End of August YNP

July and August had been off and on, slow and busy. Either way August has officially ended and summer is practically ending. However there are still plenty of my guiding and own fishing days left. It's way too early to summarize the season.

I can't help but restating that we are having a really good water year. Most area waters remain cool all through. It's been a while that I went out for my own time. I wasn't a "Dawn Treader" any more but still I was the first one at the water. I cruised through infamous "Buffalo Jam" and stood at the lovely stretch of Soda Butte Creek. The second cast of the day...........Cutty and the early morning Sun!!

It seemed "flying ants mating swarm" had happened the evening before.......

Indeed trout seemed regurgitating...... Though I had netted some more, I had many more "short-strikes" or "hit & miss".
However, trout acted totally different as "that hatch" started to occur..........

YES!! Fall Green Drake!!

At one particular spot, I observed one particular trout was doing somewhat different from the others. It was feeding without breaking the surface.......

Then it happened to be some of the nicest Cutty in the creek as well as in my record!!

In the afternoon I moved to Lamar River. Just at one spot, I had simultaneous bites, which ended with another nice Cutty for the day. That was more than enough. I enjoyed very well. So I stopped fishing.......

Always checking.....

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Then I was scheduled to take two anglers to the same destination. Again, my intention above was for my own enjoyment, NOT scouting. Honestly I was not concerning fishing. What concerned me was........how the weather would hold........

We had a good start.

Just as predicted...........

Even larger!!

Our expectation for the hatch & surface activities went high!! But also....precipitation went higher & higher toward noon........ Indeed entire area got poured.  Only at the end of the day, we found this picture marked several hours before Lamar & Soda Butte turned into the stream of Chocolate........

However in the middle of afternoon (we were at Slough Creek below campground), weather decided to give us some break!!
Then (almost miraculously), insect hatches started!! With this screwy & unpredictable weather patterns, insect activities have also been unpredictable and even weird.

Definitely a bit too early, but Fall Baetis (Blue Winged Olive) were hatching in plenty of numbers!

Then sporadically and much later than anticipated, Green Drakes were hatching too!!

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As for fly patterns, most of my go-to patterns were taken with great success!!
Dry-flies (click)
Emerging Nymphs (click)
Soft Hackle (click)

I'm very anxious for what this fall will bring!!