kylgrn
08-26-2014, 11:22 AM
Hi all,
I was fortunate enough recently to make my first trip to Montana for a long week of fishing. I thought it would be fun to share with you all some of the high points. The family consisted of my parents, my sister, and my wife and 1 1/2 year old son. My family has a big love for fishing and the outdoors, we've also got family in Dear Lodge MT and were lucky enough to see them.
We stayed in Paradise Valley, MT for a number of reasons, first being the scenery and the amount of great water to fish, second being close to Yellowstone park. We chose to rent this house from Dan Gigone who is one of the owners of the SweetWater fly shop in Livingston, MT. The log house sits right on the bank of the Yellowstone on right between Livingston and Gardiner. The house was immaculate and the communication with the owners was perfect. The home sits on 11 acres, tons of bank access right in front of your deck with a few good riffles! One evening there was some bugs going off after a rain storm and we got the girls into what must have been 40+ whitefish and a few rainbows, one of which kick my wife's butt, I knew she was bound to hook into something bigger than a whitefish sooner or later that evening.
http://www.vrbo.com/324883
View:
http://i.imgur.com/uJIelO9.jpg
We booked several guide trips through Sweetwater fly shop, for the first two trips we were paired with Russell Elwell @ montanafishingadventures.com. We floated the Yellowstone once above Yankee Jim Canyon, which seemed to hold more Cutthroats than other stretches, and fished Depuy's Spring Creek the next day. My wife got break from being mom for the day to come along and fish the creek with us. Russell was great, knowledgeable and very patient/instructive in working with beginners. Depuy's is gorgeous, although very challenging! We were fishing tiny dries with a 7x tippet right up against the grass, these were some picky fish! You could drift it 12 inches from the bank and they wouldn't take, drift it 4 inches from the bank and they blow it up.
Yellowstone:
http://i.imgur.com/KhuioNJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2zm8ugx.jpg
Depuys:
http://i.imgur.com/ivnolHs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZHQtEHa.jpg
The float on Thursday was one of my best days ever on the water. I was paired with a guide named Craig, who's last name escapes me right now. I got on the water by myself this time around, he and I really clicked and felt more like a day on the water with a buddy. The weather called for rain all day... We managed to stay dry up until the last 1/2 mile stretch or so. The fishing was amazing, at one period I hooked into four 15"+ fish within 20 minutes, two of them I'm ashamed to say were sort of inadvertently... Literally, unhook rainbow...take picture...throw the line out basically to get things straight again...and hook into a brown before we even set back out on the water!
Here's those four fish, all caught on a hopper dropper, I think all but one took the top fly.
http://i.imgur.com/N88uYC5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2P4hnrI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3vo7idI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/n608oVB.jpg
Needless to say I'm hooked and can't wait to go back. I thoroughly enjoyed the different pace of living, not to mention the literal amount of space compared to California's crowded cities.
I was fortunate enough recently to make my first trip to Montana for a long week of fishing. I thought it would be fun to share with you all some of the high points. The family consisted of my parents, my sister, and my wife and 1 1/2 year old son. My family has a big love for fishing and the outdoors, we've also got family in Dear Lodge MT and were lucky enough to see them.
We stayed in Paradise Valley, MT for a number of reasons, first being the scenery and the amount of great water to fish, second being close to Yellowstone park. We chose to rent this house from Dan Gigone who is one of the owners of the SweetWater fly shop in Livingston, MT. The log house sits right on the bank of the Yellowstone on right between Livingston and Gardiner. The house was immaculate and the communication with the owners was perfect. The home sits on 11 acres, tons of bank access right in front of your deck with a few good riffles! One evening there was some bugs going off after a rain storm and we got the girls into what must have been 40+ whitefish and a few rainbows, one of which kick my wife's butt, I knew she was bound to hook into something bigger than a whitefish sooner or later that evening.
http://www.vrbo.com/324883
View:
http://i.imgur.com/uJIelO9.jpg
We booked several guide trips through Sweetwater fly shop, for the first two trips we were paired with Russell Elwell @ montanafishingadventures.com. We floated the Yellowstone once above Yankee Jim Canyon, which seemed to hold more Cutthroats than other stretches, and fished Depuy's Spring Creek the next day. My wife got break from being mom for the day to come along and fish the creek with us. Russell was great, knowledgeable and very patient/instructive in working with beginners. Depuy's is gorgeous, although very challenging! We were fishing tiny dries with a 7x tippet right up against the grass, these were some picky fish! You could drift it 12 inches from the bank and they wouldn't take, drift it 4 inches from the bank and they blow it up.
Yellowstone:
http://i.imgur.com/KhuioNJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2zm8ugx.jpg
Depuys:
http://i.imgur.com/ivnolHs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZHQtEHa.jpg
The float on Thursday was one of my best days ever on the water. I was paired with a guide named Craig, who's last name escapes me right now. I got on the water by myself this time around, he and I really clicked and felt more like a day on the water with a buddy. The weather called for rain all day... We managed to stay dry up until the last 1/2 mile stretch or so. The fishing was amazing, at one period I hooked into four 15"+ fish within 20 minutes, two of them I'm ashamed to say were sort of inadvertently... Literally, unhook rainbow...take picture...throw the line out basically to get things straight again...and hook into a brown before we even set back out on the water!
Here's those four fish, all caught on a hopper dropper, I think all but one took the top fly.
http://i.imgur.com/N88uYC5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2P4hnrI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3vo7idI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/n608oVB.jpg
Needless to say I'm hooked and can't wait to go back. I thoroughly enjoyed the different pace of living, not to mention the literal amount of space compared to California's crowded cities.