry, and then let it get good and wet and fish it on the swing, or strip it like a streamer. It's a good choice and avoids the numbing sensation when tying on several different flies.
.. Another local favorite is the Llama, once a featured fly of the month at the Federation of Fly Fishers site. In these parts we substitute Yellow Bellied Marmot fur, or Badger, or even Red Squirrel Tail for the wing. The original recipe can be found HERE.
.. We caught the neighbor, (we know that ratty old Dodge,) in the road channel at Island Bend - with a fish hung behind a rock. This channel gets to be nearly dry at low flows and even grows some terrestrial vegitation. Now is an excellent time to fish this rare water. For some reason the fish were taking a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis, it started out as a dry fly but was being fished on a twitched-drift midway in the water column and taking some nice fish.
.. At the tailout of Island Bend is a broad swift glide that is best fished from the shore, or the tip of the island. The area is full of generously sized rocks with a bit less generous spacing between them. A herd of fish can hold here if undistrubed. We caught another angler standing where he should be fishing - did we mention the Utah license plate?
.. Between the Island Bend and Awkward Bend is the Campfire Run. Some intrepid locals trudge down here and fish the narrow and quick stretch right by Campfire Lodge. This is an excellent place to use Golden Stone Fly imitations or even the Rubber Legs variety. Fishing in this stretch is excellent right now with fish to 16" being taken with satisfying regularity.
.. Our favorite is, of course the Montana Duster, and the Yellowstone Spruce Fly.
.. The snow is a little deeper between Awkward Bend and 'Quake Lake, but it's worth a hike in the shadows to get to the Choice Hole. This deep undercut bank holds the pods of fish as they leave 'Quake Lake, and if you hit them in the nose they will respond. In a few weeks smaller & more imitative nymphs will be the preferred fare, but now it has to look like slow, easy groceries.
.. If the day is right and the Snow Flies abundant you may be blessed with surface feeding trout. Pick your favorite midge cluster and return home with a "shuldabeenthere" story.
.. Cabin Creek near the road is still frozen with snow on top. There are very few holes to aim at. Below the road and near the confluence there are good opportunities for short drifts in thin holding water.
.. How was the fishing? We don't count - and, anyway we don't know numbers that big. There was a neighborhood party between the Island Bend and the Choice Hole. Not that fishing was good, but side casts were ruled out.
.. The first substantive local fishing report is from our neighbors at Madison River Outfitters. They live and fish here. And usually get there first.

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.. We'll be using a combination of Google Earth, and Platial Map Maker for illustrations this season. Verbal & written directions to places often fail for one reason or another. Although the maps are not 100% congruent, they are very close. Geo-referencing is exceptional and getting better by the day. The new version of Google Earth was released in January and is FREE. The map at the bottom of the page will stay there until it gets too full of places or notes. Maybe we'll break it down into river sections - who knows?

Below is a comparison with this year's shot and last year's shot.

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-- While flying around the world we spied a place that looked a bit fishy --
Recognize it, Tom?

New Tools For Montana Fly Fishers

CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT NOW

.. The essential tools for Montana fly fishers are similar in many respects to those used by fisher folks around the world.
.. Clippers are a must for tippets, fingernails, nose hairs, and other sundry small cutting chores.

.. The Orvis Zinger is mandatory for attaching implements of destruction that can put your eye out if released too suddenly. It now comes with a tape measure for accurate documentation of scale size on suspect species of fish.

.. The Multi-Tool is in fashion these days. The original multi tool is the Swiss Army Knife & it comes with a ruler and hook disgorger for those anglers asleep at the switch, it has a ring for your second zinger.
..Other available gadgets promise to confuse even the well initiated and will give genuine pleasure to the crowd at the pub as you divert the conversation away from your fishless day on the Firehole River. The one on the carabinier sports a titanium timepiece for timing chug-a-lug contests.

.. Hook Sharpeners are a staple and even come electrified for the progressive angler. Should you miss too many 'takes' you can always say that the batteries were dead.

.. Forceps are necessary and can be hung on your third zinger. Place them low on the side away from your casting hand, this aids in the necessary ambidextrous quality of an accomplished fly fisher.
.. They now come with flesh grabbing pincers to remove copious quantities of flesh as you try to get the hook out out of your companions ear.

