I Suck As A Guide

[Al Agnew]

Greasy B and his significant other were coming out to Montana, and he graciously volunteered to haul my new canoe back to MO. So today they arrived at our house out here. After a nice lunch, we did a "short" seven mile float on the Yellowstone through town. It sounds like a pretty boring, civilized trip through Livingston, but actually there are some of the nicest views to be found on the entire river below the park right at the upper end of Livingston, and there are surprisingly few views of man-made eyesores through the entire float. And while seven miles is a long way for a short afternoon by Missouri standards, on the Yellowstone you could do it in an hour or two if you wanted, without even seriously rowing downstream.

I had floated the town stretch by myself in my little Watermaster raft a couple days ago, the first really serious fishing trip I'd done while out here, and the fishing was poor, to say the least. The grasshoppers are getting thick in the fields along the river, but the fish simply aren't looking for them yet. And I tried nymphs and streamers with equally poor luck. So I really didn't have a clue what to have Greasy and Linda use.

Well, we tried hoppers, hopper/droppers, other dry flies, and several nymphs as we drifted along, and hit a couple of good spots by getting out and wading and seriously nymph fishing. The seven mile trip took about four hours, and fishing was so slow as to be almost dead. Linda caught a small trout. Greasy caught several nice whitefish and hooked one small trout. I caught some whitefish and one 13 inch rainbow when we stopped. My wife Mary probably had the best idea, doing her usual sitting and soaking up the scenery and river sounds and smells, and then reading a book while we fished.

Still, it was a pleasant, though warm, day to be on the river. Lots of people at the put-in and take-out, lots of vehicles in the parking lots, but we saw very few other floaters once on the river. We stopped at one spot and two young ospreys remained perched in the trees right over our heads, watching us as closely as we were watching them.

Greasy and Linda have a guided trip on the Yellowstone set up for tomorrow. I certainly hope the guide has a better idea of what's working and which stretch to fish than I did!

[jdmidwest]

At least you can still paint!

[Mitch f]

Some days the fish just don't bite no matter what you do!

[Phil Lilley]

Sounds like fishing to me!

Know how you feel but I bet they had a glorious time.

[mic]

At least you can still paint!

LMAO

[UnCivE]

I almost always have a subpar day when I'm "showing" other people around.. it's gotta be part mental.