Yellowstone trip – first timer
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So I’ve only been back home from my first time to Yellowstone for four or five days and I’m ready to plan my next trip back. Yellowstone is amazing!
First off, I’d like to give a big thank you to this forum. I can’t say enough good things about you guys. I really appreciate all the advice I’ve gotten from everyone over the past year. I’m still pretty new to the sport, but I’m really enjoying it and a lot of my success has to do with the advice from the good folks of this forum. I would be a total jackass to not give a BIG special thank you to Mike Cline for his very detailed fishing report. My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mike and his wife for a late lunch at the Desert Rose as soon as we landed in Bozeman. Mike, being the nice guy that he is, brought some of his personally tied flies for me to use on our trip. These are some of the best flies I’ve seen and I had great success using them (Specifically, the wooly buggers and soft hackle flies). Mike even gave me some Stone flies he tied specifically for the Gardiner river just in case I had a chance to make it up north (I did, but I’ll get to that later). Thanks for the great hospitality Mike!
Here are some pics of the flies Mike Cline hooked me up with:
Stone flies
Wooly Buggers and Soft Hackle
Mike didn’t skimp on the flies either…. Here’s a pic of some of the wooly buggers he gave me.
Even though it was a short trip, Wednesday through Sunday, we were able to cover the entire park with the exception of the section from Fishing Bridge to the east entrance. There’s no telling how many miles we put on the rental.
We got to Madison campground around 7:30pm on Wednesday. As I was setting up our tent we were greeted by the state bird (mosquito), which was in full effect so as soon as everything was setup we drove down to the Old Faithful general store to pickup some OFF spray. The campground folks said the mosquito hatch just occurred the day we arrived. The wife was not a big fan.
Thursday
We woke up at 5am and headed to Biscuit Basin so I could get some fishing in. My wife decided she did not want to mess with fishing this trip (she’s very green and not quite sure she enjoys it yet) so she rented a long lens for her camera and focused more on getting great wildlife shots. It was below 40 degrees when we arrived. This was the only really cold morning we had while we were there. I made the short hike down to Firehole and I could immediately tell this was going to be a good day. The fish were rising all over the place. I rigged up a wooly bugger and a soft hackle dropper per Mike’s recommendation. Almost immediately I caught my biggest fish of the day (actually of the entire trip). It was a nice Brown (aprox 16 inches and fat). Unfortunately, we didn’t get a great shot of it because the fish slipped out of my hands before my wife could snap the photo, but she did get a great action shot of me netting it with a Buffalo in the background. I ended up catching 3 browns and 1 rainbow that morning. All on Mike’s flies. Three out of the four were caught on the soft hackle dropper. The smallest brown of the day was caught on the wooly bugger.Checkout the Bison in the background!!! (Please excuse my wife’s branding, I just snagged the photos she posted to facebook).
My wife really wanted to go to Jackson Hole and see the Grand Tetons so we headed that way around 10:30am or so. It was a beautiful drive. We had lunch here.
Friday
We woke up at 4am to make the drive over to Lamar valley to checkout the wild life. On our way we drove right next to a fox that had about 5 mice/rats in it’s mouth. I got a decent video of it considering I was driving with one hand and had the phone shooting the video in the other, all while my wife was trying to point the flashlight at the fox. She wasn’t doing an adequate job in my opinion so I took the flashlight and had her man the wheel while I maintained control of the gas and break pedals. It was fun! 🙂Here’s a not so good pick of the fox with all the rats in its mouth. Dude has a jacked up hind leg and still managed to snag 5 rats…
Here’s the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUoN9VKcau8&feature=youtu.beWe really didn’t see much wildlife other than a ton of buffalo in the valley that morning so we decided to do the little hike to Trout lake around 8am. I ended up not fishing trout lake because I left my smaller tippet in the car. The trout were spawning in the little creek/spring that feeds the lake. This was really cool to watch. We got some pretty photos, took in the scenery, and then headed back to the car. We decided to drive up to Gardiner to eat at the Iron Horse Bar & Grill. They don’t have a website and it’s not that easy to find so ask around to get directions, b/c both of our cell phones had us going in circles. Anyway, my wife had the Elk burger. I had the buffalo burger and a Moose Drool (local brew). When in Rome….
Gardiner the city isn’t much to look at IMHO. Iron Horse is definitely one of the bright spots. After eating and trying out some of the local brews, I fished the Gardiner just a couple miles upstream where Gardiner feeds the Yellowstone river. It’s a fast moving river, lost of white water. I tried a couple different locations and only found one area where the water ran slower. I didn’t see any risers anywhere. I found one spot that was slower. I would think that this location would be good so I’m including a map. It was right where the river crosses over to the other side of the road.
