Our first full days fishing was to go after the “gulpers” on the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake. We awoke to ice on the windshield, but the wind was dying.
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LLN caught a very small one early, and though not from lack of effort, that was it. The conventional wisdom was that the cold spurt had put them off. But that does not mean it was not fun out there. We saw lots of really big fish rising, ONCE. We did have Callibaetis coming off the water in droves, and this one landed in LLN’s fly box.
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loginSecretWeapon either fell in the boat or took out a grizzly, single handed, but he came away from this session bloodied but unbowed. Baxter’s comment? ‘Think this is bad…you should see the bear!
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loginIf you can’t catch fish, you can always go to fly shops, and as many of you know, West Yellowstone has the fly shops. We met Chris and stopped in Blue Ribbon flies and spent some time and money in there. Craig Matthews was tying that morning, and we talked with him awhile. LLN bought some “Chernobyl nippers.”
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login“Go large or go home.”
The remainder of Sunday was spent driving through Yellowstone to our B&B in Emigrant, MT. Again, we went wild riding beside the Madison and other streams, especially the many streams that wind through the meadows. We did not see 5 fisher folk, total.
Our accommodations were great, Yellowstone Country B&B (
www.yellowstonebb.com)
For you Lonesome Dove fans, the backyard was thousands of acres owned to this day by Gus’s family (or so the B&B hostess claimed.)
Monday morning we were off with Chris to fish in Yellowstone Park. Our first target was Soda Butte Creek. We would our way up the creek and past a number of turnoffs with a moderate number of cars. Up past the Lamar confluence, we pulled off to a rather isolated spot, walked 10 minutes to the Creek, and started at it. Saw one other person at Soda Butte where we fished.
Here are LLN and Chris as they make their approach.
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loginPeddler struck first with a 22 inch cutthroat. SecretWeapon did well, and even LLN finally got in the game. After a short time we worked our way up the creek, to a series of pools, with runs between them. It was Chernobyl Ant and monster cricket time. It was fascinating watching the monster cutthroats come out of the depths of holes to eye closely these gigantic flies. Unfortunately they were not really interested in eating although a number “nosed” or “pushed the ants.”
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loginMeanwhile we were reeling them in 10 - 14 inchers on PMDs, ants and hoppers, BIG hoppers routinely. We had a great morning. As for big fish, SECRETWEAPON caught 2 in the 18 – 20 inch category while Peddler had the 22 incher. Landlocked saw two huge mouths open and chomp, but as his custom, did not set the hook. Some things never change! Even in Montana.
Walking out we came across this elk antler, which, due you Yellowstone regulations, we left as we found it.
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This was a interesting session that resulted in no fish. We hiked down to the stream, about 200 feet below the road. Peddler was assigned the first spot and had to drop another 30 – 40 feet, darn near straight down. “If I fall, throw the rod, if I fall, throw the rod, if I fall…..”
Chris took SECRETWEAPON and LLN another 100 yards upstream to a very gentle incline. Ahhhh…
The water looked great, but we just could not get the fish to hit it like they meant it.
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The highlight of this venture was the snake that LLN stepped on. Shame on all you people that told him the park was too high to have snakes.
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loginOh well, he handled it well and proceeded to have two great strikes on a big Chernobyl Ant, but no fish were landed.
Though 911 was not called in, the climb out about finished off LLN and SECRETWEAPON
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loginOur final destination for the day was a secret high altitude pond in a remote area of the park. We waded in and cast to rising brookies.
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We had a great meal at Chico Hot Springs, an old time MT spa and resort, and went to bed, early.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
