Yesterday
7/27 Saturday, was a rest day with Michelle and I driving out to West Yellowstone. We split up after having coffee with Michelle hitting the gift shops and me going to all 6 fly shops in town where I picked up a few fly tying items. The shop has special requested that I tie a bunch of flies for them while I'm here especially my Korn's Spent Wing Caddis which has been a killer in the Northeast corner of the park. The guides are gobbling them up as fast as I can tie them with none of them making it to the fly rack for sale!
We had a nice time in West Yellowstone but as we got back to Gardiner it looked very dark over the mountains. We stopped in the shop and no sooner said hi to my guiding buddies; Ben, Richard and Wilson when the skies opened up with heavy rain for a good 45 minutes which is a lot in this high plains desert. It's been great catching up with my old friends. Wally had my two copies of his book "Yellowstone Country Flies" saved for me. The book came out great with many of my original fly patterns included. After the rain quit Ben came up to camp for a couple of PBR's and Michelle and I had a nice visit with him. By the time Ben left the Gardner and Yellowstone Rivers were running muddy like chocolate milk. There were many doubts about fishing tomorrow.
7/28 Sunday - This morning the Gardner and Yellowstone Rivers didn't look too bad, in fact they were running pretty clear... with temp's in the 50's I tied a couple dozen flies and had some extra coffee. Michelle was going to do her running this morning so after finishing my fly tying I suited up to fish the Yellowstone. I decided to fish "Bear Alley" a section of the Yellowstone River so named for a "close encounter of the black bear kind" with my son Scott, but hey, that's another story.
The fishing was fantastic, nymphing with a Downie Red Fox Squirrel Nymph and a Fire Fly trailer. This combo accounted for 9 fish consisting of Browns, Rainbows and a couple of white fish. Everything was fine until I heard thunder and looked over the cliff behind me... Dead Black skies... and then she opened up with thunder, rain and hail..... nice! I was on the side of a 100 foot high cliff about 20 feet above the water sitting on a rock with my rain gear on and hood pulled up. I had only been fishing for about an hour, so I waited out the storm and then started fishing again.
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| first fish of the day - Brown Trout |
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| here's a better one ~ 15 1/2 inch Brown Trout |
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| Rainbow Trout |
After the rain had passed I picked up several more fish in short order, but with another big black set of clouds moving in and the rumble of more thunder I packed it in and called it quits...
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| last fish of the day #13 another fine Brown Trout |
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