spring

We got a couple sunny day this weekend so I went fishing on the Yellowstone in Paradise Valley.

The river was a bit dirty because most of the snow has melted. As you can see, the only white stuff left is in way up high. When that melts we'll get some serious run-off but till then the fishing should be OK.

Before the wind picked up, as it always seems to do in the Valley, I got his nice rainbow on a midge. First dry fly fish of the year. Pic doesn't do him justice. He was bright red and feisty.


Then, because the wind was blowing too hard to do too much fishing, I wandered down the river.

I ran into some mulies hanging in some trees. I spoked 'em and they casually walked off, single-file style.


Down at the next bend in the river, I came across the Tower Hosue. I'd heard about it but never seen. Apparently, the guy who built got a lot of backlash from his neighbors. I thinks its cool and not because it is right on the river. It's not like the Valley needs another faux log cabin, is it?


On the way back to the car, I came across the first pair of sandhill cranes of the year. As usual, as I approached they made a racket. One flew off, but this one stuck around for a pic.

Sunday was an even better day weather-wise. High 60s, and no wind. Thought it would mean a great day for fishing, but the trout were only feeding sub-surface. Got a couple on nymphs, including a nice brown that was camera-shy.

moose on the loose

Though the wind was howling and it was late in the day, when my buddy Ryan called and said he got out of work early and was ready to fish, I was out the door in 5 minutes.

Without much time, we decided to fish close to town, down by the airport behind Gardiner's recycling depot. We had gone out on Saturday and the warm weather meant there some fish rising, but today the wind and cold weather meant there would be no hatches so it was nymphing day no doubt.

While I was still tying on my flies, Ryan was on the water and quickly caught his first trout of the season


As Ryan settled in, I headed downstream and started fishing. I came to a big rock that I had to get around, and as soon as I got around it, I got the fright of my life as a moose that had been sleeping behind the rock, jumped up. Luckily the moose was as scared as I was and we both ran in separate directions.


I don't know if he was still waking up or he figured we were the ones that should leave since he was there first, the moose didn't go far


and even stuck around to see Ryan catch another rainbow (he's the brown spot in the trees in the back left corner)


Leaving the moose behind, we fished a good way down the river. Finally, before we called it a night, I hooked into a nice rainbow


All and all, it turned out to be a nice couple hours on the river.

point of rocks

When Wendie told me that that afternoon, I was going to have to give back the 8wt rod I had borrowed because its owner was headed down to the Snake River in Jackson, I decided to go fishing despite the snow and wind.

Heading out past Yankee Jim Canyon and into the Valley, the snow stopped and the wind lessened as well. Not having time to head to Livingston or even past Emigrant, I pulled off at Point of Rocks, a boat launch 21 miles from Gardiner. The rocks of Point of Rocks are actually remnants of ancient mud that was created by the Absaroka Volcanic Field, which formed 5 million years ago.

Since, the volcanic rocks right near the boat ramp where jagged and slippery, I decided to wade in about 200 yards upstream of the boat launch. Though my backcast kept hitting the four-foot ice shelf behind me, the fishing was good as I got this brown on one of my first casts.

He was about 17-inches but had a big fat head on him that made him a good fighter. I fished that same run upstream for about 300 yards and pulled out two more browns, including this guy:

After hooking up with two more fish, both of which broke me off before I could land them, the river became too shallow and fast-moving to be fishable with the streamers so I decided to walk further down the river. After about a half mile, I found a nice canyon (which you can see at the top of this photo)


with a deep pool on the other side of the river. There were some small fish rising to midges right by the shore but figuring the big guys were in the deep water, I waded out as far as I could to try to hit the pool on the other side of the river. Even though I couldn't make it all the way, I was able to get out far enough out to find this 16-inch rainbow.

He fought harder than all the browns combined, even giving a nice aerial show as he jumped clear out of the river three times. The picture doesn't do his size or beauty justice.

Since I had to give the rod back, I decided to head back toward the car. This is when I realized that not only were my waders leaking but that one of the soles of my wading shoes was coming off as well.
Still, when I made it back to the first pool I fished I decided to give it one more go to try to get those fish that I hadn't been able to land. Though my shoe kept threatening to send me ass-over-tea-kettle into the 40-degree water, I was able to snag one more brown before calling it a day. I left the rod in its owners doorway with a six, cold friends to keep it company.

brown out

Despite the snow and cold, I have been fishing a bit the last couple weeks, but in our next of the woods have been catching mostly whitefish. As I always check the Yellowstone Angler's fishing report online, I have been very envious of the guys up near Livingston floating the river and catching huge browns on streamers and heavy rods, so I borrowed an 8wt rod from Wendie's boss and headed up there on Monday.

