Fall, Winter ?? In Montana
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On the 29th of September Bozeman recorded high temps of 86°. A few day earlier it hit 90°. I got back home from 8 days on the road Tuesday with the prospect of at least two weeks of Fall fishing. Three days of blizzard like conditions later, I was wondering where Fall would end and Winter would begin.
Met up with another IA guy, Eric Weller, on Wednesday morning as he prepared for a week in West Yellowstone. Am planning to meet up with him and his crew Sunday in the Park for a day on the Firehole. I had restrained myself all week and did not venture out into the Blizzard, but by this morning I had to go. Imagine my despair as I awoke to this:
It was 15° when I left the house at 9AM vowing to fish somewhere on the Yellowstone or Gardner River. By the time I reached Paradise Valley, things were looking up. A lot less snow had fallen in the valley. As I got closer to Gardiner, the temps rose to a moderate 22°.
I left the car at the Rescue Creek trailhead at 10:30AM and made the hike down to the Yellowstone/Gardner confluence. Other than the Coyotes howling up on Bunsen Peak and the large group of Pronghorns out on the bench, it was pretty quite. The hoppers were gone but the river was low and clear.
Electric Peak was shrouded in clouds and snow, but the bench above the Gardner had just a dusting of snow.The mile long walk down to the confluence took about 20 minutes. Would I catch any fish in these freezing temps?
At the confluence pool, I tied on a Matt’s Golden Stone nymph and begin dredging the pools.
Rainbows and Cutbows came to hand at almost every pool.
The water in the river wasn’t all that cold but the airtemps kept the guides froze up and there was lots of ice around to remind me not to fall in or otherwise get wet.
As the temps warmed, I switched to a bugger and began bringing in a few browns in their fall colors.
Getting my hand wet was eventually a mistake as the temps and light breeze still made it exceptionally cold. I quit about 3PM having only fished about ½ mile of the lower canyon. A couple of dozen trout, two really nice browns, and utter solitude on the Gardner broke my cabin fever.
I’ll meet up the Eric Weller and his crew on the Firehole tomorrow. Hopefully temps in the single digits won’t turn off the Firehole trout in the Geyser basins.
I love fishing pictures of winter wonder land. They speak such solitude (not loneliness!) and peace.
I would love to do some winter fishing again.
You’re a brave man Mike Cline. We got to the LOW single digits in our neck of the woods and the wind was brutal! This coming week looks like the return of fall for us. I am going to take advantage of everyday I can!
Joel
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