.. Unique to the Montana gadget cluster is the addition of Dikes and Fence Pliers. The Montana legislature is currently wrestling with our constitution which allows access to the peoples' water.
.. Be sure to have both a good set of fence pliers for removing staples on offensive signs, and a good set of diagonal cutters for smartly clipping wire that may inhibit livestock from accessing water and dying of thirst. Both are now available with padded and cushioned grips.
.. Vise grip fence pliers are useful for holding together a broken strand of wire that you discover in your adventures. The quick release feature guarantees rapid egress in emergency situations.

.. A Copy of the Montana Constitution is useful for confronting belligerent shylocks. All necessary tools are compact and will fit nicely in the bottom of your lunch sack.

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.. It's noon, bright overcast, and time for brunch and a replay of yesterday's glorious sport on the Madison River, the fish have awakened with a vengeance. Go to the bottom of the page and practice on the map.

WOLVES = TROUT

Trouts Best Friend In Yellowstone

..Straight from Southwest Florida comes insight into the "bizarre ecological labyrinth" in Yellowstone National Park. We found this one of the most able statements of our surroundings in recent memory. We quote at length from the article in Gulfshore Life.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, in an effort to increase the elk herds and "protect the wildlife," the park service went about the business of eradicating the wolf from Yellowstone. The last wolf pack was killed off in 1926.

For half a century things were fine. The elk herds, lacking the wolf packs that historically preyed upon them, rapidly expanded. When winter arrived, knowing they had nothing to fear, the herds elected to browse the readily obtainable young cottonwoods and willows that lined the trout streams and rivers of the park. Ecologists began to note that there were always plenty of sapling cottonwoods and any number of mature, 70-year-old trees, but nothing in between.

Then the trout started disappearing. Lacking the intermediate-sized trees and heavy underbrush that had been consumed due to the elk’s overgrazing, the exposed banks of the rivers were now washing away in the spring freshets and the summer thunderstorms. Those streams, once crystal clear, were now silted over and murky. The trout, being sight feeders, either starved or swam off in search of cleaner water. The fly-fishermen of the Lamar, Yellowstone and Firehole rivers were also disappearing, much to the frustration of the local outfitters and hotels.

In an effort to reduce the overgrazing, the National Park Service, amidst a storm of local controversy, decided to capture 14 wolves from the wilds of British Columbia and reintroduce them into Yellowstone in 1995. Eventually three separate wolf packs were established within the park. With the wolves keenly aware of the elks’ tendency to browse along the riverbanks during the deep snow-packed months of winter, the wolves were inadvertently standing guard over the young cottonwoods and willows. Once the wolf packs began to thin the elk in these river valleys, the juvenile cottonwoods soon returned, the trout streams cleared, and there you have it: wolves = trout.

..The elk along the Firehole River have also adopted a couple of other interesting feeding behaviors since the fires of '88. They submerge their heads to feed on potamogeton, (which concentrates arsenic,) and they eat charcoal, (which buffers the digestive system and allows the delay and/or denial of winter kill from bark stripping, and pine needle eating .)

.. Elk will eat a willow right down to the ground and kill it. Moose, on the other hand are gardeners. They eat the tender tips of branches and cause the willows to branch and proliferate. Interestingly there are few moose or willows along the Firehole. There were more in the 60's and 70's. We intend to have a post in the future about the vanished willows of the Firehole River.

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The fish are working The Madison River between the lakes. We've started the annotations on the map. Report when we get back.

Lake Fish Hatchery

nps photos

PART OF A MISSPENT YOUTH

.. The Yellowstone National Park Web Page continues to grow. It's a bit less user friendly now. However, since the revamped site was brought into line with the rest of the NPS sites, (well most of them,) there have been additions of at least 2,000 new slides and the publication of on-line resources, including Yellowstone National Park Its Exploration and Establishment by Aubrey L. Haines.

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.. The early years of Yellowstone National Park saw an attitude of exploitation and sporting hedonism prevail. The park was the playground of those who could afford a train ride, a guided tour, and lodgings in grand, (and not-so-grand,) hotels.
.. Hunting was allowed, and fishing encouraged - nay, even exploited by commercial fishing operations.:

When Yellowstone National Park was created about 40% of its waters were barren of fish. Park administrators early expressed an interest in developing these areas for additional sport. Until 1883, both hunting and fishing were allowed in Yellowstone as the only practical way to feed visitors evolving from a frontier subsistence policy. By the early 1880s there were enough hotels and restaurants to allow a ban on hunting. At the same time, fishing was restricted to sportsmen and a few commercial enterprises who supplied the hotels. This continued until 1917.

