Park Season Ending

As of typing now, Yellowstone Park fishing is open till tomorrow Sunday 6th. Go take a chance, folks, if you can beat the snowy driving and cold air like I barely did.

I left my house in Livingston at 6am. The moment I got out of my house, it started snow. It wasn't bad at all till in the middle of Bozeman. From there to Belgrade, south to Big Sky, I started to regret......I should have stayed inside, sat in front of wood stove, and drunk coffee.........Well, no way to go back.

I really didn't plan strictly as for sections, tactics, etc. OPEN, so to speak. As I was driving south to the town of West Yellowstone, I saw a few cars at Baker's Hole CG and another at Cardiac Hill......So I u-turned to 191 Bridge where I didn't see any cars. I knew I would eventually go into the Park so I planned to fish a few hours with streamers. Maybe 45 minutes since I parked, dressed-up, and walked in, with the third rotation of the fly, tan/original Sculpzilla,

I felt WHAM!! It went deep!! Heavy!! I knew it would be larger than average!! I bet it was HER. See her belly. Filled with eggs??

I recall I was thinking "hey no more skunk for today and it's big enough, let's get the hell out of this weather and go home!!" 

After this, I walked down to one more promising spot but I just spooked two fish along the way.

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Now I penetrated into the Park section. As having lunch at Seven-Mile Bridge, I saw a few rising trout. This is the typical indication that small trout rise before larger ones at the beginning of the hatch. What hatch? Of course baetis. I moved to Upper Haynes and held the spot. Exactly 1pm, baetis hatch started!! My choice was this Pheasant Tail Mayfly Cripple as I do at DePuy's.

Rainbow liked it,

and brown too!! Now I got approval from Madison trout!!

Nothing huge (I got line-broke by a huge tag though) but I had fun and even overcame past failures thanks to recent experience at DePuy. Next time, I want to raise a run-up trout on size 22 with 6X!!

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Hatch ended 3pm. I concerned my driving on the way back so I decided to quit early. I head to Barn's Hole #1 around 4pm, hoping other people couldn't take the weather any more. Wrong.......

Today's joke: Barn's Hole = Visitors Hall. Really. This is "way less attended than normal".

I really didn't care. I knew they would not catch fish (no technical comments or criticism here) and I just wanted to swing large soft-hackles above and below the pool (pic above was taken from below the pool). I walked up-stream to Cable Car Run and swung one of my most favorite pattern, Jack Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer in black.

                          

I love the moment that trout hooks itself on this fly then starts leaping!!!!

Not the biggest of the river or the year, but it was a fine 17-inch fall-colored brown!! Then again on swinging large soft-hackles!! Happy!!

I did try my COYOTE with my best. But it seems trout must have read the magazine and been very careful not to get close to it!! Jokes and excuses aside, I really concerned driving back to Livingston. I wanted to cover even a few miles while still light..... Wish I was a visitor who's staying in a motel in West Yellowstone. Well, I made home and am typing this with my wood-stove on fire!! I love that too.

Fall fishing at Madison in the Park can be hard to predict or define but I call today as good day!! As I enjoyed all streamers, baetis hatch, and swinging large soft-hackle!! And caught nice fish!!

Again, I wish I was a visitor from other state who stays over a week, like I used to be. But thanks to the accumulated experience, I can do fairly well by just visiting one day!!

See you all, trout & wildlife in the Park, next year!!