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"YOU BETCHUM RED RYDER"

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.. It's range is just a neighborhood thing, (most of the town,) but we like the novelty of it all. At 3 AM it's good company to the first cup of coffee.
.. The fish are jumping into the neighbors' waders on the Gallatin River. More tonight.

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THE PINHOLE GALLATIN

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Gone Wanting

CULVERTS & BRIDGES

Unloved & Ignored

we'll take 'em

FOOD & AERATED WATER
CONCENTRATED INTO 3 STREAMS - YUM !!

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.. We've been told, (and we believe it,) that trout love water with a high oxygen content. We've also been told that trout like to wait in slow water adjacent to fast food-laden water, (we believe that too.)
.. Culverts and bridges provide places for trout that like to wait in slow, oxygenated water, and nip some morsels from a smorgasbord sailing by their position. We believe that as well. So, we fish them.
.. There are many culverts and several bridges in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding neighborhood that we visit on a regular basis. Seldom do we not catch a fish or two, (or more.) It's almost too easy.
.. The dark water is easily seen. The fast water is well defined. Sun and shadow changes throughout the day so we need to note that. Fish 'hides' are present in abundance.
.. Because of the concentrated streams of water, channels from the high-water periods are persistent and regular. Talk about fish in a barrel. It's just too easy for the purist seeking to match wits with a pea-brained fish.

ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS

.. Stream and river banks on both the upstream and downstream areas are usually stabilized with concrete or rip-rap.  This makes the hides and cover persistent. This is convenient for both the fish and the angler.
.. The water columns present a variety of foodstuffs and the trout will gobble many different things in a feeding session. Beetles, ants, neotenous aquatic forms, adult aquatic forms, terrestrials of all sorts, sticks, twigs, clumps of sand grains, etc.
.. Infrequently the trout will even rise to the surface and pluck lovely floating stuff from the surface. Sometimes it's digestible.
.. Because of the diversity of waters and the concentration of food, there are fish of all sizes to be found. The bruisers are where you'd expect them to be. The dinkers are there too. Frequently there are monsters in 3" to 8" of water. Bless their little pea brains, they give us a fright when they take our errant casts.
.. Cars, trucks, buses, motorpickles, bicycles, skateboards, and other sundry vehicles pass by these glorious catching places without a second thought. Probably without a first thought.
.. This is not the "postcard fishing experience" touted by advocates of our region and the feather merchants. It's a real-life, loud noisy, occasionally stinky, catching extravaganza. It appeals to us because we can walk to the fish with little or no effort, and they reward us with dances.
.. We mention these structures a couple of times each year. They are still abandoned when we visit them. The fish are lonely and forlorn because no one wants to play with them. We happily comply with their wishes: there's nothing so frustrating as a sulking fish!

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POCKETS, POOLS, UNDERCUTS, BENDS, RIP-RAP, SHALLOW, DEEP:
WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ??

(THE IMAGES ARE GIANT AND MAY BE USED FOR WALLPAPER.)

It's In The Air

DON'T TELL THE VISITORS

Sleep With The Windows Open

the rain is getting colder

August 14, 2011 - TAKE THE HINT

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.. The signs are all around us. Bow hunters are checking strings, heads and fletching. Boom hunters are cleaning and loading. The grasshoppers have wings. The meadow grasses are drying and beginning their descent into straw. The neighbors are talking about good sleeping weather. This morning's shower was cold and refreshing. We're taking bets on the date of the first snowfall.
.. Abbreviated warm and extended cold is the measure of the seasons in the high country. We're looking forward to the anticipated glorious Autumn. We've scouted the big holes and parking places for the fall-run submarines.

.. We've noted the phenomenal density of ripening berries, (places to avoid in the upcoming weeks.) And we're using the last few warm days to catch some fish in all the familiar, (and less familiar,) places.
.. Catching is still good. We've not much to add about it except that a venture to Winter Creek will prove rewarding. So too, will a stroll down the path at Tower Falls. The "other" gulpers, those at Grebe Lake and the Duck Creek estuary are making their appearance now. Oh, by the way, Soda Butte Creek is on fire with hoppers and beetles.
.. We've not mentioned our idiosyncratic predilection for fishing some interesting structures in and around the neighborhood. We'll let you know about that in a day or two. Right now there is a Trico hatch on the cooling Madison River that the fish have finally discovered  --  SURPRISE!
.. We're headed there instantly, now that the second pot of coffee is gone, the stomach is in rebellion.

