Back in town for a while...

While work travel can be great, sometime it's nice to fly in over the Bridger Mountains knowing you're going to stay put for at least a few weeks.  A week away can get you very disconnected from the water, and asking someone at the fly shop for info just isn't the same as knowing.

It's also makes me queasy when I'm sitting on the plane and 3 out of every 4 people coming into Bozeman have fly rod tubes.  I know that means there'll be a lot of boats on the Madison, and the park, at least the western half, isn't worth fishing.  Luckily all my fishing and camping gear was in the truck, at the airport, and I just had to pick up the dog and grab some clothes before hitting the road out of town.

With the Gallatin still a little high, and the salmon fly action not quite as consistent as the Madison lately (at least that's what I'd been told), I decided to drive up the canyon in search of pteronarcys californica.  Right before entering Yellowstone I started getting some thuds on the windshield and, sure enough, they were rising en masse over the Gallatin in the meadows section.

The meadows of the Gallatin River.

Val's not impressed with the salmon fly action.

Solitude wasn't going to happen on a Saturday evening, but I was able to get a bend to myself and toss some big dries along the bank and behind some rocks.  Fish weren't rising consistently, but I brought a couple to hand, and, later in the evening, switch to swinging a wooly bugger across the stream.  A couple ferocious hits, and fish in hand, and I made my way back to the car to head for a camp site.

A nice Gallatin River rainbow trout fell sucker to the salmon fly

Driving through the park on the way to West Yellowstone, I was hitting clouds of salmon flies on the road.  I regretted not having bought my park fishing license for the year, yet, but carried on to find a camp site.

After stopping in West Yellowstone for some supplies, I made my way to Cabin Creek campground.  With reports of a grizzly wandering around behind my campsite in recent days, I made a large fire, some bratwursts, and drank some Czechmate Pilsners until the sky was white with stars. 

I awoke to sunlight hitting the tent, thinking I had slept in until 9 or so.  I got up, made breakfast, and, with a dead cell phone, had no idea it was about 6:30 and I was going to get some water to myself to start the day.  There is a small fly shop and diner across the road, on the banks of the Madison River, and I grabbed some coffee before getting my day started.  The ladies were nice, as was the young man working the fly shop, but the old man at the counter could've given the grinch a run for his money.  I won't use this particular shop anymore, but I hadn't stopped in Bozeman for flies and I was running pretty low on some essentials.

A swinger from the Madison.

I tied on a double rubber-leg setup and had a couple early hits in fast water, but nothing in the net.  I hiked downstream, right in front of the fly shop, and fished a large deep pool in a bend, swinging rubber legs across the slack water.  A crowd had gathered outside the diner to enjoy the cool morning air and eat their breakfast.  There is a campground connected to the shop, so the visitors got excited when a flyfisherman came into view.  I caught a couple nice rainbows in front of them, and lost a monster fish broke my setup off running downstream.  I learned not to try re-using my tippet from the night before, and some little kids at the diner learned some new words from me.

Maybe my favorite stretch of the Madison River.

Shortly thereafter, caddis and PMDs starting rising off the river.  I switched to caddis dries and pulled a couple nice fish to the net.  It was, however, lunch time by this point and it was time to retreat and try a different section of river for the afternoon.

A victim to an elk hair caddis.

I went to a spot downstream, where I had success the previous Sunday, but I couldn't seem to set the hook on any fish.  I think I brought one to hand, and missed or didn't set on upwards of twenty fish.  Oh well, I needed to get home and clean up the room and do some laundry anyhow.

 

Val sleeps a lot, have you noticed?