A Trip Out West

[Lancer09]

My Fiancee and I just got back from our trip out west. I have communicated with a few fellow forum members trying to get some advice, details, and anything that might help catch a few fish out there.

This was NOT a fishing vacation but I was still able to get quite a bit of river time, and this is a documentation of some of that.

Two Saturdays ago we had a concert we were going to. It was an all day deal... We left at 10:30 pm with three bands left. We wanted to cover some ground that night and crash in the car so that when we arrived in Jackson WY the next day we might still have a shot at a campsite (the one we wanted based on location did not take reservations). We pulled into town around 8:30 pm... The camp filled about 7:30, and we spent another night crashing in the car.

We were up bright and early, rolled through town and up to the Gros Ventre campground and ended up getting a spot, cooked some breakfast and made a plan for the day.

Turns out that sausage made out of bacon is actually very good. You see, we had a full day guided trip booked on the Snake River on Tuesday and I wanted to get a little fishing in before hand. The Gros Ventre River actually was right next to our campsite, which was only 6 miles North of Jackson. It was a beautiful day! 75, light breeze and no humidity.. Compared to the 98, and stifling humidity that we had on Saturday out at Sporting Park for our show this was quite the welcome respite. We bought our licenses for the next two days, a few flies, and did some site seeing in town. We stopped by the National Fish Hatchery and checked out their fishing pond.

About the time we started heading back to make a couple of toasted sammiches for lunch the weather took a big turn, dropping to 45 and raining.... I'm quite blessed in what my fiancee will do to feed this fishing habit of mine. We geared up and hit the river outside of camp.

When I called up to confirm my reservation with the fly shop they said it would be warm enough to wet wade, and no one brought waders this time of year... So I didn't... It was a bit cold. Unbeknownst to me, if we had started fishing before that system moved in, that ended up dumping a few inches of snow above 9,000 feet, every body of water int he area was just on fire and anything you threw was hammered... I caught no fish this day.

That storm hung in all night and it got sunny as we broke camp to head to the shop for our trip, after we got back we would be driving up to Yellowstone to camp for the next five nights.

When we got to the shop the guide asked if I had any flies, and showed him the Cliff Boat Box worth of stuff I had tied up, he said some would work and filled a shop jar full of flies to take. Dry Flies were going to be the name of the game, but it was still only 45 degrees or so when we got to the put in. As we begin to rig up Ed (our guide) asks for the jar of flies and is confused when I say I don't have them. Ed thinks he handed them to me, I think I handed them back to Ed. Ed Grabs a stash of his own personal flies and I rig up with one of mine that he says will work. Chernobyls were the name of the game for the day.

The Snake is so unlike anything we have here it was incredible. From the color of the water to the volume of the flow, just insane. Fishing started off a bit slow as Ed worked with my Fiancee in the front of the boat with her casting, and as we were close to the access. Along a nice current seam from the middle of the river I nailed my first Cuttie of the day, which was also my biggest.

I was picking up fish fairly regularly and finished the 12.5 mile float somewhere between 12-15 fish.

About half way through Ashleigh finally connected with her first trout on a dry fly.

We caught fish on Chernobyl's, hoppers, and my best fly of the day was a tiny Stimulator,, like an 18.

Within site of the take out she connected with her biggest fish of the day.

Ed turned out to be a fantastic guide, and we had a great day after we got past forgetting the shop flies!

On to Yellowstone we go!

On Wednesday we didn't do any fishing. We bought our licenses, and did the touristy stuff.

Thursday we hiked up to Mystic Falls. I really wish I had brought a rod. That was a brook trout looking creek if I've ever seen one.

That day I also fished the Gibbon River trying to catch a Grayling... I did not....

Friday I fished the Gibbon River again trying to catch a Grayling.... Again, I did not... I will have to go back for this. I was told they are rare, but it was something I wanted. Ashleigh Fished a little bit but mostly just hung out on the river bank.

Upon the advice of a forum member, and a few other people I decided to cash in all of my fishing chips for a trip up to a creek that meanders through a few meadows.

I was told number one has fish, but move on. Number two is good, and meadow three is the best for fishing. Meadow number 2 was a 4.5 mile hike up. I as fine with this but I knew I wouldn't get her to hike another few miles to number three.

What we didn't know that was in meadow number 2 the trail never cuts down near the creek, and we ended walking the length of it looking for somewhere to drop in. Our 9 mile round trip hike turned into 13.1. In wading boots. My feet Hurt. It was more than worth it.

We found a small feeder creek that cut through down to the main creek and followed it through chest high grass down to where we wanted to fish.

