Current Fishing Report:
Thursday July 29, 2010

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Pickett Creek!

Great day

Beautiful Fat Fish!

Big Boy!

Sweet Big Snake Creek fish!

First fish on a bugger!

Beetle Beetle Beetle!

Johnny with a nice cutt on Soda Butte!

NORM!

Nice Snake River Cutt!

Fish on!

This was the most important fish of the day. Norm figured out the drift!

Current Fishing Conditions:

Grey Drake Spinners!

Bring your A game for low water fishing!

The Lower Shoshone.. Reservoir is full and the flows down. Clarity is about 1' of visibility below the dam. Below Sulpher creek it can be less depending on irrigation return. Starting to look better. I would say it is fishable but with all the clear water else where, give it a couple more weeks.

The Shoshone Canyon Fishable. Dry droppers on the edges are working great!

The Corbett section   Off color.

Willwood Off color.

North Fork of the Shoshone.  River is clear. Water is finally coming down. Fish can be caught almost any place the water slows the length of the river. The upper river flows are starting to look good. . Fish average 16" to 20". Deeper slower pools and edges. Can be good mayfly action in the evenings.Put your flies on the bottom and you will catch fish. Lower river is now much more manageable. Starting to get some big dry action on the edges. Should get better as the water comes down. You can now slow down and eddy out and actually fish a bit. Below 1000cfs is what we're looking for. It could be very crowded from now on, especially on the weekends!

Clarks Fork   Caddis and mayflies are about. A few golden stones. Report from the 20th is that the fishing is not to bad. Some 14"ers were caught, a couple of 16"ers and even an 18"er. Stimulators and hoppers are taking fish. Run a dropper for more action. Fish while the water is up there as it will get hot out there quickly when the water drops. Good to see a few decent fish! Canyon Time is here! Bring the bug dope!

Greybull is clearing and coming down but still moving. Stone flies, Caddis and Green drakes.

North Tongue Low water make presentation very important. No mend, no bend!. Midges in the morning. A few mayflies ( PMD's) in the afternoon with caddis starting in the evenings. Dry fly action is available all day. We fished on the 15th and murdered them with beetles and ants.. Beware of moose! Cows are up so flies and mosquitoes are present!

Newton Newton is now filled with water and fishing is fair in the morning and evening. Water temps are warming quickly with the hot weather. Make sure to revive the fish properly. Fishing is tough from the banks with the lake being so full.  Wandering caddis at sundown are fun!  We got fish on callibaetis spinners in the morning and damsel dries and nymphs in the afternoon. West Newton has a pretty darn good callibaetis hatch lately. A couple hours of good dry fly 10 till 2. The fish are small.

Luce and Hogan   Luce and Hogan are both fishing good right now. Morning and evening is the best time. Getting very hot in the afternoon. Deer flies are out in force so bring your bug spray! Both lakes have been recently restocked with a bunch of little guys. Biggest fish in Luce are full of the small rainbows. We fished on the 15th and did pretty well on Luce. Got most of the fish on a dry damsel. Beetles, hoppers, and ants are effective and got several picky fish on a callibaetis emerger. Damsels are really coming on now. Sight fishing the edges with a zebra, scud or damsel is good. Cutts are feeding at Hogan. They are off the spawn and spread out in the lake. Starting to get some dry action on the calm cloudy days. A 16# tan parachute sparkle dun or a dry damsel is all you need.

Sunshine Reservoir Fishing continues to be good. Nymphs and streamers stripped slowly on the bottom works well. Sinking lines seem to be a big advantage but aren't necessary if you count your line down for 45 seconds or so or if you are fishing from the banks Very beautiful out there with all the moisture we've had lately. We fished on the 13th and it was good. 30 mph wind though!

Wind River, Bighorn River, and Canyon  Flows are finally down to about normal levels. I haven't fished over here all summer so it will be interesting to see how thing are doing after such high flows. I'll bet the fish are in great shape!  Edges and eddies. Get it down deep in the riffels.  Warmer temps will start slowing the fish in the canyon mid day. Show up at sun up for the trico's. Spinner fall is over by 12:30. Hoppers should start picking up fish any time. Last hours of sunlight are good for big browns in the canyon.

Bighorn River Fort Smith  Flows are finally  down. Dry fly fishing is good. Hoppers, PMD's and caddis. Lots of people.

Yellowstone Park Flows are coming down. Fishing with big bugs is good on the Yellowstone below the falls. Hoppers, PMD's,  and Grey Drakes are taking fish.  Take a hike and catch a bunch of fish! Firehole, Madison is about done for a while with water temps in the 70's.  Lamar valley is in perfect shape. Black flies are thick especially around the buffalo! The Lamar is down clear and fishing great as is Soda Butte. Very crowded lately. We fished on the 20th and did really well. We had to use various methods but caught fish in the Lamar and Soda Butte all day. There was a very sparse PMD hatch and a few black stones coming off. Beetles and ants are the deal in the middle of the day.  Slough creek is fishing real well! Fish are getting picky with the lower water and fishing pressure.  Big mayflies are around. Yellowstone lake reports good fishing for both cutts and lakers. Yellowstone river is open down to Hayden valley. PMD's and Grey Drakes, and caddis are the hatches. Always seems to be a few stones flying. Hoppers, beetles and ants.  Fish are picky but they are in there!

