Gone Fishing-Montana-Day Ten
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October 8th, 2007
Today the weather favored the fisherman–mild and cool this morning. It was 34 degrees in West at 8AM and partly cloudy. By midday, it was in the 40s and the sun came through at times. Very little wind allowed the hatches on the Firehole to occur all day. Your favorite fishing places on any river has a lot to do with your particular style of fishing. Mine is slinging Woolly Buggers and such to likely hides going downstream. I have intense Attention Deficit Disorder trying to drift nymphs or dry flies over 20 feet of river for a solid hour. I like to move, covering as much water and turning fish from lots of hides. On a river like the Firehole, I get myself in the middle of the river and trudge downstream hitting every run and undercut bank with a Woolly Bugger, sometimes with a soft hackle dropper. I’ll cover several miles of river in a day fishing this way. If someone is already in the river, I just get out and move on beyond them. On the Firehole, there’s a lot of water that suits this profile. This morning, I spent two hours in Muleshoe Bend making two complete passes without seeing another fisherman. Although all the pundits will tell you Muleshoe is classic dry fly water, my instincts make it classic streamer water. Buggers dropped inches from the bank would bring heavy wakes from fish attacking the fly. Today produces a steady catch of 12”+ rainbows and browns throughout the full run of Muleshoe.
After a quick lunch, I made the long, cross country downstream trek from Midway Geyser Basin to Ojo Caliente bend. This two mile long stretch of river takes about 5 hours to fish and is really three distinct sections. The first part of the stretch is a long meadow run below Midway with lots of weedy channels and good undercut banks.
This section is loaded with good size browns that cling to the undercuts.
The middle section runs straight for about a mile through a lodgepole forest. There’s a fair bit of shallow riffle water, but enough undercut banks and deep runs to keep it interesting. Rainbows and Browns are evenly distributed through this section. Just as I was entering the forested section of the run, I encountered another angler—71 years old from Omaha. He was running downstream along the bank. When he saw me he stopped and told me a large (they are all large) grunting bull Buffalo had walked up behind him—a close as ten feet—before crossing the river. He had dropped his rod and fly box along the river and vacated the spot (gear later recovered). If buffalo scare you, don’t fish the Firehole.
The final section is a rocky, geysery stretch that holds mostly rainbows in a quick succession of runs, riffles and pools.
Dinner tonight came from the Beartooth Barbeque.
Not to be discounted, the Beartooth produces some really good food. After a quick microbrew beer, the takeout came back to the room to be consumed in front of on-going baseball and football with a fine glass of wine. After about 7 hours of non-stop fishing, no need to go fancy.
Tomorrow, I vow to fish some new water. That’s a tough challenge for me on the Firehole, but I have a section staked out that’s never seen my line.
Mike I love your dedication to your daily reports from Montana. Great photos and stories. I am a little curious about your wine choice though. Did you pick that wine because it is a good one or because of the name on the bottle?
Joel
Mike I love your dedication to your daily reports from Montana. Great photos and stories. I am a little curious about your wine choice though. Did you pick that wine because it is a good one or because of the name on the bottle?
JoelIt’s just a coincidence that the Cline wines, especially their Syrah, is pretty good. No relationship.
Mike
I’ve been enjoying the reports from the other side of the globe as well,some spectacular country side but I can feel my arteries hardening just looking at those food shots 😀
I’ve been meaning to ask you guys,what on earth is a chicken fried steak?cheers
CourtyMike
I’ve been enjoying the reports from the other side of the globe as well,some spectacular country side but I can feel my arteries hardening just looking at those food shots 😀
I’ve been meaning to ask you guys,what on earth is a chicken fried steak?
cheers
CourtyNothing more than a reasonably tough piece of beef, pounded to death with a hammer, then dipped milk and rolled in flour.
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