55 on the fly

Fellow Parks Fly Shop guide Ben Jewell and I headed out early this morning to West Yellowstone and the Gallatin Mountain Range to fish Fan Creek.  The hike in was beautiful with; high mountain peaks, lodgepole pine trees and the many wild flowers surrounding the valley.  We hiked in 4 miles to the second backwoods campsite and started fishing the winding meadow stream.  The fishing was slow.  Maybe the water was to cold or to skinny but the fish just weren't there.  After fishing a mile upstream we decided to hike back down valley and give-it-a-go.  We had better luck there taking some nice cutbows.  It was a fun day, fishing new water and spending time with a good friend. Fan Creek   Mountain Blue Bells Elephant Head   Dougie with a nice Cutbow. Ben Jewell

Our fishing trip today was on the Gardner River near the High Bridge.  We walked in on a game trail to an area a little farther in than most people go.  Walking on a game trail - elk, buffalo, wolves, and yes, bear - is not always easy.  The elk may be able to walk up and down steep hills and along steep cliffs but I am not an elk!  There were some places along the trail where we had to walk right along the edge of a steep cliff and it was a long way down.  I kept my eyes on the path to make sure of my footing and tried not to think about how high we were.  We trudged through mud that almost pulled my shoes off, waded through knee deep water and climbed over wobbly river rocks.  In the end it was worth it to see some beautiful scenes and to catch some nice fish.  I caught a very nice cutbow using a Korn's Split-tail Golden Stone dry fly.  Doug spent a lot of his time guiding me and untangling my line in some pretty heavy brush.  He did c...