I don’t have much experience fishing these faster moving, white water type rivers YET. Tried in and around Edys, the banks, etc… I used both colors of stone flies that Mike provided me. One as the main fly and the other as the dropper. I didn’t catch anything but I got some good practice in. I’m going to blame it on the time of day, which was mid day.
Saturday
We decided to head back over to the Lamar Valley area and then hike Slough Creek to the first meadow so I could do a little more fishing. I used one of the sulpher fly’s that have been working on my local fishery lately (Toccoa river in North Georgia). I caught two fish pretty quick along the banks. I had a 22 – 24 inch cut throat hooked, but couldn’t bag it. He was right on the edge of a cutback bank and as soon as I hooked him, he dove and shot upstream about 20 to 30 feet where I was. I had to strip the line as fast as I could because he was headed right for me. He came to the surface just before making his second run. He shot back down and away from me and that’s when he managed to wiggle loose. He ended up going right back where he was so I walked over and stood directly above him on the bank. I sat there and watched him rise up again and again. He was most likely taunting me under water… Calling me names under his breath. Nana boo boo!!! I managed to get him to bite one more time, but it wasn’t a good hookup. I tried a few different flies (smaller sulpher and caddis) trying to get him to bite one more time but he wasn’t falling for it.Here is me videoing the cutthroat from the bank (not great quality sorry). Wait for him to rise in the center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO1XfJwucv8&feature=youtu.beSulpher fly
Small Cutthroat
Cutthroat
On our hike back to the car I saw a brown bear (actually a cinnamon black bear, it was full size) walking the same direction we were walking. I immediately thought of the scene from “The Edge” movie where the grizzly was stalking them. I stopped and said “Hey bear”. He stopped and looked over at us. He was about 25 yards away. He decided his ass itched so he put that sucker right up next to the tree and he proceeded to go to town on it. I reckon he doesn’t have any wet wipes handy. Gotta hate the butt rash… 🙂 Anywho, after he was satisfied, he sat down and started snapping at flies. This was great because my wife got a great photo. However, I was really hoping for a photo of him scratching his ass… Sorry fellas!
Sunday… We packed up all our stuff and headed back to Bozeman through the north entrance. We came in from the west entrance so we decided to take a different route back. We ate breakfast at the Main Street Overeasy http://www.mainstreetovereasy.com/, which I highly recommend. Zach, thanks for the recommendation!
We managed to see a lot of wild life (Osprey,Fox,Mule deer,Bull elk,Bison,Yellow belly marmot,Ground squirrel,Pronghorn,Bald eagle, and a Lesser scaup). Oh, and way more bear than we expected. We even managed to see a grizzly (maybe a 2 year old, it wasn’t too big), but couldn’t get a good photo. On our last full day we actually turned down several bear jam’s because we had met our bear siting quota.
Here’s a great shot of another cinnamon black bear just hanging out in the tree. Forest gumping it, if you will…. “She taught me how to climb, I showed her how to dangle.”
Apparently, there were two up in the tree and they got into a little bit of a bear argument so the other bear headed south.
Here’s a pic I took of the wife showing off the long lens she rented for the trip.
Nice photography..
Looks like a great trip – the bear scratching it’s ass would be a highlight for me – not something you see avery day ! lol
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
That was awesome Mike. I really enjoyed watching the trip unfold on Facebook. I’d love to see that fox video man.
Thanks for posting.
Zach
Thanks Zach! I updated the post to include the video of the Fox, as well as a video of the cutthroat that got away. Neither are great quality unfortunately and Youtube muted the “Bob Dylan-Subterranean Homesick Blues” song we had playing on the radio which really made the video I think. Oh well :\
Mike didn’t you just love the ability to walk the banks of Slough and look down into the water to sight fish? I’m so jealous of western angling.
Zach, it’s like taking candy from a baby… I am envious of Mike Cline and all those other fisherman that live within a few hours driving distance of Yellowstone.
Slough Creek was definitely my favorite area because I enjoy being away from everything and the scenery there is amazing. I am hoping to do a 2 or 3 night backpacking trip next time we visit yellowstone. http://www.trailguidesyellowstone.com/yellowstone_backcountry_campsites/slough_pebble_creek_campsites.php
Mike, great post and trip report. I can see the excitement burning already for the next one. Glad the flies worked out. Give some credit to the angler.
Strategy without Tactics is a Slow Route to Victory, Tactics without Strategy is the Noise Before Defeat - Sun Tzu
Great stuff Mike. I’m glad you had a good trip – Yellowstone is an amazing place, and it sounds like you made the most of your time out there.
Great report Mike! Looks like you had a great time. Slough Creek is a neat place, I will be through there in late September on our two week trip out west. The bear shots are great.
I really enjoyed this post, Mike. Looks like some wonderful memories to share with your wife in such an amazing place. I lived up there (Idaho side) for a season in 2001, and I sure do miss it. Hope to take my family back there one September.
Travis
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