Dave Henderson's 2005 trip to West Yellowstone
Greg
Hooper and I just returned oct 17, 2005 from our annual trip to Yellowstone.
Over 30+ years I have settled on mid October and late June as my favorite time
to be in the Park and the nearby trout streams, especially the Madison and
Henry's Fork.
This year we drove from West Yellowstone to the Clearwater River below Orafino,
ID to try for the B run steelhead ( A run fish leave the Pacific after one
year, generally earlier in Sept.). These larger fish peak in the Clearwater in
Oct. A few go further up the Snake to the Salmon as well. We didn't see a
steelie
or smell a salmon but did harvest the feathers of a very nice roadkill cock
pheasant. The 450 mile drive over the Lolo Pass was beautiful but consumed an
entire day of travel each way, leaving only 8-9 days in and around the Park.
The rainbow and brown runners were up from Hebgen all
the way to Madison Junction. Most of the pressure was below the Barns Pools but
we caught a goodly number of fish 18"-21 1/2" all above the 7 Mile Bridge,
mostly on Buggers swung or dead-drifted. Most days were sunny and 50 degrees in
the afternoon making mornings (*after temp above freezing) and evenings best.
Baetis hatches were good on the Firehole when it clouded up but those little
suckers can be incredibly picky when feeding on #22 flies! We never penetrated
the Park further than Mallad Creek access on the Firehole.
Fished 3 mid-days below Quake Lake on the Madison, one at 3$ Bridge and two
above Raynauld's Bridge. One day there was outstanding with baetis
emergers and dries in the #16-18 range.
Probably the very best day for me was on Henry's Fork
just inside the mouth of the Box Canyon. I worked done to my favorite area from
above while Greg walked up to HIS log from Last Chance. About 1 PM the baetis
began to come off. I had added a lot of Sparkle Duns and PT Emergers to my box
of size 16-20 flies before leaving Vermont, the result of my winter tying now
done begrudgingly as it cuts into my mandolin time. But on the Clearwater I lost
the box of 200+ flies from an open vest pocket. Since I refuse to buy or beg
flies I was definitely short on BWO imitations. Poking through my vest I came
upon the small box of Pete Burton flies that he had tied and left at the condo
when he and Pete Diminico left just before Greg and I arrived. I found a
beautiful CDC dry but it was size 16 and on the water looked huge alongside the
copious
baetis. But every decent trout (and several were 16-18") that I presented the
fly to took it with gusto. While I had a great day Greg was totally frustrated
by the big rainbows at HIS log.
At the Trout Hunter in Last Chance they told us that even a few Mahogany Duns
would sometimes make the fish have a strong preference for those #14 flies. Like
the Clearwater steelhead they were invisible to us.