My wife, son and I finally made it back it out to Wyoming after a 2 year hiatus. We flew out there, rented a car … bought a cooler at and filled it with food and beer at Super-Walmart and were off.
We hiked, enjoyed the wildlife and did some fishing.
We (son and I) fished (were allowed to fish) 4 out of the 6 possible days that weren’t designated travel days.
070516 – Yellowstone River and tributary … Northeast section of the park. We hiked in and I picked up a Salmonfly off my leg and threw it in the river and a nice Cutthroat rose and hammered it right where I was standing so we used big bushy imitations acquired from Park’s. Most of the fish were Cutthroats but we got into some Rainbows and Cuttbows and Brookies up in one of the tribs. The highlight for me was watching my son stalk this one fish for what seemed like an hour and he finally ties on this tiny mayfly pattern he dredged up from his grandfather’s vest and finally hooked it. I was the net man and it was a great feeling of father-son teamwork to land that fish.
070616 – Lamar Valley and the magic fly. Ever since the first time I drove through the Lamar Valley, I knew I had to fish in it based on the beautiful scenery alone. This trip we went for it. The Lamar River itself was muddy so we hit one of its tribs. We pulled into a turnout and struck up a conversation with Michael who said he was an off-duty guide with Blue Ribbon Flies out of West Yellowstone. Super-nice young man. He was there taking his friend fishing for her first time. Once we figured out where we were going to fish so we didn’t mess each other up, he opened his fly box and said “here … use this … I can only spare one. You won’t be sorry”. Well we headed out across the sagebrush valley to the stream, paying our respects to the nearby Bison. What I remember is that it was really cold and really windy and tough fishing. I noticed only one other angler (“old timer”) wi