The Cast!                                The Fish!                           The Hook Up!

!

Doesn't get any better!

NORM!

Big Bug Dry Fly!

Big Snake Creek Bamboo!

PMD emergers!

This is why they call them cutthroats!

Beautiful Wild Yellowstone Cutt!

Beautiful Perfect Fish!

Norm!

Fat Yellowstone fish!

Nice!

Lamar valley is fishing great!

I had another Guide's day of so I high tailed it for Big Snake Creek. Weather was partly cloudy and nice all day. A little wind in the afternoon. The morning started out a little slow so I went deep with the Beldar and a soft hackle sow bug dropper. Picked up a couple nice fish out of the first run and decided to move on and do some exploring.

I was fishing my Phillipson Dry Fly Special. It is an 8 1/2' 3 piece 6wt made for big western water and big fish. A perfect choice for this creek. You can cast anything from tiny dries with delicacy to big honking streamers. The tips are still soft enough to handle light tippet. This rod can do it all in the west!

I got bit in the second hole almost immediately. These fish are big and in fast water so it is pretty easy to loose them which is exactly what I did with the first couple. Cutthroats are notorious thrashers. They use this strategy to dislodge themselves from predators, mainly eagles and osprey. I calmed myself and started paying a little better attention to playing the fish out of the current. I landed several from the deepest part of the hole. I then hit the current seam and picked up several more beauties. This day was turning out almost to good to be true!

The fish were fairly active. The first couple were dead drift. Got several more on the swing with the little soft hackle. I then stripped the streamer through the hole and got a couple savage strikes! That's the thing I like about streamer fishing. Versatility!

I headed down stream swinging the streamer steelhead style for a couple hundred yards without a hit. At the bottom of the run I finally picked up a real nice bright fish. There is an island that I like to fish but I had never tried to get out there at these flows. I made a practice run and it was swift but I figured no guts no glory. The worst I could do was get wet and the weather was nice and warm. I made it without a hitch but the return would be the test. You have to wade up stream in the current for about 200 yards. I figured I would just take my chances.

It felt good to finally be on dry ground and I decided to start with some dries as it would be the least invasive technique and work down from there. First cast a huge cutt came up and gobbled a stimulator! Sweet! A few more casts produced another great fish. I kept hearing fish rise but I couldn't see them. I sat back and watched and when I spotted one, made the cast, and fish on! To much fun for one day.

When the dry action subsided, I put on a dropper and here we went again. I have never caught so many fish in this river as I did today. Spectacular! 90% of these fish were 3 lbs and up. I'm pretty sure some went close to 5lbs. Amazing!  I did catch a couple that were only 16" or 17". ONLY!

Well, I didn't want to wear out my welcome so I decided to quit about 3p.m. I still had to make the river crossing. I went as far up stream as I could and then angled down and across. It was touch and go but I managed to get out just before being swept into a big deep section. As I headed back to the truck, all I could think about was that I am truly living the dream! I can't see how this day could have been any better.  Enjoy the pictures!

Dropping in!

Stone Flies are all over the place!

Here's some dormant Buffalo flies in the cooler weather!

First cast!

Big stone nymph!

Pickett Creek finally came down enough to have some fun fishing. It is still very high but if you have a death wish and don't mind going for a swim now and then, you can get around. We hiked down into the canyon and with a front moving in I had my doubts on how the fishing would pan out. I only had about 3 hours to see what was going on. As soon as we got to the water I noticed tons of small black stone flies on the rocks. The cool weather had the bugs dormant but the fish were looking for them on the edges and any place the current slowed.

Dry Stone Fly!

The fish are in very nice shape! After fishing Yellowstone yesterday you can really see the difference in unmolested fish. There are even a bunch of smaller fish in the 8" to 10" which is nice to see. The creek is very healthy.

Another Beautiful Fish!

Almost all the fish took the nymph. I had a couple come up and take the dry and I think if the sun was out, they would have been much more willing to come up. I had a blast for the limited time I had to fish! I probably landed about 15 fish between 15" and 18". A couple bigger fish got off in the fast current as usual. This is definitely one of the premier streams in our area. How much longer it can remain good is up to us. Take care of the less than 10% of what remains of the wild Yellowstone Cutthroats!  Enjoy the pictures!

This is one of the prettiest fish I've ever seen!

Dogs hearing Indian Spirits!

Second cast!

Good to see some little guys!

Nice and healthy!

Bah Behr!

