The kamikaze Montana flyfishing trip, 2007

[Al Agnew]

In 1994, I was a novice at flyfishing, and when my friend and now best flyfishing buddy Tom called me one day and asked me to go with him to the Yellowstone Valley Ranch to flyfish for a week, I was a bit intimidated. Tom was an expert flyfisher, and I wasn't sure I was ready for western flyfishing. But I said okay, and off we went with another friend, Smith, in early July. Unfortunately that was the first of two years of record floods on the Yellowstone, and it was blown out the whole trip. But we fished other places, including private reaches of the West Boulder (first ranch upstream from Tom Brokaw's ranch) and Sixteenmile Creek. I loved it. And we've been going back to Livingston every year since.

That first year, we told the people at YVR that we weren't all that interested in the fine cuisine and other amenities of the ranch--we were there for the fishing, so give us guides that were willing to get an early start and stay out late if the fishing was hot. That was how we met Tom Coleman and Dennis Alverson, whom we've fished with ever since and who have become very good friends. The first day that first year was on Sixteenmile Creek, and we were catching fish with wild abandon on it when Tom said, "You know, it's getting close to two o'clock...you want to eat some lunch?"

"Not quite yet."

We ate lunch finally about 4 PM.

At 5 PM Tom said, "We have to leave now if we're going to make it back to the ranch in time for supper."

"We don't need no stinking supper; the fishing is still good."

And that was how Tom learned that he didn't have the typical Yellowstone Valley clients. We dragged into YVR about dark thirty after stopping at a roadside cafe and grabbing a bite to eat.

The next year we decided to forego the luxury of YVR and stay at the historic Murray Hotel in Livingston. Tom agreed to guide the two of us, and although it was another year of record floods, we were there a week later and at least got to fish the still high Yellowstone a couple of days. From then on we stayed at the Murray. A varying cast of characters started accompanying us, but it was always Tom and I for sure. One year we had six guys and three guides, and we were fishing the Bighorn one day and were lined up all the way down a long riffle corner, catching fish like crazy. We said it reminded us of fishing a Missouri trout park.

On Tom Coleman's advice, we started going out in late April to hopefully catch the famous Mother's Day caddis hatch. It's a tricky hatch to hit. It takes water temps over 50 degrees on the river around Livingston to get the hatch going, but if the weather gets warm enough down there to raise the river to that temp, it is often also warm enough up in Yellowstone Park to start the snowmelt and blow the river out. Sometimes that's what happened. One year we were too late, and even though the river was fishable the hatch was mostly over. But a couple of years we hit it perfectly, and had amazing fishing. I remember one day where we caught big brown trout all morning on big streamers, and then the caddis hatch came off for the first afternoon of the season with flies so thick that they were soon floating down the river in rafts that we started calling caddis pizzas. The fish absolutely went nuts, and it was the best single day of flyfishing I ever saw. You'd think that with that many bugs on the water the fish wouldn't even be able to find our flies, but the trick was to use a fly that was a couple sizes bigger than the actual bugs, and the fish would seek out that bigger fly amongst hundreds of the real thing.

Anyway, throughout the years we fished the Yellowstone from Gardiner to Big Timber. We fished the Boulder, the Madison, the Gallatin, the Bighorn, the Shields, the Stillwater. We fished small creeks and private lakes. We fished the famous spring creeks of Paradise Valley, Depuy's, Armstrong's, and Nelson's. Tom Coleman got married, had a wonderful little girl, and started a business rehabilitating trout streams, while Dennis Alverson also got married and had a little girl and now has another on the way, while becoming a well-known hunting as well as fishing guide in the area. I became a reasonably proficient flyfisherman, thanks to Montana and the two Toms. I took my wife Mary out there to show her the area, and we started going out in the early autumn to get wildlife reference in Yellowstone Park for my paintings and also spend a few days in and around Livingston. She fell in love with the place. Last year was the first year she came out for the kamikaze trout trip with Tom, because it was a departure from our usual itinerary--we did a five day horseback trip into the back country of Yellowstone Park to fish for native Yellowstone cutthroats with Tom Coleman and his wife Theresa and daughter Emilee.

And this year Mary told me that she would be interested in looking for a "vacation" place out around Livingston. Theresa is a real estate agent, and we called her and told her to keep an eye out for something good, and to make a long story a bit shorter, she found us a run-down cabin on 20 acres in Paradise Valley with some of the best views in Montana, minutes from the Yellowstone. So we bought it and came out a month or so ago to fix it up with Mary's brother. The kamikaze trout trip was already scheduled for last week, so we got the cabin livable, came back home, and then drove back out two weeks ago for an art show in Jackson, Wyoming, and then to meet Tom and Smith, the guys that were on that original trip, for five days of fishing while Mary worked on fixing up the cabin some more (she's a saint).

