Dave Rodecap

I was there a couple years ago a little bit later into September.  Kenny pointed me towards the area where Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River come together.  I didn’t do any good up there, but that’s more indicative of me Sucking At Fishing than anything else.  The nice thing about that spot is that you have several directions you can wonder off to in search of something that will take your fly.

I lucked out on our last day/hours in the park.  We were driving along the Firehole River and happened upon a hatch and the fish were going nuts. It was between Wraith Falls and the Cascades of the Firehole.  I just used one of the pull off areas to park.  I managed to catch a brown trout on a dry fly, so I didn’t get skunked in Yellowstone.  I don’t think it was anything special that I used, probably either an X-caddis or an Adam’s Dry.

I’d suggest hitting Big Sky Anglers in West Yellowstone for fly suggestions.  North Fork Anglers in Cody were also nice to deal with.

I did also fish the Yellowstone a couple miles up from Fishing Bridge, and also the Shoshone on the east side between Cody and the East entrance.  The Shoshone was a bit tough because the water was up and murky.

Take your bear spray.  I was a little surprised at how fast those big fellas can cross a big river.  Thankfully I got to witness that from the safety of my car and not while I was in the river!!!  I may have some you can take if it’s not expired.

Have a great trip!

-Dave Rodecap

Look at it this way, it will be like a whole new river to figure out once the water goes back down…..

I’m thinking about running down there tomorrow.  The rain today doesn’t seem to be moving the gauges too much.  I guess maybe I’ll check in the morning and make a game time decision.

I was there this past weekend, and spent Saturday afternoon using nothing but a cicada (https://www.flyfishfood.com/blogs/dry-fly-tutorials/project-cicada)

I was surprised at how aggressively the trout would go after it. I only landed two, but I think that maybe the fly was a little on the big side.  Maybe if it had been tied on an 8 with a little smaller body I would have caught more.  I don’t have anything to  back up that theory. Either way, I had a ball tormenting the fish all afternoon with it.

Those last two sentences are often my problem. I’ve realized that I’m far to slow in covering ground or there aren’t fish there. This has been key for me when fishing outside of the parks or on some of the Blue ribbon streams.  I’ve really made it a point this year to really look at the area where I’m fishing before I cast.  Those little guys are hard to see sometimes, so I’ll still make half a dozen drifts or so through an area.  If those don’t yield any thing AND I’m not seeing any fish, then  I’ll move on.  I’ve stopped spending a lot of time in an area trying to wish a fish in there.  If I do see fish, then I might spend some more time making sure that I’m hitting depth.  This has seemed to help bump up the numbers of fish I’m catching.

I recently purchased a pair of Korkers, and I’ve been really happy with them.  They are a lot more comfortable than the Cabelas boots that I previously used.  One of the things I like is that you can purchase different soles.  They have something similar to the Rock treads, or you can get just a set of Vibram soles with carbide studs (which is what I’m currently using).   Change out the soles as the situation dictates.