weekend fly fishing in the Greater Yellowstone region

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Had the Pleasure of fishing some folks from neighboring CO this
past weekend. Richard and his wife were treated to some great
Wyoming lake fly fishing, catching rainbow and brown trout on
various leech patterns. It was great to get the drift boat out and
spend all day floating on clear water in warm sunshine! In the
weeks to come, I am looking forward to more great stillwater
fishing in addition to some trips up to Yellowstone National Park
to fly fish. Reports up there indicate that the upper Firehole river
is holding its own. I expect some great dry fly fishing to begin on
it in the next week or so. Also, the Firehole canyon is a great
place to hit the salmon fly hatch in a few weeks. If anyone is
interested in a fun guided fishing trip, give a call or shoot an
email!

What’s inside?

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Many know that Lake trout are predatory, feeding on smaller
fish as well as many other things. My unscientific study
confirmed this the other day when I cleaned a Laker for dinner.
It seems this time of year smaller fish and leeches make up a
good portion of their diet. So for all of you getting out this
upcoming weekend to cast at cruising lakers, it might be a good
idea to fish white/blue/olive baitfish patterns and simple leech
patterns…

food

and yes, the grilled Lake trout was delicious

Lake Trout and streamers

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Every spring, as area rivers turn brown with runoff,
anglers turn their attention to the many lakes around here in
western Wyoming. As soon as ice comes off and waters
shimmer with hues of turquoise and cobalt, lake trout become
a viable fly rod option.

ice off jackson lake

Ice off… Time to target Lake trout at Leek’s
Marina

Today we took a run up to Jackson Lake to see what was
happening. While still having some ice on it, there was quite a
bit of open water too allowing us to fish streamers on sinking
lines from the shore. Fish were caught and we were able to
cast without wearing down jackets (a first this spring!). While it
was exciting landing some good size lake trout, the highlight of
the day was definitely watching a Grizzly bear walk along the
oxbow of the Snake river.

laker

Typical fly rod caught Mackinaw on Jackson
Lake

With warm temperatures making a comeback, many rivers
and streams in the region are becoming unfishable. Fear not
though, if you know where to go, there are plenty of good
fishing options around. In addition to lakes, Yellowstone
National Park will open for the 2014 fishing season next
weekend. If you’re visiting the area and want to fish this or
some other cool trout waters, give me a call.

Big weekend of Fly Fishing

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Had the pleasure of fishing with long time friend, Kurt, the
past couple days. After a long hiatus, Kurt managed to sneak
out for a long weekend. We divided time between the Dubois
area and Jackson. While many area waters are blown out due
to spring runoff, we had a few tricks up our sleeve. The best
day by far was on the Bighorn, where Kurt experienced some
fine tailwater fishing. The wind proved challenging on some
other waters, but we managed a few fish here and there,
making the most of our three day fishing adventure.

Here’s Kurt showing off a nice brown he caught just hours
after touching down in Jackson…

Kurt on the lake

Our day on the Bighorn was beautiful. A lot of fish were
caught subsurface, but by late afternoon, fish were rising all
over the river. Kurt decided to hop out of the boat after seeing
several sizeable browns feeding in this eddy.

Wading the Bighorn

Releasing a nice brown

Bighorn release

Rainbow that fell for a grey Ray Charles…

Kurts rainbow

On the drive back to Jackson, we swung up to the oxbow
in hopes of seeing a Grizzly bear that’s been out and about.
Timing is everything, and we got to watch the bear feed
amongst the willows. His tracks were fresh…

on the trail of a grizz

Overall we had a great time and good to get out on the
water and catch up. Hopefully we can do it again next year. In
the meantime, I’m headed down to CO tomorrow to visit
friends and meet the newest member of their clan. Word is
there’s a few feeder streams that are fishing well. We’ll see….

Management of Yellowstone Lake Fisheries

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Last night, fisheries biologists from Yellowstone National
Park and members of Wyoming Trout Unlimited gave a great
presentation on the Parks ongoing efforts to save and restore
native cutthroat trout populations. As some of you know, the
park has been waging an aggressive campaign to save the
Yellowstone lake cutthroat by killing invasive Lake Trout.

Lake Trout (mackinaw) were illegally introduced to
Yellowstone lake somtime in the ’80s and have dramatically
reduced the native cutthroat trout in the lake over the years.
Fortunately the Park is making progress fighting the invasion,
killing more and more Lakers over the years. Unfortunately
there’s a lot of misinformation out there waged by a select
few folks who like catching lake trout and have a surplus of
time on their hands. It’s clear that Lake trout are killing
Yellowstone cutthroat and wreck havoc on the entire
ecosystem; an ecosystem that depends on the Yellowstone
Lake cutthroat to thrive. I for one am glad the Park and its
supporters are working so hard to save and protect this
amazing fishery.

