Yellowstone Report

[JohnD]

Fun trip. Water was lowest I've seen it and the skies were smokey most days, but the fishing was still great, even if the catching wasn't always.
We were in the park for 6 days and fished every one. We fished where ever we could get a campsite. First night was at Norris and we fished the creek there for lots of willing brookies.

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We then moved down to Madison and fished the Firehole in a couple places and the Madison. Firehole was tough in the valley as the fish were taking a Miller Caddis as it bounced across the surface or straight from the air. But we still stuck a few nice browns.

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Then it was on to the NE corner of the park. We tried Slough Creek below the campground the first afternoon and with the VERY low water it proved tough fishing. We did eventually find some feeding fish and managed to fool a few on terrestrials. For such tough conditions it was very crowded fishing. The next day we hiked up to the first meadow but left after an hour. Water was so low and slow it was like fishing in a 2' pond...with company.

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We moved on the the Lamar. And boy were we glad we did. We had a fine evening in the canyon followed by a tremendous day in the valley. Almost all on terrestrials. Big strong cuts and cut-bows.

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We did fish the Ystone for a brief period under the bridge and my brother landed a nice fish. But we nearly got ourselves stuck in the canyon and when we got out had lost our nerve and moved on.

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Ended the trip up over near Mammoth on some pretty and productive water that no one else seemed interested in fishing. A nice brown and many cut-bows were harassed.

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[Rockman]

Enjoyed your report John! Got me pumped up for booking a trip next Sept. My wife and I are going back to Yellowstone in Sept. next year for our 25th wedding ann.. We were there in "88" during the firestorm. We only had about 2 hours there before being evacuated due to a change in the fires direction. I'll be asking for some tips for a couple of guided float trips for fall browns.
Looks like you had a great trip, thanks for the report.

Rockman

[mems]

Aloha, nice report. I caught a fish from that exact same spot as your picture #2. My son waded across the firehole and got a nice brown on the other shore. Funny how you remember spots on the rivers. Glad you didn't get smoked out. Mems.

[JohnD]

The second picture is from the road on the way to Lone Star geyser. Did you catch nice fish there? We remembered doing well our last time there but this year didn't see any fish bigger than 7". That's why we moved north and fought the crowds in the valley.