Firehole River Fly Fishing

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It was a good week of fishing around here in Jackson Hole. Several wade fishing trips proved successful despite some colder weather.

I had the pleasure of taking Kevin C. from Chicago up to Yellowstone National Park Thursday and introducing him to the Firehole River. Water clarity and levels are ideal up there and we had a great day hooking acrobatic rainbows and browns (some of which jumped four feet out of the water when hooked!). We started off swinging wetflies, then switched to various PMD patterns to target rising fish. In addition to great fishing, we got to see some of the sights and animals that make Yellowstone famous. A fine way to spend a day on the water and a fine angling job done by Kevin!

A pretty Firehole River brown trout that took a well presented PMD cripple off the surface..

A firehole river brown trout

Kevin showing off one of many trout brought to hand over the course of our day in Yellowstone. Note the steam from the geyser basin..

kevin on the firehole

 

The coming week should be a good one too. Temperatures are warming up again and fishing will continue to be good. Hopefully this warm weather will help get the Green river in shape so I can start taking folks float fishing on the upper Green river. In the meantime, Yellowstone’s not a bad place to be!

Fishing in June sunshine!

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It seems like we’ve stumbled into summer around here.
Temperatures in Jackson Hole lately have been around 70 and
daily sunshine is melting away our snowpack. While rivers in
the region remain high, there are certainly plenty of fishy
options.

First evenin’ fish of the summer! This beautiful
brown trout inspected my size 6 Sofa Pillow three times before
deciding to take the tiny Copper John dropper…

a spotted beauty

For the next month and a half (well really all
season), Yellowstone National Park is a great place to
go fly fishing. Waters in the southwestern part of the park
(Firehole, Madison, Lewis, Gibbon, Nez Perce) all fish best this
time of year, providing anglers with good hatches of PMDs and
caddis. The Firehole canyon also gets a salmonfly hatch at the
end of the month. If you’re into casting BIG dry flies, this can
be a fun place to be. Area lakes are also fishing well around
the valley. Most smaller, hike-in lakes below 8,000 feet are
free of ice and crystal clear. These are fun to spend a day at;
pack your lunch, a fly rod and do a little exploring. Jamie and I
hiked into Bearpaw lake in the Tetons the other afternoon.
Fish were active, but so were the mosquitos!

After a long hike in to this fantastic Yellowstone
cutthroat fishery, I found half the lake ice free. Quickly rigging
up a rod, I landed a nice bright cutt. Unfortunately storms
rolled in with high winds, snow and sleet, forcing a hasty
retreat.

Teton Fly Fishing in the High Country

The Grizzlies bears are out and about. This guy was
feeding on grass along Togwotee pass..

Grizzly in the Sun

We’re headed out this afternoon to the fishing cabin in
Dubois to get it ready for summer guests. Also planning on
checking some trout waters… More to come…