Greater Yellowstone Area advice sought

Hey everyone,

I am planning a trip for late July to the park, but I would like to focus on some more outlying areas of the park or surrounding areas outside of the park, as I've already fished most of the big name roadside water of the park. As of now, my eye was on fishing opportunties near the beartooth hwy, or maybe on the south side of the park in Cascade Corner near the Idaho Border. I am looking for day trips or short overnight trips less than 5 miles in. Does anyone have advice for me? I was also looking into some of the offroad areas in the NE area of the park, like Upper Lamar and it's tribs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, even if its for areas I did not mention in this post. Emails are welcome. (roffy02@uga.edu)

Thanks.
-David

Welcome aboard roffwarg. If I can cross the Lamar at a pullout not far from Tower, I can get in a great day of hiking and wade/bank/rock hopping fly fishing for nice sized trout. You'll know if you're in the right place if you hike for about 30 or 40 minutes without fishing then look back and your fishing vehicle will seem about the size of a # 10 parachute adams. Take yellow things to entice the trout once you lose sight of your vehicle upon entering the stands of white birch I believe they are.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

Great advice. Thanks. This is exactly the type of fishing I'm looking for, since it seems like 90% of fisherman won't leave the sight of their vehicle.

Yellowstone Lake, or for that matter any of the high, cold lakes, will be OK then. End of June is better (water temps are still in mid-to-high 40s within about 20 ft of surface), but depending on runoff the streams can take until July to clear. If runoff is heavy, end of July will be great as streamwater temps won't be dangerously high.

I believe the Yellowstone opens on July 15th inside the park (in Hayden Valley anyway) and can be excellent.

The Madison should be fishing well, as should the lakes along its drainage (Hebgen, Quake). The Firehole gets a tad too warm by that time of year usually, but the Gibbon can also fish well. I'd recommed trying the Gibbon, in fact, as you might luck out and get into a grayling or two!

Marty