Whitefish Contest Continues (Family Feud)

Today, I had family who exclusively wanted to catch whitefish. Mission completed.

"Whitefish of THE Year" Contest will continue till December 31st 2012. I will keep posting myself but if you readers have any pictures to share, send them to me!

1 Day Break & 3 More

After 4 floats, I had a day off from the river and got back for another streak. Sunday was the last day for anglers with Curtis Wright Outfitters' Yellowstone Trip. I was with two highly skilled and experienced gents.
Nice, probably the nicest of the stretch, Cutty was the day-opener!!

I hope they all enjoyed fishing the area and day with guides at Parks' Fly Shop.

In the afternoon toward the end, we landed a nice rainbow (no pictures with my camera.......). I did a stomach pump and found it very interesting!!!!! Guess what's eaten most. Flying Ant size 18!!

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Yesterday was a walk/wade trip within Yellowstone Park. We looked for native Cutty!! Mission accomplished.

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Today I had a morning float. We saw great hatch of BWO and pods of rising trout!! We spent there well over an hour. Very intense for a half-day float. Great thing was we didn't have to battle against winds (tail- or head-).

Some hazy & smokey condition recently. However, a long spell of dry & hot has just been over as I'm wearing wader to hold my boat! (not during wade trip yet). I'm ready and flexible for whatever September will bring us. See you along the river!

4 Floats

Past 4 days in a row, I wan on Yellowstone River. Same section but with different anglers and unique fishing result on each day. 

Ladies from Minnesota.

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Some temporal malfunction of my camera................

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A group of fine anglers are visiting area and fishing with us at Parks' Fly Shop. 

YES!! They are on and trout are aware of it!! Can't be more accurate than this info as I did stomach pump!

Group lunch!

Some of the nicest Cutty we caught!!

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Fishing remained good but somewhat windy yesterday. I was with a couple on my boat and they worked hard for their first Montana visit.

My personal best rainbow ever seen in Upper!!

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I can't believe August is ending! There will be more and better fishing to be done in September. See you along the river!

Young Angler & Great Dry-Fly Fishing!

Yesterday I had a great trip. First of all, weather remained very nice all day. It wasn't too hot and most importantly "W"(ind) issue was minimum. Mark from New Jersey was up for Yellowstone Float with his father. Well, he's good, period! He could cast flies into where I directed in perfect manner. Trout was on his way.

My favorite pattern was again proven like this.

PMX Peacock version and relatively large.

John followed his son.

Another favorite of mine was the start of the drama! Royal Wulff Cripple.

At a very overlooked spot by most anglers (except for me!!), Mark cast just as I instructed. It was a huge surprise!!

Why am I not wearing my vest? There's a story about it.......John filmed the entire scene so whenever I get it, I'll post here or YouTube.

Another nice Cutty (and me at work!)!!

My special lunch was greatly appreciated too.
Thanks for a wonderful day! Enjoy the rest of your Yellowstone Trip!!

Yellowstone Grand Slam Completed!! by........

I had great two days with very good and skilled Japanese anglers. Between two of them, Yellowstone Grand Slam ('bow, browny, cutty, & whitie) was accomplished!
(Lots of whities, even on dry-flies. Some were huge. Pictures were not taken but kept us fun!!)

Mrs. Nishimura's first Yellowstone Cutty!

This 'bow looks familiar to me at my secret hole........

Handsome browny!

Guess how early we started!

Mr. & Mrs. Nishimura, please come back again and fish together!

Whitefish of The Year (So Far......)

Only if one is brave enough to go through winds, he/she will be rewarded somehow.......

Quite big for the Upper River!

Nice work Micha!

Two Places Two Languages - Life of Bilingual Guide

Today turned out to be probably the uniquest day in my fishing life. My lovely hometown Livingston has a "Sister-City" relationship with a little town in Japan; Naganohara in Gunma Prefecture. Students from each town have been doing exchange programs for over 20 years now. This year for the first time in its history, for what I hear, actual fly-fishing was programmed as part of cultural exchange. I was asked to do some casting practice and fish together later on. We met at Sacagawea Park. Here's the landmark of Livingston's fly-fishing history(?) that Japanese Guide who resides in Livingston is assisting Japanese exchange students from Sister-City.

