Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park

By Jim Brearton

When one considers that Yellowstone Park is a mere 2 hours drive further than the Green for most of us, and actually as close as Lake Powell for many more, then we should include its many world class waters as part of our fly fishing menu. I can attribute my main incentive to make the leap from worm dunking to fly fishing to the exposure of frequent business trips to Montana, with weekend stops in Yellowstone.

When I first explored West Yellowstone I was amazed at all the fly shops and the congregation of fly fishermen from all over the U.S. I was especially impressed by their array of special attire and equipment as they stood waist-deep in some of the most splendid rivers I'd ever seen. My spinning rod and flatfish lure were not accepted by this cult and were even looked upon with horror. I soon realized that bait and big treble hooks were not welcome, not because of elitism but because these fishers were intent on conserving a precious resource.

I joined the club. This was the summer of 1981, and by my next trip that fall I was outfitted with entry level rod, waders, vest and a few streamers and elk hair caddis. I enticed my first fish from the Madison just inside the Park, but I was more hooked than the fish. It just wasn't just the ecstasy of the pulsating 9-foot graphite rod; it was catching wild trout in Yellowstone Park. For the next few years, most of my river and stream fishing was in Yellowstone. I have repented of excluding our local rivers, and would now even consider the Provo to be my favorite, but I still head north every year with eager anticipation.

I'm still finding new waters to fish in Yellowstone, and I' d like to share some of my old favorites and two more recent find. First, why is Yellowstone such a fly fishers' haven? One of the main attractions to me is the ecological mega-health of the waters. The nutrient levels of most rivers in the Park are so high that myriad species of caddis, mayflies, stoneflies and midges exist in the same river. Like a great golf course where one can use every club in the bag, one can literally use about every conceivable fly pattern somewhere in the Park. Wise management and a high ethical approach by most sportspersons have helped mitigate man's impact on the streams and lakes and have allowed the rivers to be self-sustaining and do their thing unimpeded. Management has evolved to a mostly hands-off, catch and release policy.

Recent illegal introductions of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake and evidences of whirling disease in that lake and in the Madison River are examples of negative results of man's intrusion, but the presence of millions of visitors to the Park each year has not had much other long term negative effect. This is a miracle of no small proportions. Rivers flow uninterrupted; manmade pollutants and litter are seldom introduced to the rivers; fish populations are self-sustaining and lightly harvested or completely protected. I saw my first beer can on a riverbank just this summer and I was amazed at the sight! What a quantum leap from what I endure on the Provo and most local waters. Most people revere Yellowstone and just treat it better, like the national treasure it is.

Another reason I love to fish the park is the shear number of streams, rivers and lakes to choose from. The Yellowstone Plateau could probably lay claim to being the source of more major river headwaters than any other geographic center. The park is intersected by the continental divide, with tributaries and major rivers heading north, south, east and west. This list includes the Snake, Yellowstone, Madison, Gallatin, the latter two being two-thirds of the headwaters of the Missouri, and scores of smaller streams (which are larger than virtually all of our trout streams in Utah).

Yellowstone, Lewis and Shoshone Lakes are some of the largest in the Rocky Mountains. Heart and Grebe Lakes are wonderful hike-in fisheries, and many other smaller lakes fall into this category. By the way, Shoshone Lake is the largest water with no road access in the continental U.S. I've done the canoe trip into Shoshone and that is worthy of an article in and of itself.

Another factor boosting the Park, as a boon to flyfishers, is the fabulous spawning runs out of Yellowstone Lake in the park and Hebgen Lake just out- side the park to the west. The latter has large populations of huge brown and rainbow trout that migrate into the Madison and up into the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers. The latter two feature impenetrable waterfalls that impede the progress of the trout and set up miles and miles of wonderful streamer fishing in October. Most of the big fish pictures on my office wall result from this phenomenon of fall lovemaking.

A whole other cult of flyfishers shows up when the weather starts to get brutal, and we have the whole town of West Yellowstone all to ourselves. What a switch from July and August! Another fantastic spawning activity, and one I haven't missed in almost twenty years, is the annual spring migration of Yellowstone cutthroats out of Yellowstone Lake. I will treat this in my remarks on favorite waters, but let me say here that this yearly event has been occurring since long before Columbus hit the New World. These are the wildest trout I catch and in spite of their undeserved reputation for being easy to fool and lacking in the fight department, they are a prize to be protected and revered. The spawning rivers and streams are not open to fishing until July 15th, after the spawn is over, and then many anglers suggest leaving the smaller tributaries to Yellowstone Lake alone and just fishing the major tributaries such as Pelican Creek and the Yellowstone River. Smaller streams are best left to the grizzly bear. Enough said?

Here's a little bit of on some of my favorite fisheries in the Park.

Yellowstone River

Many times their rise is so long and slow that you can almost count the black spots on their sides. In faster water the take is still a blur of color that has to be one of the most rewarding moments in fly fishing. Their colors are a contrast to the subdued tones of the river and its bottom, almost like some exotic tropical bird that should be up in the trees. These creatures come out of nowhere, suddenly visible when they expose their lateral view instead of their camouflaged back, letting you know they were there the whole time, waiting for you to master your drag free float.

