The Yellowstone River

After my 14 hour day at Armstrong's we decided to forgo a second day on the Boulder and hit the upper Yellowstone. There was a mudslide yesterday that clouded the river last night and made the easier portions of the river un-fishable. This led us to move the day with Jessica and Kate to Friday. Fortunately for my casting arm the upper river cleared out by morning. The fishing was rather weird today. We stared off fishing dry flies and the fish were coming up consistently. The only thing was they would just peck at the fly and not take it all the way. I started off thinking that I was late in setting the hook due to my fatigue ( some of the time this was true) but there were so many fish that would not even take the fly under water. It became clear that the fish were part of the problem when we went to a dry and dropper and they hit the dropper the same way. all we could figure was that the mud put the fish into a weird feeding pattern. All that being said I had a really great time and at the end of the day the fish total was 2 dozen. I must say that catching wild Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the river they evolved in was pretty special. To top it all off the slightly less labor intensive fishing allowed my arm to not get totally blown out. By our best count I have caught 85 fish in 3 days fishing (86 if you count the cut I caught in the creek next to the cabin this evening), absolutely unbelievable! I'll shoot to break 100 tomorrow, not bad for 4 days fishing I'd say. As a side note I cant thank my guide Hank enough, he has been both an amazing person and a great guide. I have no doubt that tomorrow, even with two people that have never fished before, we will have a great day and everyone will catch some fish thanks to him.

On to the pictures!

Got some pretty red arms don't I? Can you guess what the shirt is from? I hate pictures of myself but I always seem to look good in that shirt.




“Don't tell me I'm burning the candle at both ends, tell me where to get more wax.”
~ TED

Armstrong!

Today I fished the Legendary Armstrong spring creek, known for its very picky trout. A great day on Armstrong is 10-12 fish. It was pretty amazing. The fish are huge and the scenery is breathtaking. The first half of the day was rather frustrating, I landed 2 of 16 hooked fish. Well below my normal landing percentage. But I stayed hopeful knowing that I had hooked well more than most people do. Later in the day things started to turn around and I ended the day with 11 landed, only one of which was under 15 inches. I also managed to get some video today so look for that when I get back in town and have a chance to cut it together.

A few pictures of Armstrong

And then there was fish

Boulder River 7/17/12

 After vetting my fly fishing skills my guide decided we should fish one of the more technical rivers in the valley today. The Boulder river. It was crazy! The river is mostly whitewater and very fast. It is only fish-able for around 3 weeks a year. The fishing is extremely fast and very demanding. All this being said I managed to do quite well. I landed over 50 fish (we lost count). The water was gin clear and %90 of the fish were on dry flies. By far the best dry fly fishing day I have ever had. My arm has never been this tired after a day of fishing in my life. I feel like I could say so many things about the day but I am so worn out that I can't find the words. Due to the nature of the river there were not a lot of opportunities to take pictures but I did manage to take a few. Here are some of the calmer portions of the river and some fish pic's:

“The true joy of life [is] being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown to the scrap heap ... being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances.”
~ George Bernard Shaw

Park Drive Part 1 7/16/12

I drove through both Teton and Yellowston National Parks today. I was really hoping to get a lot of great pictures and maybe do some fishing but it didn't really happen that way. First I took a little hour long detour after missing the turn to go to Yellowstone from Tetons, eating the extra time I had to stop and fish a little. On the bright side it did allow me to get some decent shots of the mountians. Here is my personal favorite:

After adjusting for the detour I headed into Yellowstone. It was raining, a lot. It started raing about 5 minuets after I entered and didn't stop till I was out of the park. So no great pictures on this drive through. I do plan on comming back through on my way home so lets all hope the weather treats me better on the way back. I did manage to take a quick snap of a bison that thought the grass right next to the road was the good grass. It was like every story you ever here about people in the park stopped both ways to take pictures:

“This is a highly traveled road. You would think that somebody saw something that would help us.”
~ Officer Rich Henry

North Platte River 7/15/12

Sorry for the delay in posting but I had no Internet or cell coverage.

I arrived in Casper around noon and proceeded to begin fishing in ernest. Here is a view from the water right outside my cabin.

Apparently Nebraska owns the water rights to the river... Not sure what that is all about but they were calling for water and the river was flowing fast (350cfs). Right on the boarder between unadvised and dangerous. But I made the best of it. After trying to fish from the bank with little luck I decided to test the water. I found if I stayed near the shore I could at least fish the banks. Once I got used to the fast moving water I started catching fish. Most were in the 6-8 inch range but I managed to catch this 15 incher:

And the real prize this 19 inch Cutbow:

All totaled I caught 15 fish in about 4 hours of fishing. Not bad for a guy who just drove from Austin to Casper in 36 hours, in borderline dangerous flows, on an unfamiliar river.

Non-fishing statement of the day. All sunsets should look like this sunset:

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”



~ Ann Bradstreet

The Plan

It dawned on me that it might be a good idea to post what I'm planning on doing on this trip.

I'll be gone for 11 days, 6 of them evolving distance travel. I'll cover 3500 miles and well over 30hrs of road.

Day 1 - Work till 6pm and drive to Abilene, TX (about 4 hrs)

Day 2 - Drive from Abilene to Denver, CO (about 11 hrs)

Day 3 - Drive from Denver, CO to Casper, WY (about 6hrs). Arrive around noon and spend the rest of the day fishing the North Platte River.

Day 4 - Driver from Casper, WY through the Teton and Yellowstone Parks and be in Pray, MT around dinner time. If there is enough light try to fish the blue ribbon 6 Mile Creek.

Day 5 - Fish somewhere in Paradise Valley all day (probably the Yellowstone).

Day 6 - Fish historic Armstrong Creek all day.

Day 7 - Float Fish the Yellowstone River with Jessica and Kate. Moved to friday due to Mudslide

Day 8 - Fish somewhere in Yellowstone National Park all day (Happy Birthday to Me!!!).

Day 9 - Check out of the cabin and head to the Bunnery in Jackson, WY for brunch (thanks for the tip Mike). Try to fish somewhere for an hour or two in the park. End the day in Rock Springs, WY.

Day 10 - Drive from Rock Springs, WY to Clovis, NM. (About 12hrs)

Day 11 - Drive from Clovis, NM to home.

So, that’s the plan. Hope it all works out because that is a lot of driving 4 1/2 days fishing. Maybe one day I will find a friend who likes fly fishing as much as I do and they can split the driving. And the Bill… But mostly the driving.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.”

~ Peter F. Drucker

First Post!

After contemplating Starting a blog for all my fly fishing adventures I've finally decided to get the ball rolling. And what better time than right before I make a trip to Yellowstone National Park? My hope is to post as often as possible while on the trip (at least once a day) then maybe summation post when I get back. After that I will try to keep things going with some things I've been wanting to write about for a while and a few local trip posts as well. There might be a bit of a lull leading up to the trout season here on the Guadalupe at which point I should have plenty of updates on the countries most southern trout fishery.  

 

So, What should we expect for this blog? Trip posts about my fly fishing adventures? Yes. With pictures? You bet. Videos? I have the necessary equipment but not sure about the skills so we will mark this as a maybe. Opinion pieces? Absolutely. Randomness that I think I can some how link to fly fishing? Definitely. And don't be surprised if I throw a few posts of food in there too. Food runs a close second for me.

 

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

 

- Lao Tzu