Also, the Park is in the process of restoring native
Grayling, Yellowstone and Westslope Cutthroat to a few select
streams in the park. Check out the link below to learn more
about the Parks management plan and learn facts about their
battle.

http://wyomingtu.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/Science-Supporting-Management-of-
Yellowstone-Lake-Fisheries.pdf

Here’s a recent article by Ted Williams that appears in this
springs “Fly Rod and Reel Magazine”:

http://www.flyrodreel.com/node/25415

Simple

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brown on bamboo

Turns out, simple CAN be better. A few days back I ran
over to Dubois to do a little preseason work on the cabin.
Since the weather was lousy and I was planning to only spend
a night, I didn’t take my fishing gear with me. Once there
though I started thinking about fishing; turns out the weather
wasn’t quite as bad as predicted and Jamie told me to stay
and she’d come over with some friends at the end of the
week. With an unexpected free day, thinking
about fishing turned to going fishing. The only
problem was that my gear was at home. Fortunately I
remembered having a 4wt bamboo rod at the cabin as well as
a cheap reel with embarrassingly old fly line on it. Combine
those with one fly box of random patterns and a few spools of
tippet, and I was in business!

So off I drove, determined to make the most of my day.
To make a long story short, the wind was better than expected
and I found fish rising occasionally to emerging midges. For
the better part of the morning and early afternoon I had a
blast trying to control angry brown trout with my uber-slow,
soft tipped 4 wt rod.

stoneflies, midges and hungry trout

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As many folks know, spring fishing in Jackson can be exceptional, with hungry fish, hatches of various insects and sunshine. For those willing to brave varying temperatures, they can have water to themselves and catch some of the biggest trout of the season.

I snuck out yesterday for a few hours on the water in between a laundry list of tasks. Fishing was good and I caught a bunch of cutthroat trout on various dries, including a big foam Skwala pattern and small black stoneflies and parachute adams. Riffles proved the best, with numerous yellow cutts slashing the surface, feeding on midges.

one in the net

Nice heathly cutthroat; first of the season caught with foam and rubber legs

come on in

One of many spunky fish from a productive riffle…

Spending a day on the water in ID

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Embracing the sunny skies, Jamie and I made a run to the
Henry’s Fork on Tuesday, hoping to find some willing trout and
warmer weather. I’d say overall we were successful.
Temperatures were warm enough to leave puffy jackets in the
car, although water temps made it clear we aren’t out of the
woods yet. We took turns fishing nymphs and a few dries.
Despite the occasional riser, all of our fish were caught
subsurface. After the wind kicked up, we packed up and headed
home. Along the way, our friend Joe and his wife invited us to
stop by their house in Victor for a beer. We did and it was
glorious. After that, Jamie and I decided to round things out with
a stop at Big Hole BBQ in Victor.

Lander, Thermop and the Bighorn

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on the road to Lander, WY

on the open road; headed to Lander, WY without
company….

Last week my friend Jeff, picked up his new drift boat in
Idaho Falls. After arriving back home in Lander, WY, Jeff
invited me to come out and join him for the inaugural float.
With an open schedule and already being nearby in Dubois, I
threw some gear in the Pathfinder and headed east, arriving in
Lander with just enough time to hit up the Popo Agie with Jeff.
We had a great time fishing nymphs and streamers, picking up
a few trout and enjoying the relatively warm weather. After
the sun dipped behind the red hills,we celebrated our
afternoon with a trip to the Lander Bar for burgers and beer.

The next day we hooked up Jeff’s new Clacka and headed
north to Thermopolis to fish the Big Horn. The Bighorn is the
Wind River; name changes upon coming out of the Wind River
Canyon (courtesy of the white man…). Along with Jeff’s sweet
black lab, Cora, we took our time floating and fishing the river.
While we got into some fish subsurface, the highlight for me
was when BWO blanketed the water and brought fish to the
surface. We opted to take their challenge, fishing size 20 BWOs
on fine tippet, connecting with several nice browns and
rainbows. Jeff rounded out the day, catching a feisty ‘bow on a
streamer.

Big Horn rainbow

A nice rainbow falls victim to the red worm…

abundant midges and trout

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March fishing on the Snake river here in Jackson Hole can often be good. Yesterday it was great. Midges were hatching in abundance, bringing lots of eager trout to the surface. The cutthroat kept me on my toes though; feeding on dries, then switching to emergers and nymphs (weird, you’d think it’d be the other way around…) Here are some shots from the day.

Check out the midges. This extended 10+ feet down the seam in the river

midges on the Snake river

this guy couldn’t resist a well presented midge emerger

cutthroat on a dry fly

One of many Snake river cutthroat trout brought to hand

colorful