Last Pictures

Our competition on the Madison River:

The view of Henry's Lake from the cabin:

Lamar River Valley

Moose

Slough Creek Wildlife

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn fawns

Black bear cub

Slough Creek black bear

Here are some "friends" that we made around Slough Creek. We saw the pronghorn family most of the mornings. The black bear and her cub came to visit as we were packing up camp. I can see why teddy bears are so popular. It's always nice to see bears when you can easily get into your car for safety. (For the record, this is no the pronghorn that tried to commit suicide by van. It's a good thing they are fast.)

Saw this on TV the other day

Makes me want to travel. Here's the full video that the commercial comes from:

Matt Heron Reels in a Gigantic Brown Trout from Filmed In Tahoe on Vimeo.

In the Land of the Cutthroats

In the Land of the Cutthroats - Trailer from Reel Escape Films on Vimeo.

Gallatin and Madison Rivers

To close out the fishing on our trip we fished the Gallatin River (inside the park) and the Madison River (outside the park).  I thought the Gallatin was a perfect little river in the park but it's very close to the highway, which is unfortunate.  I caught a nice rainbow and westslope cutthroat (third subspecies of the trip).  On the Madison we were mostly foiled.  With both of us hooking nice fish, but only keeping them on momentarily.  We were a little disappointed in the fishing, but if we had caught one of those big fish we might have felt differently.  (To be fair I caught a couple monster whitefish.)

Madison River at dusk

Yellowstone National Park

Lamar River cutthroat

Lamar River

Lamar Valley

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Slough Creek cutthroat trout

Lamar River cutthroat

Bufflehead family on Slough Creek

More Slough Creek

Slough Creek

Slough Creek is probably my favorite place to fish.  It's sight-fishing with dry flies for native cutthroats.  How can you beat that?  Oh, and some of them are rather large.

We didn't run into an epic grasshopper day like last time, but we did catch quite a few nice fish.  The camerawoman even got into the action.  After some frustrating misses and small fish, she finally caught a really nice fish.  And then another.  I think the pictures tell the whole story.

Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River inside the park has a certain allure to it.  Historically, it was one of THE places to fish.  Unfortunately, due to a Lake Trout invasion (for more info and to donate to the cause, click here) and whirling disease the run of fish from Yellowstone Lake is not what it used to be.  However, there are still a few large trout that run up the river to spawn and hang around to feed before moving back into the lake.  These fish are survivors who have overcome long odds and the harsh realities of nature (as well as the man-made curve balls).

Thanks to Britt's spotting and ML's spot picking, I got an opportunity to cast to one of these trout.  At first she was cruising around and ignoring any offerings.  (Prompting someone, who will remain anonymous, to refer to the fish as a "jerk.")  As the daylight faded, this fish took up a feeding position at the edge of the current. I placed a cast to drift my fly at the edge of the current and it was fish on.  A few minutes later and the largest cutthroat of my life was in the net.  What a beautiful fish.  Clearly an old hand who had seen many tough Yellowstone winters.  (After seeing how pretty the fish was, she was no longer considered a jerk.)  As I let her go, I hoped she will be back a few more years.  Hopefully, several of her offspring will return in the future.  Maybe then there will be more cutthroat in the lake and river.

Grey's and Blackfoot Rivers

We just got back from a trip through fishing paradise with Britt and my parents.  I put 2,341 miles on the rental van (perfect for 4 people, fishing and camping gear, but lacking in a tailgate for changing waders) and spent over 53 hours driving.  It was worth every hour driving as we had a great trip.

The first fishing destination was the Blackfoot River in Idaho.  It was much lower and warmer than last September.  Trout were not in the same spots.  I tried but did not catch a fish.  I only saw a couple trout and a lot of suckers.  I'm guessing this will not be a banner year for the river, but I'd be happy to give it another shot when it has more water.  (I also failed to reconnect with my dog friend I met there last year.  I'm sure he's happy somewhere, hopefully getting spoiled.)

The next destination was the Grey's River in Wyoming.  It's a very pretty river, but very popular.   There were campers up and down the river.  It was good to get out on the water and catch some fish on dry flies.  The fish were not big but they were fun to catch.  I took pictures of one of the fine spotted cutthroats I caught, but it's a little blurry.  The pictures from later in the trip are better and I'll get those up later this week.