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TAKE A HORSE TO UPPER FAN CREEK, DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE

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All's Well

THE GOOD NEWS POST

The Fish Are Ravenous

catch 'em all day on the gallatin

IF IT BINDS  -  PULL IT

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.. Better late than never is what the neighbors are chanting. The high and cold water is a memory. The bank-hugging fish have moved into mid-stream feeding lanes. It's now possible to wet your waders with a reason. Catching is good on all west side rivers, (even the hot one.)

THE BIGHORN RUN

.. Flows persist above seasonal averages and temperatures of the waters are very cool in the mornings and evenings. The "perfect" weather includes a few afternoon thundershowers that punctuate the mid-day warming and the little freshets from the tributaries are keeping good grits flowing into the main streams.
.. The neighbors have noted that the first signs of Fall include winged grasshoppers, enormous berry crops, wrinkled willow leaves, curled aspen leaves, and the reduction in numbers of the hoards of school children splashing in the streams. It's all good.
.. The Gallatin River is the local magnet for catching oriented fishers. Generalized surface offerings of the "slightly too big" variety are dragging them in. Hopper / Dropper rigs are much in use, and even small streamers in the the dark water are galling some big fish between Snowflake Springs and Black Butte.
.. Experts have abandoned the Firehole River because "it's too hot." Just six weeks ago they were praising the 64° F water as perfect. Well now Ethel, it's 64° for a few hours in the morning and evenings. Caddis are busting out all over.
.. The same story holds true on the Madison River. If you must catch a fish on the surface take a size 10 Adams and aim at the noses in the foam lines. Should your purist tendencies be lagging a double nymph rig will suffice. Try a size 10 or 12 Prince Nymph followed by a size 16 Shop Vac.
.. Nez Perce Creek, Iron Spring Creek, and the Little Firehole are all full of fish just begging to be caught with such mundane flies as Scarlet Humpy, Royal Coachman, Adams, and Hendrickson. Fish the local exotics if you choose, but the neighbors are fishing the old stand-by's.

GOOD GAWD - A BEAR

.. A pleasant surprise in this high water year is the population of catchable fish in the waters of Solfaterra Creek above the Norris Campground. The moose and the bears are not too much of a problem right now but well-armed anglers have a canister of bear spray in their hand anyway!
.. We should point out that the upper Gibbon River meadows (both big and little,) are finally fishing just fine. Catching is the reward for stealth anglers in the big meadows. Numbers is the name of the game in the small meadows and the tangle along the way to Grebe Lake. We usually take the long way in and the short way out.
.. We finally made it to Obsidian Creek. The residents were so glad to see us that they ate anything we offered - up to a size 8 Renegade, on the surface. Small San Juan Worms along with sparsely tied Pheasant Tail Nymphs were dyn-o-mite in the water column,
.. Well, the mid-day warm is about over and it's back to the water for us. The gulpers of Hebgen Lake are finally about everywhere. It's taken an extra week or so this year. The faithful have been chasing the bugs and fish from weed bed to weed bed. Now just about all weeds are giving up the bug feast we've been waiting for.

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JUST WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION FOR ALL THESE FISH ??

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GO FAAAST !!!

LIKE THE WIND

12 Cylinder Lincoln Zephyr
In A Chopped, Channeled, Hammered Deuce Coupe
WALLPAPER

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.. It's all over. Report Tomorrow.

The Good Life

Prancing Horse Fly Fisher

Visits West Yellowstone

MONSTER IMAGE FOR WALLPAPER

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Wee Paws 4 Kawz

THE COLOR OF NOSTALGIA

Beautiful Cartoons

yesterday is always best
{brief fishing report too}

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.. For 41 years straight auto enthusiasts have made West Yellowstone the terminal destination for a mid summer migration. Fishing is in the rumble seat for a couple of days as we participate in the ritual.

