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.