yellowstone

[gonefirefighting]

spent the last week in yellowstone, I go every year to volunteer with the park foundation and arch ventures in order to rebuild old corrals and fish while there.

this year we worked on the west corrals in west yellowstone.

I get invited back every year since I have been building corrals and fences most of my life.

all these pics were from my cell phone since my camera didnt survive baggage handling.

this year I had a bit more freedom than normal since most rangers are bound by red tape and administration, so I was able to build a pretty nice gate arch/header and design a decent corral that actually is a historic reproduction and actually works well with pack animals and back country ranger stock.

step one of gate header building, post layout and holes, since there was a ton of other volunteers this year I was able to get some help with people to debark the logs with draw knives and timber sheaves.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDQuanBn.jpg


step two is to set the posts. I was able to find some schoolmarms (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schoolmarm) with some pretty cool forks for the header posts

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDYuanBn.jpg

found a good straight header log. this header needed to be at least 16 feet tall in order to get large snow removal equipment into the corrals to remove snow in the spring for back country packing operations.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDUuanBn.jpg

the finished gate arch, I topped it with a elk rack and a sign I did free hand with the router.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTkuanBn.jpg

here is a collection of poached elk racks the rangers have tagged for investigation purposes

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MjIuanBn.jpg

once the work was finished it was time to fish, we started out on the madison river just before daylight. the only effective way to fish this time of year due to fishing pressure was nymphing or streamers and the fish were holding on the bottom pretty hard

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDcuanBn.jpg

the pre dawn daylight was a little nippy, had a temp of 21 degrees wich made the water feel pretty warm. the air was so cold the eyes/line on the fly rod were constantly freezing, thus coffee and baileys was a must have

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDguanBn.jpg

once it warmed up and the morning fog lifted it was in the 80's for the rest of the day, it was still pretty hard to get anything to rise for dry flies so we still had to use attractor patterns and big streamers/soft baits

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MDkuanBn.jpg

apparently this year has been bad for fisherman/bison incidents, the flyers were everywhere

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTAuanBn.jpg

we fished the gibbon and got shoved around by bison that were lumbering around the waters edge. ants and beetles seemed to do pretty well on the gibbon

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTEuanBn.jpg

the gibbon was a pretty narrow stream that had some neat little holes

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTIuanBn.jpg

we then fished the fire hole, got pushed around by bison as well there...

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTMuanBn.jpg

by the time we got to the fire hole there was a caddis hatch on the water that was insanity for fishing. everything was hitting.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MTQuanBn.jpg

the trip was a great time this year, we fished some new waters, learned some new fly patterns/techniques for stubborn fish and got some good insight for next year.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i171/gonefirefighting/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MjMuanBn.jpg

[Darian]

What a great trip!!! You definitely have some building skills. Do I detect a half moon in that first photo :?: :?: :lol:

I'm gonna have to put Yellowstone on my bucket list. :nod:

[gonefirefighting]

ha ha....good catch, I didnt even see the half moon untill you pointed it out.

yellowstone is a must if you have never been. if you go you must drift the madison and the yellowstone and fish slough creek in the back country.

[Sammy]

Hey man epic report. Great work on the corral.

It's not the fly, you suck!

[Hector Lopez]

Gonefirefighting that was an awesome report! I have always wanted to go to the yellowstone and its on my bucket list! How long did you volunteer? I got to follow your suggestions for whan I go. Not sure on when is the best weather to take my family camping and get the fishing in. Any suggestions?:fish: