55 on the fly

Michelle and I fished the high country in Yellowstone National Park today (8/27/18).... The mountain stream held some beautiful brook trout for us among it's awesome beauty.... To top it off, on the hike in we saw a lone black wolf, a big boy. I topped a rolling hill and spotted him coming our way at a hundred yards. I yelled at him and he turned and trotted the other way, we watched him for a while, quite a sight. It was Michelle's first time seeing a wolf in the wild...  We only used one fly today, the UK Ausable Bomber, yeah they work out West too... The photos tell the rest of the story. fish of the day... Ausable Bomber fly of the day... 

I had an early start today. My buddy here in Montana, Ben, picked me up and we headed to a little honey hole we know. We only had a few hours to fish, as Ben had to work, but we picked up several nice browns doing some nymphing. I used my refurbished Wonderod 8'6", she likes a 6wt. line spooled on a vintage Orvis Madison click reel.....We had a great time fishing and catching up since I last saw Ben in 2013..... Ben with a 17-18 inch Brown... Here I am with a 15-16 inch Brown...

This is a variation of my Korn's Wrapped Foam Hopper that I tie for Parks Fly Shop.  It makes a super Salmon fly and you can use the same pattern for Golden Stone flies as well.  I just change the hook to a size 8-10 and the foam over body to a golden yellow.  Out West it's a killer fly when the Salmon flies are hatching and in the East for the small Spring Black Stone flies. I just change the color and downsize them to size 12... Materials: Hook: MFCo. 7026 4-6 Thread: black 6/0 Uni Legs: MFC med. black legs Underbody: orange craft foam wrapped Over body: black or dark brown craft foam, hook gap wide with split-tail Wing: deer tail hair Indicator: orange craft foam SBS tie in back legs split tie in underbody foam at eye extending out from hook superglue thread base, wrap orange foam back to tail-legs attach over body with 3 wraps at tail-legs, then loop thread over the top of the underbody to the eye (this way no wraps ...

Ben Jewell's - Slough Creek Spinner Fishing Yellowstone National Park's famous Slough Creek can be a real test of skill and fly fishing knowledge.  The Cutthroat trout are tough to catch and by mid-season have seen most every fly available.  Knowing a few key flies and how and when to fish them can make all the difference. There are a few flies I would not be without on Slough, this is one of them.  That's why my fellow guide Ben named it as such.  Anytime you see a fly with a creeks name, and you are going to fish that creek....... Yeah, you're going to want some of those. an average Slough Creek Cutt'y... I enjoy tying this fly even though it has more materials than I like and they can be troublesome to manage. Here you see wing bundles, each made up of white and dark gray Widow's Web and 2 strands of Krystal Flask.  Turkey rounds of Gray-olive biots are used to wrap the body and moose  body hair is spilt to form the tails. usi...

Wow - time sure flies when you're having fun and our trip is drawing to a close... Today Dave and I fished Soda Butte Creek.  We had a great time. The canyon had willing fish and the water was clear and cold.  We found that various caddis patterns and a black and blue nymph that Dave had worked very well. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be packing up and then heading home on Sunday.  It's been great to see all our friends here in Montana and to fish and spend time with them. The Yellowstone area has much to offer and Michelle and I enjoyed it all --- "On the Fly". Here's Dave doing a little rock hopping in the canyon section. Fishing pocket water like this is one of my favorite things to do... The further up the canyon you go the smaller the fish.  We each caught a dozen or more of the beautiful Cutthroat Trout. I fished my Winston Binney Para 15 bamboo - 8' - 5wt. today, what a sweet casting fly rod.  

Well we tried to "beat the heat", 91 today, by fishing early in the day.  It's been in the 90's for the last week or more and I think it's starting to get to us. We hooked up with a few fish today nymphing rather than fishing the dry-dropper rig.  Michelle caught her first Rainbow of the trip a real jumper. Oh and I --- lost a "good fish" when he got the line tangled around a rock cutting the line --- bummer. We quit about 10:30 and headed to breakfast and "beat the heat". Tomorrow it's going to be about 85 so we are looking for a little relief.  The guys in the shop are reporting the fishing is slow in the afternoon due to the high temp's and low water. Chelle and her rainbow trout... it sure is fun to watch them dance across the water.

My buddy Ben and I fished the XYZ River this morning for a try at some big Brown Trout.  Ben with a nice fish right off the bat! Stepping back in time we used some older fly fishing gear for this trip. Ben used my 1960's rebuilt fiberglass rod an 8'6" 6wt. heavy nymphing rod taylor made for handling two heavy nymphs and an indicator. I used my 1949 Orvis Battenkill 9' 6wt. 3/2 bamboo fly rod fitted with an 60's Orvis Madison reel. It's a slow rod for dry flies on the Delaware really, but I just had to try and get a big fish on it. These big fish and the fast current put both fly rods to the test... that's me with a Brown ~ 17 inches 1949 Orvis Battenkill bamboo ~ Brown Trout Ben - another good one. My fish-of-the-day - Brown Trout (Runner) 18 1/2 inches, he took me 50 yards down stream in the fast current before we could land him. What a great day. Ben and I caught more than o...

Michelle went for a run today and me well, lets see, running or fishing.... Yeah right fishing of course! So off to fish the Yellowstone River and do some rock hopping.  I had a good time too catching a couple of nice rainbow trout but whoops, forgot the camera... Then after catching 5 or 6 white fish I remembered my phone, ah-ha I have a camera on the phone!  I'm old school and keep forgetting that I have a "smart" phone now.  I caught some rainbows, browns and cutthroats and of course several white fish, a good couple of hours on the river. my first Cutthroat of the trip ~ 16 inches and the best fish-of-the-day Hey - my fishing buddies are here! Walked right up on this little band of elk in the Yellowstone River, 5 in total, there was one still laying down in the cool grass.  I let them have their pool and headed for home. Tonight we were invited to a BBQ with some of our fly fishing friends.  We had a great time visiting with everyone.  The...

Michelle and I went to hike the high country today and to try for some skinny water brook trout.  With less snow on the mountains in and around the park water levels are down making the the high country waters low and skinny.   Michelle fishing the narrow water streams of the high country 7500 ft. above sea level the fish are smaller but usually willing... today with colder weather and a front moving in they were harder to catch... Michelle's meatloaf sandwiches on the trail... Oh yeah! log jam what a view

Here's a couple of photos from last night... Most nights here we are treated to the "Elk Show" the evening movement of the elk from their bedding area up high on the mountain behind camp and down into the Yellowstone River valley passing by our front door.  Tonight there were about 20+ elk consisting of cows, yearlings and one lucky bull. This old cow elk came down later and bedded right behind our RV,  not more than 15 yards.  Sunset over Gardiner and YNP.