Re: MT/ID/WY report

[Jere Crosby]

More experienced than Leland and Les Johnson?!!  How many times out does it take?  There are wide ranges of expertise on this thread now.  I really enjoyed Andy's report.  It indicates, to me, that Andy is adept at recognizing what is going on, at a particular time, through observation, that takes time and experience that we all strive for and we hopefully, don't always get it right, either.  That is what makes it so exciting.  My fish can be in the riffle tomorrow, but the dynamics can change and if you charge out, expecting the same conditions to exist without observing what is going on, you often fail.  It is very hard, to take the time to look around and observe, and size up what is going on, without thrashing the water from the onset.  My frustration, in the last year, or two, has been the inability to solve the emerger feeding and my excuse has been that I don't like to use a "dry and a dropper" and that is why others have caught fish and not me.  That has been very challenging to me and I continue to try to recognize the emerger feeding and get it right using one fly.  Jere     ----- Original Message ----- From: Bug Thrower To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 2:39 AM Subject: Re: MT/ID/WY report andy, from what I have read on this chat, you might me a little too experienced for the people on this chat.  Good luck with your fishing, for the rest of  you good luck. ----- Original Message ----- From: Andy Towell To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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