.. The contemporary migrants with these beauties are of the same geriatric generation that tends to dominate the demographics of contemporary fly fishing. They are filthy rich very affluent well to do aging males with a passion for capturing a dream.
.. The vehicles are no longer the HOT RODS of bygone days. They are cartoons, nay, caricatures of a real or imagined ideal. They are beautiful and perfect in their own right.

.. The initial American Hot Rod Era was a very brief post WWII phenomenon that was truncated when Detroit discovered the popular passion for street speed and performance. For a very short time the amateur ruled in creativity, imagination, and performance.
.. The vehicles that are descending on our little town recall, but do not recreate that era. They are built or bought to fulfill some vision of a bygone time. They are full of modern technology. They are contemporary products that could never have been imagined in 1946. They are used for a myriad of social purposes never dreamed of in 1951.

.. These are vehicles that are owned and driven by an age-grade of citizens that was shunned by the current members when they themselves were young.
.. There is a lovely pathos present in this ritual. It evokes memories, dreams, situations and times that have become dim with the passage of decades. It is a ritual that is part recreation and part reenactment of an era that lives in American folklore.

.. The participants gather together. They no longer are vibrant teenagers seeking speed and performance from their daily drivers. They are not young combatants from a recently terminated world war that invented or innovated a better manifold, front axle, or muffler.
.. Today they wear designer togs and eschew tattered work clothing for contemporary imported styles. They buy pieces and parts from specialty manufacturers and assemble them into dream machines; painted with paint and in colors that have come straight from their long gone wet dreams.

.. The vehicles, in and of themselves, are works of art. They are beautiful, sleek, slick, perfect, and tuned with money that was not available for such things during those decades long past. They are a celebration of what should have been - OR - what could only have been dreamed of. They are what we thought we wanted. They are what we pretended was an ideal to be achieved.

.. They are brought together in a fashion that would never have happened 60 years ago. They are pampered, polished, fondled, and stroked, rather than driven. Many are towed on trailers to the appointed destination and then babied into the correctness of stance for admiration.
.. Ah, such is the state of these beautiful beasts. Their function has metamorphosed along with their owners. No longer do they rumble and roar and instill fear in a sane public. No longer do they get driven on a daily basis. No longer are they constantly changing and being "tinkered with." No longer are they used to embarrass the local constabulary in a high-speed chase.

.. Now they are reminders of a recent past that becomes embellished and augmented with the retelling of tales that never were and probably never could have been.
.. The HOT ROD of today is a "TUNER." It's built in Asia or America has far too few cylinders, whines instead of roars, and is driven by youngsters that one day, themselves, may become portly, pudgy, and ponderous. Their cars are nimble, quick, full of contemporary technology and serve the dual purpose of daily transportation and occasional reckless recreation. Perhaps their drivers will recreate their dreams 60 years hence. Perhaps not.

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.. Should you choose to fish rather than admire the sculptures, there are great possibilities in the neighborhood.
==> Obsidian Creek will yield eager Brookies to any properly presented attractor on the surface and most nymphs dangled below a bobber,
==> The lowland Madison River is fishing as it should have last month. Little nymphs such as the Shop Vac will be just fine,
==> The Gallatin River is a dream fishery right now. Use an Elk Hair Caddis followed by a Prince Nymph everywhere,
==> The Firehole River is a marginal bet for great catching but fish it if you must,
==> Nez Perce Creek above the first thermal area is going like gang busters right now, attractors of any sort on or in the water will suffice,
==> The big meadows on the Gibbon River are still productive for the accomplished fish stalker, the little meadows above the cascades are a better bet for fun catching,
==> Slough Creek is dead-nuts ripe and will provide good catching all day on nymphs and on the surface for those that need to see their fly,
==> Ignore the experts and fish the colored water of Soda Butte Creek you'll be the first to be bragging about the size of the fish. Avoid the confluence meadows and wander in the narrow sections seeking bears and brutish fish.

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THE WAY IT REALLY WAS

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