.. In 1889, the United States Fish Commission began fieldwork in Yellowstone. A fish cultural station was in operation on Yellowstone Lake ten years later. "It was the beginning of a gigantic hatchery operation that in the next fifty seven years would yield 818 million trout eggs for use in other waters (mostly outside Yellowstone.)" In 1911, the Yellowstone Park Lake Station was made a substation of the Federal hatchery at Bozeman, Montana.
.. Facilities were primitive in those days. The fish hatching ponds were wooden troughs outside. These were consistently damaged by bears and the eggs destroyed. A permanent two story log hatchery building and another log building were constructed on hatchery Creek near the Lake Hotel in 1912, along with a collecting station at Clear Creek in 1913. The Columbine Creek collecting station was built in 1914 and a cottage for the superintendent a few years later. These buildings no longer exist.
.. As early as 1920, the Annual Report of the Director of the National Parks indicated the Lake Hatchery was replenishing the depleted fish supply in the National Park Service. In 1922, the scale of the operations was increased with a new hatchery being established at Fish Lake. The annual report for that year proposed "...that a Federal hatchery be established in other national parks whenever that is feasible."
.. This philosophy of using artificial means to replenish the fish of the National Park System waters was soon to be abandoned. The old U.S. Fish Commission had been combined with the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to form the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "While on the one hand the National Park Service was suppose to be preserving native fish populations, on the other hand the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to mass produce trout."
.. The tension grew between the Fish and Wildlife Service and park managers. In 1957, the hatcheries were shut down. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel shifted their attention to research. In 1958, the artificial propagation of fish at Lake was halted and the catch limited to a figure within the natural regenerative powers of the species. In 1996 the National Park Service assumed responsibility for managing the park's fishery program. {excerpt from YELLOWSTONE HISTORY}

.. Additionally, there were railroad cars and boats used specifically for the fish planting and moving operations. The USFWS discovered "U.S. Fisheries # 40" in 1980 and had it restored. They have also restored some railroad cars that were used to transport across the country.

The first experimental transport of fish by rail from the east coast to the west was conducted by Dr. Livingston Stone of the U.S. Fish Commission in 1873. In charge of 35,000 shad fry carried in open milk cans, Dr. Stone changed the water every two hours where possible in order to deliver this shipment safe and sound for planting in California. By 1879, due to this first demonstration, fish were being successfully shepherded by railcar across the nation.

THE GOOD LIFE

nps photo
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Yellowstone Fishing Map

WILL THIS WORK?

.. While perusing the neighbor's blog, we discovered a new tool for this site. It's a map that allows places to be delineated. The maps are from Google, and they are plenty detailed.
.. Not being shy about stealing a good idea, we've added the map at the bottom of the page. In the upcoming months we will annotate the map to fit with each post. We'll see if it works. Dial-up will be a pain for those of you without a quicker connection.
.. It looks like the fishing season in Yellowstone is planned for us. We will be concentrating on the Madison River, the Gallatin River, Nez Perce Creek, and Obsidian Creek. The votes from the poll indicated these rivers were of most interest to those voting. This does not mean that we will ignore other places, but it makes the decision of where to fish a bit easier.
.. The first places on the map will be: . . local fly shops . . good eats . . wader friendly lodging. Best call now for the early fishing dates.
.. As the season progresses, and places get added this should prove to be a useful tool for visitors. It will certainly be an interesting exercise.
.. Well, it's back to the bench.

PSSSSST! Wet Snow. Is Spring Near?

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

.. There are large fish in Beaver Creek, Cabin Creek, the Madison River, (between the lakes,) and jumping the culvert at Duck Creek.
.. There is very little snow on the ground and the ice fisher folks are talking about water and slush and moving their houses.
.. No, it's not spring yet - and it won't be for a month or so. But there are hatches of little black Caddis flies, and swarms of Snow Flies on the bright overcast days.
.. We've seen temperatures above freezing for two days in a row, and there may be rain in the forecast !!
.. The pine trees and the fir trees are shedding seeds from their serotinous cones, and the pack rats are sunning themselves along with the 'Dumpster Chickens,' (ravens to the foreign born.)
.. Soon the commercial orders will be done and we'll bring you the flies for the Spring Fly Box.

.. Well, it's back to the bench. Time to say goodbye to a friend of more than 40 years. It's hard to get good French Silver tinsel nowadays.