----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 6:31
PM
Subject: MT/ID/WY report
Just returned from an 10 day trip to the Yellowstone
region:
Fished Rock Creek MT one day on the way over (June 29th). A
good number of pmd's and green drakes on the water and the fish treated me
well. Ran in to a MT biologist checking a smolt trap and he mentioned that
Rock Creek is second only to one of the Missouri tribs (prickly pear?) in
terms of whirling disease load. Caught Cutts, browns and cutt-bows in that
order of prevalence. No brookies or pure strain bows. Usually only get 1
brookies for every couple of fishing days in past trips, but the
lack of rainbows is now very noticeable. Several of the browns were kind
enough to go aerial for me though to help fill that gap.
The Henry's Fork was still fishing poorly during the day (at
least for me), as winds, higher temps and no clouds kept the PMD hatches
to a minimal level. 0/3 in the ranch one day and 1/1 below Ashton (20" bow) on
the second day (on foam body #10 golden stone.) Due to familial obligations
(i.e. because I was fishing all day I had to stick around the cabin in the
evening,) I did not fish the flav or caddis hatches in the
evening.
Did not fish it, but the salmon flies on the Madison were
already below Quake Lake when we arrived on the 30th, so lots of pressure
(bank and boat) up high.
The Park waters were all in shape. Fished the Lamar (OK for
cutts to 17-18" on stone fly dries and doublewing attractors) and Slough Creek
- good for cutts, 'bows and cuttbows. Lucked out in that the one cloudy day of
the vacation was on Slough Creek, so a decent number of PMD's, and Drakes were
popping. Also saw some larger spinners that may have been Brown Drakes or Grey
Drakes (tail length >3x body length), but saw only the PMD and Green Drake
dun's on the water. Some smaller Flav. spinners showed in the afternoon, but
the fish were still looking for PMD cripples. Caught fish to 21" on PMD
and Green Drake cripples. One thing to note on both the Lamar and Slough Creek
- this is a great year for Deer flies and I lost a lot of skin for not having
insect repellant in my vest (applied at the truck before leaving, wore off of
many areas before the day was through.)
Fished Yellowstone Lake one day, but the callibaetis were
really not cooking yet and had relatively slow fishing from the beach (1 fish
every 15'). The lone tuber that I spoke with was not doing much better further
out. Pattern and retrieve did not seem to matter, as everything was equally
mediocre.
Spent an entertaining hour on the upper yellowstone feeding
salmon flies and golden stones to the cutthroat. I was amazed at the amount of
stonefly biomass that was crawling out of the river around LaHardy
rapids.
Now its back to the real world...
Tight Lines,
Andy