Johnny Stafford and I finally got a day off so we hit Lamar valley for the day. The water is now in prime shape. In the morning we fished midges sub surface and had excellent results. The fish look to be in very good shape with the exception of their mouths which are already showing signs of wear and tear. I fished my Abercrombie Fitch Firehole made by Bill Phillipson. It is an 8' three piece for a #5 line and is perfect for Soda Butte and the Lamar. A true joy to cast no matter what you are throwing. The only resemblance of a hatch we saw was some PMD's for about an hour. The fish were mainly taking emergers but we managed a couple with a dry. There were also a few black stones about #10 and I got a few to come up and take that. It was very fun working on each fish and getting them to take. Swinging an emerger to the surface below a big dry was killing them.

We broke for lunch by the Buffalo Ranch in the shade. Midday it had to hit 85. The black flies were all over you but if you covered yourself in Deet they didn't bite. Just a nuisance with 50 of them buzzing around your head all day. The Lamar was great as well. We never saw any bugs hatching but I got quite a few to come up to the legendary Bah Behr. I fished it with a deep dropper. The sun was high and bright and the fish were down but if you made some nice long drifts they would take either fly. Most came out of the deep side of the run with a little current. All in all it was a very successful day. I think I got 25 or so and Johnny got about the same. There were quite a few people and guided trips fishing but you are still able to get on some good runs. Just wait for people to leave and cover the water with some good drifts and you will get fish out of every good looking spot. Glad to see the fish in this heavily pressured water looking good. (at least their body mass) Another river that shows catch and release is the best way to keep good fishing intact. Enjoy the pictures!

My good friend Jim Haeck came over from West Yellowstone to ply the much less crowded waters of the Bighorn Basin. Jim and I have been friends for several years and are both fly fishing addicts. Jim is a retired teacher and has worked in a Michigan fly shop for the last 12 years. As you advance down the fly fishing road, taking things to the extreme like fishing in super high water and chunking a bunch of lead becomes less meaningful. The pursuit becomes more of a quality issue. Casting dry flies to wary fish in spring creek type situations  is much more appealing than just fish size. Most of you who know me know I am partial to bamboo but Jim had brought along a 7'9"Sage LL with a sliding band cork reel seat that is one of the sweetest graphite rods ever made for this type of fishing! We decided to fish almost exclusively with dries for a couple days even though it was exactly the opposite of what most other anglers were doing at this time. It was very interesting to say the least!

The weather had just changed from cool to hot, bright, and sunny. As we walk down to where we wanted to start, we saw fish spooking from over 50 feet. We used stealth and concentrated on precise first cast presentations. The fish were extremely sensitive early on. We tried different flies and nothing really seemed to trip the trigger. Finally the fish began to feed a bit. We used a parachute sparkle dun with a proprietary mayfly emerger for the slower water and a big orange dry with a dropper for the faster water. In the slow water the fish would only take the emerger. Drift had to be perfect. The takes were so subtle that they seldom moved the dry indicator. Sweet! Then for no apparent reason the fish began to hit the big orange dry! We had a couple rods rigged with the two set ups and switched, depending on the nature of the water we were fishing. The bites got better as the day progressed but dropped off right about 5. There were no apparent hatches of any significance besides some tiny midges in the evening. We landed 20 0r 30. Not a great day but very interesting fishing!

We got up early the next morning and hit a lake for a half day. We thought it would be about dry damsels because that had been the deal a couple days earlier. Again, we had to rethink it and modify our approach for each individual situation. We saw cruising fish with their heads down right off the bat. First cast Jim hooked a hot rainbow. It took 40' of line, made a couple jumps and went into the weeds. This turned out to be the fishes strategery all day. Again, bright sun made it critical that the first cast be the one! Jim probably hooked and lost 7 or 8 fish before finally landing a nice rainbow. We tried different flies but the presentation seemed to be the major contributing factor to getting a bite. If the cast was accurate and the fish didn't see you, fish on!  The big fish of the day, a 21" rainbow, came up and took a dry damsel with a big head out of the water slurp which made my day!   Jim landed 5 or 6 and then the fish turned off about 1 when it got very hot. Another interesting day!

The last day we went back up high. It was supposed to be even hotter still but we figured that this might help the hatch as there had been a recent cool snap that had shut down the hatches a couple days earlier. We thought we were dialed in because we had done pretty well the day before but almost nothing that had worked well for us even moved a fish. Oh no! We had to use our extremely limited intellect again! After much trial and error we pulled a couple beetles out of our butts and decided to stick with it for a while. Jim stalked along making good casts and staying low. We got no fish from the slower eddies and edges. The fish were just to spooky. The riffels and cut banks were a different story. The beetle began to work it's magic!  By about 10:30 almost any fish that saw the beetle would take it! Some would chase it down stream for 5 or 6 feet. Others would hit it 2 or 3 times before finally getting hooked. It was BEETLE MANIA! We lost count of fish caught but it was a bunch. We had planned to stay till sun down but by 5 or so we had both simply had enough. We would like to think that we were super perceptive anglers and figured something out but in the end it was just blind luck and perseverance that made the difference. At any rate, we had a ball! It was 3 great days of fly fishing that turned out totally different than either of us had expected. That's why we keep coming back! Enjoy the pictures!

BEETLE MANIA!

Tight Lines!