PMD at Soda Butte Creek!!

I had a very busy week!! If my blog post is slow and behind due to my guide duty, I hope it will be understood. But good fishing memory shouldn't be forgotten! My clients of last week and I had some of greatest fishing at Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park.

Pale Morning Dun hatch was excellent!! Then the quality of trout, Yellowstone Cutthroat exactly, kept us entertained all day!!

This was actually an afternoon hopper action!!

Just like recently popular fish art products!!

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Before PMD hatch starts, I encourage my clients to try some nymphing. We caught two Cutty that had previous anglers' nymphs embedded on their mouths!! We safely removed those old "itches" and promptly released them!!

 Another PMD Big One!!

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 That said, catching is easy!? NOOOOOO................ I had excellent anglers. Then Cutty in Soda Butte (and other streams in the area) can be as technical and selective as those in spring creeks during the hatch!! My anglers could enjoy and take reasonable sizes and numbers of trout on dry-flies during the hatch. However my eyes, trained at spring creeks, observed some potentially big individuals were "slicing" nymphs without breaking surface or definitely feeding on ascending nymphs in the water column. Just in case, I kept my "spring creek flies" in my truck. I rigged up my own Pheasant Tail Mayfly Cripple (of course this one catches any time anywhere!!),

And trailed Sawyer Pheasant (Master Angler Version)!!

Those big ones above were taken on PT!!, fished just below the surface and by targeting the feeding depth!!
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Just a word of caution when you fish Soda Butte (and any other rivers in general): keep enough distance from other anglers. When someone is fishing a certain spot, first-come-first-serve rule applies. Look for other spots or be the first one there, period. Also one can't "own" a stretch of stream in this federally managed land!!