There were fish. Pure Yellowstone Cutts. This slow creek was going to take good drifts to get them to come up. They were rising to cripples and emergers, but not taking any real dry flies. I had refusals on Adams, Purple Haze, Chernobyls, Ants, Green Drakes, and Hoppers. I wanted those fish on a dry fly but it didn't seem it would happen.

I dropped a number 18 red Copper John off the back of my hopper on about 2 feet of 7x. First cast. Game On.

What you cannot see is how fat that fish was. He was the king of his pool. He measured from the crease in my elbow to the tip of my index finger, which is how I measure fish. It was right on 19 inches. when I slid that barbless hook out of his mouth I noticed something. Someone's small BWO was lodged on the inside of his mouth. I took that out too. I like to think whoever hooked him before me did well with a dry, but I was the one who was able to land him on 7 x, and a 4 wt. A 5 would have been more appropriate but the Girl had that in her hand down the creek. Here are a few more pictures of him.

Ashleigh was getting refusals on everything on top as well, so For her I dropped a number 18 Dally's Softhackle off the back. 2 olive wire wraps to 1 chartreuse, and it was game on for her, and that was the hot fly of the day. She hasn't had to fight any fish on real light line up to this point so this was quite the test, and with barbless hooks nonetheless.

She caught the fattie of the day, and hooked probably 6 more fish, and brought one more to hand. This one broke the fly right after this picture was taken, and she had another one straighten the hook. We went through all of that exact fly I had in my box. The would look at a 16 but hit it much less often, or any other color combo was not quite as loved.

I ended up only landing the one fish, and her the two, but I'd have given mine up if it meant she could have landed the one that straightened her hook.

We headed on back to camp. About a mile from the trail head we encountered a bison on our trail, which prevented us from getting back to the car for another half hour as he moseyed along the trail.

Those three fish are truly the highlight of my trip. The work it took to get to them, the strength of them, beauty, and catching a native fish in the stream it was born in, the stream it will die in was an exhilarating experience. I won't hesitate to go back there again, and am already looking to hike all my stuff up there and camp and fish the creek for a few days instead of a few hours.

We also had some pretty good eats on the trip.

On Sunday night we had some pretty sweet digs so we didn't have to take camp down before we headed home on Monday morning.

Like usual, towards the end of the trip I started kicking myself because I felt like I didn't get enough good pictures to really remember the trip.. And the more I thought about it, I became more glad that I didn't. Instead of worrying about how the trip would look or how I would remember it, I was able to enjoy it, live in the moment and really take in the sheer magnitude out there.

Thanks for reading, and here is to dry boots and socks on a cold morning.

[Ill Trout Bum]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing your adventure.

[Flysmallie]

Awesome.

[Clay Goforth]

Great post and awesome trip...

[ness]

Nice!!

[Ketchup]

Heckuva detailed report. Sounds like the 2 of you had an adventure you will remember, especially the 13.1 mile hike. The pictures added alot of realism.

[tho1mas]

Nice post.

[Al Agnew]

That creek and its pure Yellowstone cutthroats is amazing, isn't it? One thing that not many people try on it that always seems to work when they aren't quite committing to dry flies is to toss streamers. Those cutthroat love good size streamers. I've been to the third meadow; in fact did a four day horseback pack trip up the third meadow one time. Did not see but one other pair of anglers besides our small group of friends, and the fishing was spectacular. I hate riding horses, but it sure beat walking 8 miles up and back with a pack on your back.

That cold front that you experienced in Jackson Hole dumped snow on the mountain in front of our house north of Yellowstone, down to only about 1000 feet elevation higher than the house, and the temps dropped to near freezing that night.

Seems like the Chernobyls are always the first choice of the guides on the Snake River from July through September. It's an easy fly to fish and will always scratch up a few fish, so the guides like it. I've done two trips on the Snake, one through the park and one below town, and both produced well with Chernobyls, but I also caught a bunch of fish on various nymphs.

Glad you got into enough good fishing to make you happy...fishing has been slow on the Yellowstone for the last three weeks. Everybody is waiting for the fish to start looking up for hoppers, but it isn't happening yet. I caught one nice brown by the house the other day on a big Stimulator, and have caught a few other fish on the Stimulator on the three floats I've done, but it certainly hasn't been great.

[Gavin]

Enjoyed your report. Looks like you are a Lucky man! Congrats on the nuptials! Get some trips in before kiddos! Figure 6 yrs close to home after the youngest one.

[joeD]

Love the pics. Congratulations also. Your fiancee is way better looking than you. Or the delicious beer you're drinking. Not to be creep or anything.