Then we fished the lagoon. Fishing was cut short due to their busy schedule...... I hope students from Naganohara learned some deep roots and history of fly-fishing in Livingston.

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Then I was scheduled for an afternoon trip with Parks' Fly Shop in Gardiner. My clients were young brothers from Stockton, CA (no guardians accompanied).  They did wonderful! They loved to cast and catch trout!

Kiss-&-Goodbye. (NOTE: I never forced him to do so for pictures & stories!!)

I sincerely had fun today by assisting young future anglers. Spoken languages were different in each location but one thing in common = FLY-FISHING!!
Yes, fly-fishing is a global language!!

Just Another Day @ VIP Pool

Thank all my friends who sent me Birthday Greetings. Especially at Facebook.
Apparently I went fishing again. I wasn't really into scouting for future guiding or pursuing something memorably BIG for B-day. It was just another day. I just want to relax and enjoy fishing on my Holidays, like I did at DePuy's (www.depuyspringcreek.com). I was very indecisive all along the way. Then, well, I decided to fish and walk my favorite meadow; Lower Meadow of Slough Creek. Everyone deserves to be important on his/her birthday so I fished VIP Pool!
A certain bunch of buffaloes have been migrating from Lamar Valley........

As for fishing, I first expected insect hatches!!! (BWO, PMD, & Gray Drakes) Then trout would respond next. It didn't go quite that way. I still fished. I had two that actually came to bite my flies to say to me "Happy Birthday!!", really. Rest, some rising trout that didn't get hooked up.....

This average cutbow was enough for me. I'd rather save "Birthday Magic" given by "Fish God" for serious occasions such as guiding clients!!

OK, now I'm mature and grown-up. Here are a couple of real fishing condition report.
- It cooled down a lot today. This is good for trout and rivers. But we wonder how long this cool weather goes. Is it just today?
- Too much fishing pressure along Lamar and Soda Butte. We all know that yet the scene is too much. Traffic delays caused by "Buff People" (not actual buff themselves) are oftentimes more than one can swallow. If you plan to fish Lamar or Soda Butte, expecting some solitude and wilderness, you might be disappointed. That does not mean fishing is bad or you can't catch fish. It's just "distance".
- On the other hand, there are more than several places that are kept FREE, as I'm often sneaking around.

Life goes on. And in fly-fishing, learning and observation will never end. So I keep go on in my own new year.

No Man's Footprints

Another learning & scouting day. I made one of the longest & toughest walks I've ever done so far somewhere in Yellowstone National Park. Spot is well-known but I keep it anonymous to make you readers wonder or wander. Anyway, I didn't see any footprints for this year.

My fishing time was cut short. Well, today is the last day with my current age so any fish can be the last one of "the year".

AHA!! Something huge sipped my huge dry-fly. It was amazing how subtle the take was. Nice Cutbow!!

 Well, tomorrow I'm supposed to look older so let me do this while I'm younger for some more hours!!

Where am I heading tomorrow on my birthday?

Down & Low

Today I could finally get out for another check-run. It was the section of Yellowstone River way below from town of Livingston. This section is such a diverse big piece of water. Channels, braids, and other structures can be changed every year, depending on run-off of each spring. I needed to get out before I actually have clients with me. Towns friend Hans hopped on my boat and we hit the river.

It was supposed to be a hopper-time and it was.......just took a while, that's all........... We were happy to see our native Cutty in this lower section.

Watson seemed happy all day, maybe, bored?......maybe.

We found lots of stonefly nymphal shucks along the river. Some Midnight Stones are hatching.

They are indeed funny looking.

I have become a very good "Bald Eagle Finder"!!

Scarily HUGE.

I confess this was all I got today.......

Best part of today was we saw only handful of boats including us. Since I am stressed by boat-traffic of Upper River, especially when very annoying & partying recreational rafters are around, it was a good relief regardless of fishing result. If you want to experience some different taste from Paradise Valley, see you Down & Low!