Yellowstone 2018: Six Rivers in Seven Days:
Our FATC Yellowstone trip was a huge success this year in many ways. Many fish were caught – Brown trout, Rainbow trout, Yellowstone Cutthroat, Cut-bow and Mountain White fish. Friendships were strengthened. Awesome views and sites were seen. If you have never been to Yellowstone National Park you have to go just to see one of our National Treasures. But let’s talk about our extraordinary fishing trip.
Jim Craig, Mike Oldani, Matt McClure, Rudy Dodorico and Kenny Klimes traveled to Bozeman, Montana on Saturday, September 22nd for a week trip to fly fish in Yellowstone. Jim Craig put the trip together – thanks Jim. Three of the five had never been to Yellowstone before so they were as excited as little kids going to Disneyland. Our original flight reservations were changed when we arrived at the St Louis airport and the re-routing began. But American airlines did a good job of getting us to Bozeman very close to our original time. But, our bags didn’t arrive with our aircraft, so we hung around Bozeman, ate lunch and when our bags did get in on the next incoming flight we were on our way to West Yellowstone. Of course, that night we had to start our other quest of eating as much Huckleberry ice cream as possible before returning to St Louis a week later.
Our first day of fishing (Sunday) we headed to the Madison river (in Yellowstone Park), very close where it goes into Hebgen lake. In the Fall the big browns come out of Hebgen lake up the Madison river. Unfortunately for us we were there too early. But we did catch fish – Mountain Whitefish, Browns and Rainbows. After lunch we decided to head down to the Firehole river to fish. A White Miller hatch kicked off and the trout were coming up everywhere. The White Miller is a type of caddis (look it up). The fish were small, but we caught them on dry flies and soft hackles.
On day two we decided to fish the Gibbon river. So, we headed to the Gibbon meadows area to fish the meandering river of the Gibbon. This was our toughest location to fish. The trout were small and spooky, so the catching was minimal. In the afternoon we wanted to add another river to our list and drove to the Gallatin river, only to find out that the fires in the area closed off all fishing there. Disappointed but not undaunted, we headed back to the Madison river but this time to “Baker’s Hole” which is nearer to Hebgen lake. More fish were caught but no BIG browns that come out of the lake in the Fall.
Day three was our travel day as we picked up our gear and left West Yellowstone for Gardiner, Montana which is in the North of Yellowstone. But as we traveled North we fished the entire afternoon at the Soda Butte river (Kenny’s favorite). Here the big cutthroats roamed and several of the guys caught their first Yellowstone Cutthroat ever. We entered at the “hiking bridge” that crosses the river and some guys went upstream and some went downstream. Big cutthroats were caught all afternoon (you can see the pictures). The cool thing was that the Bison roamed throughout this valley so at times we had one eye on the indicator and one on the bison.
Day four we went back to Soda Butte. Why? Because we hammered the cutthroat there and, on this day, we caught cutthroat anywhere from 15 – 17 inches consistently. The Yellowstone cutthroat are a beautiful and hard fighting fish (check out the photos).
The fifth day was our planned guided float trip on the Yellowstone river. Again, this was a new experience for several of us. Matt set up the trip and had the opportunity to fish with his cousin, Lawrence, who was a guide in Montana and now runs the Warriors and Quiet Waters. We had three guide boats as we floated the amazing Yellowstone river. A big thank you to our three guides; Jackie, Tucker and Dave. Some big rainbows and browns were caught to include numerous whitefish that were taking the dry fly. It was a cloudy and frigid day but that didn’t dampen the trip on this beautiful river.
On the last day of fishing, we headed to a new spot – the Gardner river. This spot was just outside of Gardiner, our home base, so we had the opportunity to sleep in on this morning (until 7am). The guides from the previous day directed us to several good spots as we picked up browns, rainbows and cutthroats. Rudy found a hotspot as he took a long walk upstream to fish in solitude. The boiling river enters the Gardner river in this area and you wouldn’t believe the number of people sitting in the hot springs. We thought if we caught fish here they would already be cooked for us. Most of us did well here catching some nice fish. Rudy found a spot where the big browns hung out.
The flies used, and the techniques tried were endless (the same ones we use in Missouri). Kenny did some successful Czech nymphing, while the rest were successful with dry flies, nymphs, soft hackles, wooly buggers and the like. The biggest fish on the trip (each species) saw Rudy with a 21” rainbow from the Madison river, Kenny with a 19” cutthroat from Soda Butte, Mike with a 20” rainbow and an 18” brown trout and Jim had about a 19” whitefish (which the guide said was the biggest he had seen all year).
On day seven, Saturday, September 29th we sadly made the long trek home. This turned out to be an awesome trip in many ways. Matt decided to “create” a list when someone would do something “unusual” on the trip. In other words, you didn’t want to be on the list. Each day someone would surpass the next guy and make the top of the list. Being number one was not the goal but sometimes you just couldn’t avoid getting put in the number one slot. Another cool thing we did was an early morning devotion to start the day. Rudy “the Preacher” Dodorico lead our group each morning as we turned each morning over to God and discussed a selected Psalm each day. I know it made our group closer and stronger.
Again, if you have never been to Yellowstone either to visit or to fish you must put it on your bucket list. THERE ARE TWO GROUPS OF PICTURES BELOW MAKE SURE YOU VIEW BOTH!!
FIRST GROUP
SECOND GROUP
