Got Out On The Yellowstone...

[Al Agnew]

We got to our house in Montana last Friday. River was still pretty brownish and was flowing about 13,000 cfs, a good 2-3 feet higher than it should be for this time of year. No way to wade it around the house. Too murky to fish well, anyway. Of course, I had to try it. The little side channel next to the house was far too high to wade, probably flowing 1000 cfs itself, but there was one little riffle corner than looked fishy. I walked down to it and drifted big bright nymphs for a few minutes, catching three whitefish.

It's been dropping steadily, and today it went under 10,000 cfs. Still 3.5 feet higher than it was during the low water of early spring when we were out here last, but beginning to look a little green with visibility of a foot or more. So Mary and I decided to do the five mile float from Mayer's Landing in town to the 89 bridge, floating right past the house. We did our own shuttle, which was a bit of a pain...drive both vehicles to the take-out, leave the Prius, drive to the put-in, drop off the raft, Mary waited with the raft while I drove the truck and trailer back to the take-out, got in the Prius, and drove it back to the put-in. It's a short shuttle but it took about 40 minutes to do all that.

There's a big rapid right above the ramp at the put-in, and the standing waves out in the middle were 3-4 feet high. Looked fairly impressive. We got out into the current and just sat and drifted...fast. Took about 15 minutes to cover the mile or so to the house. Stopped on the island in front of the house to marvel at how the river changed with the record flood. My favorite riffle is totally gone. Big gravel bar, mostly submerged right now, running down what was about the middle of the river there, with a strong channel running alongside the island where a gravel bar used to be. The river ate about ten feet off the outside bank of the island and the next island downstream, while pretty well damming up the very shallow channel between them with a huge gravel bar studded with freshly downed trees. Also shut off the right channel of the split riffle on the downstream end of the lower island--that channel had carried 2/3s of the water this spring--and greatly widened the left riffle. I won't be able to wade across it anymore. And maybe the biggest bummer, the little side channel downstream that had been dry except for an isolated little pool where I caught several big browns this spring is gone, it's now a part of the main river channel. I thought Ozark streams changed a lot in floods, but wow, the Yellowstone is a totally different river now.

I didn't even pick up a rod until we parked on the island. Tried drifting some nymphs at the downstream edge of the shallow riffle where the new bar comes back into the island. Nothing. Tried at one more riffle corner downstream, nothing and I lost my flies. Didn't feel like tying anything else on. Rode a couple rapids with five foot standing waves (could have avoided them but it looked like fun--and it was). Mostly just drifted and watched eagles and ospreys and white pelicans and ducks and geese and cormorants. The last rapid above the bridge was almost scary at this level, with bank to bank standing waves and roiling boiling water. I knew there were some huge rip rap boulders where the biggest standing waves were, so I avoided that area.

The take-out was tricky. There's a railroad bridge just above the highway bridge, with a big concrete pillar right in the middle of the river at the downstream end of the rapid, where the river makes a sharp left turn, and then the highway bridge has two pillars in the water, staggered on either side of the railroad bridge pillar, and the take-out is tucked in almost behind the right pillar. Too narrow, fast, and loggy to go between the pillar and the bank there, on the outside of the bend. Have to skirt the railroad pillar pretty close (water piling up on it about two feet higher than the rest of the river), slip in behind it and angle over toward the highway pillar, skirt it VERY closely and into the eddy behind it, then pull like heck on the oars to get from the pillar eddy to the tiny eddy at the boat ramp before the current whisks you downstream along a very steep bank covered with huge boulders. Barely made it.

It took less than two hours to do the five miles, even with stopping twice to fish...and with a raft, at no point are you traveling faster than the current!

[grizwilson]

I am jealous, sitting here in this 100 degree heat.

[FishinCricket]

I'm not.. I'm begrudgingly desirous, green-eyed and even covetous!

Glad you made it safely Al... Did you hear about the truck full of thesaurus's that overturned on your house after you left? I'm told your neighbors were shocked, upset, appalled, aghast, astounded, dismayed and traumatized..

[eric1978]

thesaurus's

Wouldn't that be thesauri?

Bummer about your home fishing quarters getting screwed up like that...there's nothing better than walking out your door and down to the river to fish a great spot. But like the others, I'm having trouble feeling sorry for you. The thought of simply being anywhere but here is enough to make any man invidious (you like that one, Cricket?).

Be careful up there.

[FishinCricket]

Wouldn't that be thesauri?

Bummer about your home fishing quarters getting screwed up like that...there's nothing better than walking out your door and down to the river to fish a great spot. But like the others, I'm having trouble feeling sorry for you. The thought of simply being anywhere but here is enough to make any man invidious (you like that one, Cricket?).

Be careful up there.

I knew I missed one... Shoulda looked it up!

[Gavin]

Sounds like a wild ride...heard that 2 drowned on the Boulder this weekend...be careful out there.

FWIW, I heard that a few guys from STL slaid on De Puy's last week...no BS micro flies & matching hatches........trout park flies fished well.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, I had met one of the guys that drowned. Story is that there was a newly downed cottonwood across the channel they took, and their raft rode up on it and flipped, trapping them underneath it. Didn't help that both were in chest waders and without life jackets, and the one guy didn't know how to swim. But he was a very experienced angler who had experience in rafts. Guess there's always a chance that you'll be too complacent on fast water...a good lesson for all of us.

I picked up my group of Missouri friends at the airport yesterday morning, and we did a 5 hour float on the Yellowstone. Fishing was tough but one 22 inch brown was caught and a much bigger one hooked and lost. I was designated raft rower for two of them...and I'm ashamed to say that our raft didn't catch a single fish.

They are all up in Yellowstone Park fishing the Lamar and Soda Butte Creek today...I had to get some business taken care of and couldn't go, which is really bumming me out. Tentative plan for tomorrow is to go over and float the Stillwater.

[Gavin]

One of Hargrove's good buddies guides on the Stillwater..Andy Szofran out of Red Lodge if you need a river report.

[Mitch f]

Yeah, I had met one of the guys that drowned. Story is that there was a newly downed cottonwood across the channel they took, and their raft rode up on it and flipped, trapping them underneath it. Didn't help that both were in chest waders and without life jackets, and the one guy didn't know how to swim. But he was a very experienced angler who had experience in rafts. Guess there's always a chance that you'll be too complacent on fast water...a good lesson for all of us.

I picked up my group of Missouri friends at the airport yesterday morning, and we did a 5 hour float on the Yellowstone. Fishing was tough but one 22 inch brown was caught and a much bigger one hooked and lost. I was designated raft rower for two of them...and I'm ashamed to say that our raft didn't catch a single fish.

They are all up in Yellowstone Park fishing the Lamar and Soda Butte Creek today...I had to get some business taken care of and couldn't go, which is really bumming me out. Tentative plan for tomorrow is to go over and float the Stillwater.

Horrible about the guys who drown, please be careful. I get lazy sometimes and don't wear a life jacket when I should. When rivers are up and rolling the danger factor is off the charts. Some guy in Indiana 3 weeks ago took his little girl on a float when the river was up. The canoe capsized and even though they were both wearing life jackets, they both drown.

[mic]

Leaving for Yellowstone on Sunday. Hope to see you there Al.