Monday was a float trip on the Yellowstone below town. It's another serious drought year out here, the rivers are very low and warm, and restrictions are on most of the rivers--you can't fish the Yellowstone from 2 PM to midnight. So we got an early start. It's hopper time, and about 10 AM the sun warmed the grasshoppers up enough to start them moving and falling into the river, and the fish turned on. Several big trout were hooked and lost, and enough 14-18 inchers were caught to keep us happy and make us wish we could fish later than 2 PM.

Tuesday was a float trip on the Stillwater, a smaller and lesser known stream. It didn't have the restrictions yet (they went on it the next day, in fact) so we fished all day, and the fish were on hoppers with a nymph on a dropper the whole day. LOTS of 12-18 inchers were caught. The Stillwater is NOT aptly named--it is a very fast-moving stream, flowing about 400 cfs, full of boulder gardens and rapids, and the guides worked hard to keep us in position to fish. It was frantic fishing trying to hit all the spots as the rafts moved downriver, the kind of fishing that really tires you out.

Wednesday was another Yellowstone trip in the morning, and pretty much a replay of Monday. I hooked a very big trout right at the start and lost it. Tom hooked a huge brown later on in the day that went upstream while the drift boat went downstream, took him well into his backing, and broke off. We caught fish up to 18 inches again on the hoppers.

Thursday was supposed to be another Yellowstone trip, but hard rains up in the park the day before and on the Shields River watershed sent a slug of mud down the river and it was unfishable, so we waded the Boulder River instead. There was a smaller slug of mud coming down the Boulder, so we first went well above it, but the fishing there wasn't happening, so we went down and hit the river at a point where the mud was clearing out. The water was still colored, and to me it just shouted "woolybugger water". I was right--I caught some fine trout on the wooly while Tom was struggling with dries and nymphs. But the river continued to clear, and soon Tom was pounding them on dry flies and I was drawing a blank on the streamers, so I switched over and caught a bunch.

Friday was a day on Armstrong's Spring Creek. the spring creeks are famous for lots of big trout and difficult, technical fishing. These trout see a lot of flies, and the usual program is to fish with small flies and long, fine leaders, 6X and 7X. I usually cheat a bit and use 5X fluorocarbon, and do okay. In midmorning the trout started rising to pale morning duns coming off in a sporadic hatch, mostly feeding on emergin nymphs just under the surface. I was parked in the middle of a smooth run, with trout rising on all sides. A lot of fish move up into the riffles when a hatch starts, and get easier to catch in the broken current, but I was determined to figure out these "difficult" trout or spend the whole hatch trying. I caught the first one on a blue winged olive imitation. I caught the second one on another dry fly that looked something like the real things. But that seemed to be the way it went...I'd catch one fish on a fly and then it was like that fish told the rest of them to avoid it after I released it. I finally tried fishing a small emerger in the surface film with a bit of floatant and caught THREE trout on it before they all got wise to it. Finally I put on a somewhat bigger dry and drifted a small emerger six inches beneath it on a dropper, and started hooking fish regularly. Tom, meanwhile, was doing much the same thing and catching fish after fish.

After lunch (yes, we now eat lunch sometime close to when we should), the hatch tapered off. One thing I've discovered is that these fish see so many tiny flies that they aren't accustomed to seeing something bigger, and if the conditions are right--wind and clouds--the brown trout can be suckers for big streamers. I was hoping for that this afternoon, but the skies stayed clear and wind light. Still, I couldn't resist trying a woolybugger when the fish stopped rising. I caught a couple of small browns on it, and then hooked the biggest fish of the day and the trip, a 20 inch brown, late in the afternoon. It was a fitting end to another great Montana kamikaze trout trip.

We said goodbye to Tom and Smith, and Mary and I are still out here, working on the cabin, hiking in the Absarokas, and planning a few more days of fishing on a couple of the nearby creeks and the Yellowstone when the mud settles. We're not nearly ready to come home yet!

[Gary Lange]

Who could possibly want to come home from such a beautiful place. I backpacked in Glacier Nat'l. Park a good number of years ago and ran into a couple Canadian Farmers that came to fly fish below Dawn Mist Falls. What a beautiful place and they were catching Trout on every cast of the fly. Thanks for sharing this wonderful story Al.

[trout fanatic]

Good story. I am one jealous man. At least until next july when I head for colorado.

