Yellowstone
Jake’s post today inspired some pondering. A life without fly fishing? Inconceivable. A life without ever standing in the Yellowstone River scanning for risers? Preposterous. A life without at least one afternoon sleepily lazing on a grassy bank and watching the summer clouds roll by? Unthinkable. A life without toasting dried chilies on the stove […]
Damn has it been windy over in Paradise Valley of late. The pic above was taken a few days ago – clearly the leaves have mostly blown down out of the Cottonwoods and there’s more snow in the hills. Yellowstone River devotees are used to battling breezes of varying power, though when the big boys […]
Our new friend Jacob Robidiou who blogs over at The Year on the Fly 2009 has a nifty post up about Yankee Jim Canyon on the Yellowstone River downstream a bit from Gardiner – read Redemption Canyon here. That’s his pic of the canyon taken from the less often visited west side. Jake is […]
Can’t believe how uncrowded the river has been of late. Some of the neighbors think the November like cold showing up in early October has flushed a lot of the softies off the river; maybe so. Elk have been moving down this week and there’s bird hunting to do too. October is a busy time […]
Several friends who have been on the river earlier in the week reported loads of whitefish but not much else. The guys at Fins and Feathers here in Bozeman have even called it the Yellowstone’s ‘transitional funk’ (it does sound like an interesting name for a band….). That will be changing now with several days […]
Just back from a couple of days out and about – the One Who Must Be Obeyed and I ran down to Jackson and Grand Teton on Thursday; we happened to catch the Arnica Fire burning in YNP just as it blew up on the morning of the 24th. I’ll throw some more pics up […]
Not a lot different from the past few weeks given the fact we’re stuck in a high pressure dominated, bright sun, and warm pattern. That said, hoppers are fading in effectiveness; some of that is seasonal, some of that is due to the fact that fish have seen a massive flotilla of foam hoppers pass […]
The ‘Stone has been blowing hot and cold cool as is usually does this time of year. Above Yankee Jim fish are still rising well to dries – including attractors and funky hoppers / terrestrials. The Park’s guys said pink is the color of choice in their last report on the upper Yellowstone. I’ll be […]
The stories we’re hearing are enough to send chills down your spine. Due to the ‘publicity’ the lower river has received this summer a lot of the trophy hunters are down below town chasing monsters, and the upper river has been surprisingly unpressured (for this time of year, anyway). Let ’em chase the hogs down […]
I tend to pay attention when some of the guys and gals who have been around the neighborhood all their lives say things like – I’ve been fishing this river since I was old enough to hold a fly rod and not since my grandpa Bob and my dad and I floated this in the […]
A good friend was on the upper yesterday and he and his party were absolutely pounded by a heavy rain and hail storm. It’s part of the game fishing up here in August, and there will likely be more of the same today. Flows have bumped at Corwin Springs and near Livingston this morning; there […]
A pretty impressive mud plug has impacted fisher folk on the Yellowstone this week. A neighbor fished up high yesterday (above Yankee Jim) and said visibility was in the 2-3 foot range; they saw lots of hoppers in the bankside brush but not many in the water. He claims fish were all over small hoppers […]
Flows on the Yellowstone continue to slowly drift downward, just dipping below 7000 cfs around midday yesterday at Livingston. A pretty big thunderstorm tracked across much of the Yellowstone’s headwaters yesterday afternoon and evening and may very well load a mud plug to come down river over the next several days. The upper river (say […]
The Yellowstone downstream of the Park is finally really coming into shape. As is somewhat typical for this time of year and flow situation the upper river is fishing a bit better for the dry fly fisherman than the lower half. Flows are still brisk at 8240 cfs this morning at Carter’s (mean for today […]