At times on the Yellowstone, I can observe caddis and mayflies so thick they almost bump into each other in the air. Huge stoneflies join the fare along with beetles and ants and at times, if you're lucky, the fish will feed with a frenzy. At other times they are much less active than the bugs and get extremely selective or wait to be coaxed up with a big golden stone or beetle pattern. These native fish get increasingly more selective as the summer moves through August into September and as they start to move back into the lake. The fact that they have had a myriad of flies of every size, shape and description floated over their heads also adds to this selectivity.

I've fished with fly fishers from Pittsburgh, New Jersey and even Spain on the Yellowstone and even encountered the same fishermen from one year to the next. I met an older man from Boston last year who fell in, was swept into a deep run and had to be fished out and resuscitated on a picnic bench. I met him after he had spent two weeks in an Idaho Falls hospital repairing his damaged lungs. He was fishing the same spot where he'd almost died. Such is the enticement of this river and its wild cutts.

Slough Creek

I like the lower, campground stretch for one main reason, the presence of the cuttbow (or rainthroat) hybrids. This fish, for whatever reason, fights like @#@#* *. This is reel singing fishing at its best, and a 14-inch fish is a handful, and there are lots of fish much bigger. Access is easy to this stretch, I wish it weren't, but it's never too crowded. With the Absaroka Mountains as a backdrop, this is probably one of the most stunning landscapes I've tossed a fly into. Other streams in the area I've fished and enjoyed are the Lamar River, Soda Butte and Pebble Creeks. Frequent thunderstorms can cloud up these rivers, especially the Lamar, so check with local fly shops before the long drive from West Yellowstone.

Madison River

Although known more for the outside the park section, the Madison in Yellowstone Park is classic water also. In the summer the fishing can be real tough, with easily spooked fish in shallow runs. It can be a late night or low light proposition. But, the river comes into its own in the fall for the spawning browns and bows out of Hebgen Lake. These fish can be huge. I hooked a 23 inch male browns several years and routinely catch 18 inch plus fish. A group of us, led by Emmett Heath, used to fish the Baker's Hole area of the Madison just north of West Yellowstone every October, until Emmett started running things on the Green River. I still go back every few years, but I miss the old gang. This is heavy-duty streamer fishing with sinking lines and lots of big fish possibilities.

Firehole River

I fished the Firehole several years ago in August, but wasn't that taken with it. I've since learned that most of the decent fish leave this river in July and August for cooler tributaries, because of the warming effect of all the fumaroles and geyser activity in the area. When fishing the fall spawners last October, I decided to give it another chance. I was delighted with my decision. This is one of the premier dry fly rivers I've ever fished. It is more of a limestone than a rough and tumble freestone water, so its riffley surface is very flat and even from bank to bank, making it very suitable to dry fly float- ing. This is rainbow and brown trout fishing with some brook trout in the headwaters.

The PMD hatch in May and June and the caddis and baetis hatches in the fall are prime hatches. I'm truly sorry I didn't work it in sooner to my spring and fall fishing trips. This June was terrific for PMD cripples and emergers. Most of the bigger fish seemed to hang right on the bank. I caught and released a dozen or so 10 to 14 inch browns and bows and picked up an 18 inch brown right along the bank, all on one PMD cripple pattern in just 2 to 3 hours. This is a new find for me, but has always been a favorite of the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop people in West Yellowstone. They have been my mentors when it comes to new fly patterns for Yellowstone and they finally convinced me to fish the Firehole. I only wish I'd headed for it sooner.

Gardner River

The Gardner is also a new experience and a delightful one. I fished it with my son and his friend recently for the first time. Klint and Beau and I have visited Yellowstone in July or August four years in a row, and we usually stay in Gardiner, MT, to fish the north end of the park. At least 3 fly shops in Montana recommended we fish the Gardner River, which we've driven along several times, but never fished. It's mostly smaller bows and cutts with an occasional brown. We fished chernobyl ants and stimulators and had lots of action.

This is fast, rumble and tumble water in some sections, but I found a flatter section early one morning that was fantastic with my ant pattern. I hooked a big rainbow the night before that probably went 18 or 19 inches. All I saw was its huge tail before he broke me off in some real fast water. Big browns are known to inhabit the Gardner as resident fish. Also, big trout run up the Gardner in the fallout of the Yellowstone River. I won't be driving past this river any longer.

If you are interested in reading more about the hundreds of fly fishing possibilities in Yellowstone, there are several books that exclusively cover the park, and many others on fly fishing Montana, Idaho and Wyoming that have chapters devoted to park fishing. Two that I refer to most often are The Yellowstone Fishing Guide by Roben E. Charlton and The Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Guide by Craig Mathews and Clayton Molinero. Another excellent book on Yellowstone fly patterns is Fishing Yellowstone Hatches by John Juracek and Craig Mathews.

Well, this year has been a great one for me in Yellowstone. Two new waters found, three bears spotted along with mountain goats and sheep right along the road, and 5 slow moving tourists actually pulled over to let me pass. I did see my first beer can, but that's the only downside and I picked it up so you won't have to look at it. The Yellowstone River fished better than ever, with one stretch of 4 casts and 4 fish on a golden stone pattern.

Best of all, I have new business contacts in Ashton, Idaho, so 3 or 4 trips a year are really possible and justified. Maybe I'll have time to try more new venues in the park, or maybe I'll just stay with my old and new favorites. I would be more than satisfied with them. After all, they are the birthplace of my fly fishing experience and one of my great loves.

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