[Gary Fakes]

Al:

After reading your Montana story you are the man I need some advice from. I have a beautiful cabin right on the Current River in Missouri around Pultite and spend a lot of time fishing on the Current. However, my wife and I have been wanting to take a trip out West, been thinking about Yellowstone for some fly fishing and site seeing. Don't know anything aobut it and there are hundreds of places to stay and fish.

Could you narrow it down to some beautiful areas or guides for about a two week advennture out west and would September be a good time to go?

Any advece would be greatly appreciated.

Gary W. Fakes

[Al Agnew]

September is the best month for wildlife viewing in Yellowstone, and a good month for fishing. I would go to Gardiner at the north entrance to Yellowstone. There are several decent motels there--we've stayed at the Comfort Inn and it's a pretty good motel. For more money, there are a couple of pretty neat resort type hotels near Gardiner that cater a bit more to flyfishing. The reason I recommend Gardiner is that it is close to good fishing and rafting on the Yellowstone just outside the park, is less popular than West Yellowstone where most of the park flyfishermen go, and the northern part of the park is the best for wildlife viewing.

Of course, you've got all the geothermal features (a whole lot more than Old Faithful) to see. Driving into the park at Gardiner, you immediately come to Mammoth Hot Springs, pretty impressive. You're also likely to see bighorn sheep as you're driving between Gardiner and Mammoth--they hang out on the big dry mountainside on your left and often come down to the river to drink. You can go right at Mammoth and head toward Norris--lots of opportunity for bison, elk, and grizzlies on that road--then go to Madison Junction and out toward the west entrance along the Madison River. You'll see a lot of big bull elk with harems all down the Madison Valley. Otters are common along the river. Lots of bison. Lots of anglers on the river, but it's a nice place to fish.

The stretch of road from Madison Junction to Old Faithful goes along the Firehole--not good fishing in late summer/early autumn because it's too hot. Lots of geothermal stuff. I don't like going to Old Faithful unless I'm going on through the park to the Grand Tetons. I'd rather go back to Norris, take the road over to Canyon Junction, and turn right to go through Hayden Valley. Lots of wildlife opportunity through Hayden Valley and around Fishing Bride, including the best area to chance seeing grizzlies. Then backtrack to Canyon and take the Canyon/Tower road over Dunraven Pass. Magnificent scenery and good wildlife viewing. At Tower, go right and up the Lamar Valley, which is your best bet for seeing wolves. Go farther than Soda Butte Creek to see some of the best mountain scenery in the park. Then back down to Tower and toward Mammoth, still good wildlife viewing all through there. This whole loop with all the side trips takes a full day, but be there heading toward Mammoth nearing sunset, because the sunsets can be magnificent. When I visit Yellowstone to gather reference material for paintings, I pretty much drive this circuit several days in a row, because the viewing opportunities change from day to day.

But I'd also plan on spending some time in Grand Teton NP. What I always do is spend a few days in the north part of Yellowstone, then drive through it one day and all the way to Jackson, WY. Lots of hotels in Jackson. From Jackson, you can make day trips through the Teton roads. The Tetons, besides being the most spectacular mountain scenery in the West, is great wildlife viewing as well, with excellent chances to see moose along with all the other stuff you might see in Yellowstone--moose aren't easy to find in Yellowstone. The Gros Ventre road is great bison viewing and great chances for moose.

All the Yellowstone streams are fished hard if you can drive to them, but you can still catch fish, especially in those that have mostly native Yellowstone cutthroats. The Lamar, Slough Creek, and Soda Butte Creek are all good. If you're willing to hike a few miles you can go up Slough Creek past where the crowd fishes and get into great Yellowstone cutthroat fishing.

A guided float trip is another great way to fish the area. Lots of guided trips available on the Snake around Jackson, and good fishing for Snake River cutthroats--early September is great hopper fishing on the Snake. And/or, lots of guided trips available on the Yellowstone below Gardiner--good Yellowstone cutthroat fishing with chances at rainbows and browns as well. Yankee Jim Canyon, which starts a day's float below Gardiner and ends at the top of Paradise Valley, is whitewater rafting (and fishing). Then you have 50 miles of Paradise Valley, with guided trips from Gardiner, Emigrant, and Livingston at the lower end. Of course, you've also got good wade-fishing on the Boulder east of Livingston and north of Big Timber, and you can wade the Yellowstone from all the accesses in Paradise Valley if it's normal low autumn water levels, although you'll still be limited in the water you can cover.

So many choices, so little time.

[Gary Fakes]

AL:

Thanks for taking the time and giving me some ideas. Maybe see you on the Current.

Thanks again,

Gary W. Fakes