Despite some good info. from the local fly shops about where to go, the Yellowstone is a huge river (300 feet across in some spots) and it took me a while to figure how and where to fish it. Finally, upstream of Carter's Bridge I waded in and started fishing. I had to go up to my chest in the 40-degree water but after about 100 casts, I got a nice 17-inch brown. Not as big as the ones the guys in the boats have been catching, but better than a whitefish no doubt. I proceeded to throw about another 500 casts but that was the only fish I got.

As it was getting dark, I drove the East River Road back from Livingston. It is a little more remote than the highway through the valley and I saw more deer than I have seen in my life. They were crowded along the road like New York City pedestrians hanging at the street corner waiting for the "WALK" light to come on.

Thankfully, after one more stop to check out some rising fish, I made it back without hitting a deer, which was probably a bigger achievement than catching the fish.

first trout of 2011

Got my first trout of 2011 today. Actually got three, this decent rainbow and then two smaller guys - another rainbow and a cutt-bow.

This is my third time out on the Yellowstone River, but the first time I have lasted more than an hour and half, because it has been too cold or too windy. I got my first fish - a whitefish - of the year last week and caught a bunch of whitefish on Saturday, but on both days the wind was gusting to 20- to 30-mph which made fishing a bit of a pain.

Today's temps got into the 40s and the wind was under control so even though the water is still cold and the fish weren't rising, I was still able to get in a good 3 hours of fishing. It won't last, as we are supposed to get snow for the next 3 day, but it was good to break the ice so to speak.

the north: fish

In A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean writes, "I am haunted by waters." Well Norm, I know how you feel. Seven of Trout Unlimited's top 100 trout streams run through Yellowstone Park. Among these is the Firehole River, which flows right outside our door, and the Madison River, a hop-skip and-a-jump away. But since you can't fish in the Park during the winter I have been resigned to staring longingly at the rivers instead of fishing them.

Last week I broke down and hopped a snowcoach for the three hour (bumpy) trip to Mammoth so that I could get a day on one of the spring creeks near Livingston, Montana. Thankfully our car started despite not being used for 7 weeks and the next day I woke up at 6am and headed through Paradise Valley

to Bozeman, about 1 1/2 hours Northwest of the Park.

After running some errands, I drove to Livingston and stopped at the Yellowstone Angler to pick up a couple flies and a 2-day fishing license. The guy in the fly shop recommended some tiny midge nymphs as well as some larger conehead bunny tail streamers in green and black.

A little before 11am, I headed to the spring creek looking for the sign and the big white house "right out of Gone with the Wind" where I was told to check in.

The creek is on private property and you must pay to fish it. It is considerably cheaper to fish it in January as opposed to the Spring or Summer months. Signing in, I noticed I was the fifth person of 2010 to fish the river. Though they allow 16 fishermen per day, I was only one of three for this afternoon.

With the mercury hovering at around 40-degrees and stiff wind blowing through the valley, it might have seemed a little chilly to fish. But since the creek comes directly from underground it stays at a near-constant temperature (around 45-degrees) all year round making it fishable when the Yellowstone River, which it empties into, is frozen solid.

Following the advice of the fly shop guy, I (AKA, the old man on the stream)

geared up and headed to the north end of the property, past the sheep,

and set up a two fly rig with one small nymph trailing a small black and copper zebra conehead. This is similar to the way you fish on Massachusett's Swift River in the winter and I tried this outfit for pretty much an hour and a half with no luck. About the only thing I was catching was any number of the sticks and debris that had found its way into the river.

Finally I came to a stretch of fast water that flattened out in to a long pool before the river shot through a tunnel and dumped into the Yellowstone.

Here I switched to the green bunny tail figuring at least, given its weight, it would be easier to cast into the strong gusts that kept turning my line into a Jackson Pollack painting. The change paid immediate dividends. After letting the streamer drift through the fast water, I started stripping it in and on the third strip I had a strike. Thirty seconds later I landed my first fish of 2010; a decent brown trout.

That pool yielded a few more nice fish including a beautiful little cutthroat trout (sorry he was camera shy). As I fished the far shore down to the tunnel I landed brown after brown

At the mouth of the tunnel I caught a nice 19 incher that put up a good ol' fight.

I ended up losing my green streamer so I switched to the black as I headed back upstream to re-fish the pools I had tried with the nymph. Despite the color change, I had immediate success landing some more browns and a cutt-bow (cutthroat-rainbow hybrid). Just as my hands were getting a little too cold to fish, I hooked into a fat brown that gave me the fight of the day

Figuring I had used up all my luck for the day, and knowing I needed to pick up Wendie at 5pm in Mammoth, I decided to call it quits at around 4pm. Despite being stuck behind some slow-pokes for the 50 miles drive (guy in the Honda Prelude, the speed limit is 70mph!), my luck held and I arrived right as Wendie's coach was pulling up to the hotel entrance.

With the specter of unfishable rivers behind me, all I need is to stop being tormented by ghosts of East-Coast-pizzas-past.